ADT Championship

The ADT Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. The season-ending event on the tour, it became the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT from 2006 through 2008.

History

The tournament was played in its final playoff form for the first time in November 2006; the champion of the event, Julieta Granada, won $1 million, the highest first-place prize in the history of women's golf. The event took place at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

From 1996 through 2005 the tournament was a standard, 72-hole stroke play event. It had a purse of $1,000,000 in its final season, with a winner's share of $215,000.

The playoff event in 2006 was the first time golf has ever used a postseason of any kind on any tour. Beginning in 2007, the PGA Tour also employed a playoff system.

Through the 2008 season, the title sponsor was ADT, a worldwide supplier of electronic security and fire alarm systems, communication systems and integrated building management systems, with headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.

Successors

On October 16, 2008 it was announced ADT would not extend its sponsorship.[1] Another entirely new tournament,[2] the LPGA Tour Championship, took ADT's place on the LPGA schedule for two years in 2009 and 2010; it was succeeded by the CME Group Titleholders in 2011

Selection process

2008 selection

As in the two previous seasons, the 2008 season was split into two halves, with 15 players from each half qualifying for the ADT Championship using a performance-based points system. In addition, two wild card players were chosen at the end of the regular season; a total of 32 players competed in the ADT Championship.

The first half began with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and ended with the LPGA Championship. The second half began with the Wegmans LPGA and ended with the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, one week before the Playoffs.

LPGA members qualified for the ADT Championship by accumulating ADT Points during each half of the season or by winning an automatic entry by winning one of 13 designated "winner" events—defined as any event with a purse of at least $2 million—throughout the season. The two wild cards were the top two players from the LPGA Official Money List who were not otherwise qualified after the Lorena Ochoa Invitational: Sun Young Yoo and Christina Kim.

2007 selection

The selection process in the 2007 LPGA regular season was the same as in 2008, with the only differences being:

More details on selecting competitors for the 2007 Playoffs can be found at: LPGA.com.

2006 selection

The 2006 LPGA campaign was split into two halves. The first half began with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and ended with the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. The second half began with the Evian Masters and ended with The Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions, one week before the Playoffs. The top 15 points scorers and one wild card from each half qualified for the Playoffs, making for a total of 32 players who will take part in the season-ending event.

Most of the events on 2006 LPGA schedule were "points" events, in which the top twenty finishers were awarded points. In addition, all winners of the LPGA's majors and five limited field events, such as the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship, automatically qualified for the Playoffs.

Once the first half ended, and the first 16 players were awarded spots in the Playoffs, the point totals from the first half were wiped out, and the second half began with a fresh scoresheet, meaning points did not carry over from half-to-half.

More details on selecting competitors for the 2006 Playoffs can be found at: LPGA.com.

2008 Qualifiers

First half qualifiers

  1. Mexico Lorena Ochoa won the HSBC Women's Champions (also won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the Ginn Open, and the Sybase Classic)
  2. Sweden Annika Sörenstam won the Stanford International Pro-Am (also won the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill)
  3. South Korea Seon Hwa Lee won the Ginn Tribute Hosted by ANNIKA
  4. Taiwan Yani Tseng won the McDonald's LPGA Championship
  5. United States Paula Creamer 923,742 points
  6. South Korea Jeong Jang 664,249 points
  7. South Korea Song-Hee Kim 509,000 points
  8. Australia Karrie Webb 505,867 points
  9. Norway Suzann Pettersen 484,664 points
  10. South Korea Na Yeon Choi 464,709 points
  11. Sweden Maria Hjorth 422,446 points
  12. England Karen Stupples 378,342 points
  13. South Korea Jee Young Lee 375,695 points
  14. South Korea Inbee Park 368,124 points
  15. United States Laura Diaz 367,228 points

Second half qualifiers

  1. South Korea Eun-Hee Ji won the Wegmans LPGA
  2. Sweden Helen Alfredsson won the Evian Masters
  3. South Korea Ji-Yai Shin won the Women's British Open
  4. Australia Katherine Hull won the Canadian Women's Open
  5. United States Cristie Kerr 848,850 points
  6. United States Angela Stanford 764,706 points
  7. Brazil Angela Park 667,346 points
  8. South Korea In-Kyung Kim 625,780 points
  9. Taiwan Candie Kung 582,429 points
  10. South Korea Hee-Won Han 548,572 points
  11. South Korea Ji Young Oh 469,308 points
  12. China Shanshan Feng 452,236 points
  13. United States Morgan Pressel 416,137 points
  14. South Korea Meena Lee 378,254 points
  15. United States Nicole Castrale 365,501 points

Inbee Park, who won the U.S. Women's Open, qualified via first-half points.

