The last group in the final round of this year’s LPGA Legends Championship (August 13-15; Harrison Lake Country Club; Columbus, Indiana) was a senior version of a Solheim Cup singles battle. It featured Sweden’s Maria McBride and America’s Angela Stanford. And, like so many Solheim Cup singles matches, it came down to the last hole – the par-five 18th – to decide the winner. On the 18th tee, both players were tied at -6 and had been tied at -6 since the 15th tee. A sudden-death playoff was lurking. At this point, the nearest pursuer was Canada’s Corina Kelepouris, who was in the clubhouse at -5, after shooting a four-under-par 67, but it was highly unlikely that both Stanford and McBride would finish at -5 with bogeys at 18.
After two shots, McBride’s ball was sitting in the greenside fringe while Stanford’s ball was in the fairway, just short of the green. McBride was a near lock to two-putt from the fringe for a birdie four. Stanford needed to get up and down from the fairway to secure her four. After reaching the green with her third shot, Stanford missed her birdie effort and tapped in for her five. Stanford, this year’s U.S. Solheim Team captain, then watched her Swedish opponent two-putt for the birdie four giving her the one-stroke victory and the $52,500 first-place check.
“It was nice to just have a shortish birdie putt to finish off the tournament,” said a relieved McBride, whose three rounds were 68-70-68 (206; seven-under-par).
Stanford’s scores were 69-70-68 (207; six-under-par). Her winnings were $32,699.
McBride’s victory was her first LPGA Legends title after two previous third-place finishes, while Stanford was pursuing her third LPGA Legends crown in four years, having won the title in 2023 and 2024.
For the week, Stanford played brilliantly on the back nine as she was eight-under-par, but she was two-over-par on the front nine. McBride was six-under-par on the back nine and one-under-par on the front nine, largely aided by an opening eagle three on the first hole in the first round. Scoring wise, Stanford’s biggest issue was negotiating the first two holes.
“I played the first two holes five over par this week. It just seemed like I just couldn’t get off to a good start here,” said Stanford.
Going into that final round, one stroke separated the top five players — America’s Leta Lindley (-4), McBride (-4), Stanford (-3), Sweden’s Catrin Nilsmark (-3), and Wales’ Becky Morgan (-3). And, 18 players were within four shots of the lead when play began.
As an aside, defending champion Cristie Kerr had a strong eagle-par-birdie start to her final round to get in a first-place tie at -4, but she was two-over-par for the remaining 15 holes to finish at -2. Lindley, Nilsmark and Morgan never mounted a charge at McBride and Stanford.
This year’s LPGA Legends Championship was held in Indiana for the sixth time. The first four events were held on The Pete Dye Course at French Lick in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. Sultan’s Run Golf Club in Jasper hosted the tournament in 2023.
This year’s event was filled with star power — eight former major champions (Jane Geddes, Pat Hurst, Liselotte Neumann, Hollis Stacy, Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster, Stanford, and Kerr), four previous winners of this tournament (Stanford, Webb, Kerr, and Trish Johnson), and two living LPGA Hall of Famers (Inkster and Webb). Despite the heavy rains and catastrophic tornadoes that struck Indiana that week, the LPGA Legends tournament – with 72 players from nine countries — didn’t disappoint and finished on time.
The best round of the tournament was the five-under-par round of 66 in the second round by Pat Hurst. The best shot of the tournament was by Trish Johnson who had an ace in the first round on the par-three second hole, which measured 100 yards.
A special note of thanks and appreciation must be extended to the membership and the course maintenance crew of the Harrison Lake CC. Many members volunteered their time to caddie for players who played in the Monday qualification round and in the actual tournament. And, the maintenance team at Harrison Lake CC put in overtime to get and keep the course in excellent condition, despite the series of rain storms and flooding that hit Indiana during the week of the tournament.