Wild cards

  1. South Korea Sun Young Yoo $674,983
  2. United States Christina Kim $664,598

2007 Qualifiers

First half qualifiers

  1. United States Morgan Pressel won the Kraft Nabisco Championship
  2. United States Brittany Lincicome won the Ginn Open
  3. Norway Suzann Pettersen won the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill (also won the LPGA Championship)
  4. United States Nicole Castrale won the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika
  5. Mexico Lorena Ochoa 1,524,404 points
  6. United States Paula Creamer 685,729 points
  7. South Korea Mi Hyun Kim 647,110 points
  8. South Korea Sarah Lee 580,948 points
  9. United States Stacy Prammanasudh 552,707 points
  10. South Korea Jee Young Lee 521,842 points
  11. Australia Karrie Webb 407,786 points
  12. United States Cristie Kerr 395,180 points
  13. Brazil Angela Park 375,519 points
  14. United States Juli Inkster 372,980 points
  15. United States Angela Stanford 367,855 points

Second half qualifiers

  1. South Korea Seon Hwa Lee — won the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship
  2. United States Natalie Gulbis — won the Evian Masters
  3. Sweden Maria Hjorth 756,904 points
  4. South Korea Jeong Jang 748,129 points
  5. South Korea Se Ri Pak 490,656 points
  6. United States Christina Kim 434,742 points
  7. Japan Ai Miyazato 427,108 points
  8. England Laura Davies 354,785 points
  9. South Korea Inbee Park 349,906 points
  10. United States Laura Diaz 326,537 points
  11. Sweden Annika Sörenstam 325,940 points
  12. United States Sherri Steinhauer 302,618 points
  13. South Korea Shi Hyun Ahn 292,816 points
  14. United States Reilley Rankin 281,929 points
  15. Sweden Sophie Gustafson 264,607 points

The remaining three "winner" events in the second half were won by golfers who had already qualified via first-half points—the U.S. Women's Open by Cristie Kerr, and the Women's British Open and Canadian Women's Open by Lorena Ochoa.

Wild cards

  1. Scotland Catriona Matthew $504,366
  2. United States Meaghan Francella $499,292

Current format

Controversy surrounding $1 million prize

Most players have supported the tournament, though some criticism has been raised. Annika Sörenstam, for example, commented that a player who had a great year, like Sörenstam did in 2005, when she won 10 times, could miss the cut after round three, and not only lose the tournament, but also the title given to the player who tops the LPGA Money List for the year to someone not even in the List's top 10 at the event's start.

Sörenstam, as well as others, have suggested that only half the prize count toward the money list, while the other half be given as a bonus, and not counted on the money list. The LPGA said it would consider this before the 2007 event . No change was made for 2007.

Possible revival of the ADT Championship?

On November 21, 2009, Golf Channel's Randall Mell reported in a blog post that the LPGA was in preliminary discussions to bring back the tournament in 2011.[3]

Winners

LPGA Playoffs at The ADT

YearDatesChampionCountryScoreTournament
Location
Purse
($)
Winner's
share ($)
2008Nov 20-23 Ji-Yai Shin  South Korea 69-75-71-70 Trump International Golf Club 1,550,000 1,000,000
2007Nov 15-18 Lorena Ochoa  Mexico 70-70-66-68 Trump International Golf Club 1,550,000 1,000,000
2006Nov 16-19 Julieta Granada  Paraguay 70-69-69-68 Trump International Golf Club 1,550,000 1,000,000

The total tournament score is not shown because that does not determine the winner. Championship round score is shown in bold.

ADT Championship

Tournament names through the years:

YearDatesChampionCountryScoreTournament
Location
Purse
($)
Winner's
share ($)
2005 Nov 17-20 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden282 (-6) Trump International Golf Club 1,000,000 215,000
2004 Nov 18-21 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden275 (-13) Trump International Golf Club 1,000,000 215,000
2003Nov 20-23 Meg Mallon  United States281 (-7) Trump International Golf Club 1,000,000 215,000
2002 Nov 21-24 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden275 (-13) Trump International Club 1,000,000 215,000
2001 Nov 15-18 Karrie Webb  Australia279 (-9) Trump International Club 1,000,000 215,000
2000 Nov 16-19 Dottie Pepper  United States279 (-9) LPGA International Legends Course1,000,000 215,000
1999 Nov 11-14 Se Ri Pak  South Korea276 (-12) Desert Inn Golf Club 1,000,000 215,000
1998 Nov 19-22 Laura Davies  England277 (-11) Desert Inn Golf Club 1,000,000 215,000
1997Nov 20-23 Annika Sörenstam  Sweden277 (-11) Desert Inn Golf Club 750,000 160,000
1996 Nov 21-24 Karrie Webb  Australia272 (-16) Desert Inn Golf Club 700,000 150,000

Tournament record

YearPlayerScoreRoundCourse
1997 Pat Hurst 64 (-8) 2nd Desert Inn Golf Club, par 72
2006 Il Mi Chung 65 (-7) 3rd Trump International Golf Club, par 72
2006 Mi Hyun Kim 65 (-7) 3rd Trump International Golf Club, par 72
2007 Morgan Pressel 65 (-7) 2nd Trump International Golf Club, par 72

References

  1. "ADT Declines to Extend Sponsor Relationship". LPGA. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  2. "LPGA Tour Championship Presented by Rolex". LPGA. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  3. "LPGA renews talks with ADT". Golf Channel.

External links

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