2008 LPGA Tour

The 2008 LPGA Tour was a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world that took place from February through December 2008. The tournaments were sanctioned by the United States-based Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). In 2008, prize money on the LPGA Tour was $60.3 million, the highest to date in the history of the tour.

Lorena Ochoa topped the money list, earning $2,763,193. Ochoa also led the league in most wins with six, including four consecutive tournaments in March and April and one major tournament.

The four major championships were won by: Lorena Ochoa (Kraft Nabisco Championship), Yani Tseng (LPGA Championship), Inbee Park (U.S. Women's Open), and Ji-Yai Shin (Women's British Open). All major winners except Ochoa were not only first-time major winners, but first-time winners on the LPGA Tour. Tseng, at 19 years old, and Park and Shin, both at 20 years old, became the youngest-ever winners of the respective majors.

On May 12, a day after winning her third tournament of the season, Annika Sörenstam announced her intent to "step away" from competitive golf at the end of the 2008 season. She continued to draw large crowds through the remainder of the season, though she did not win another tournament on the LPGA Tour before the end of the year.

Jiyai Shin, a 20-year-old non-LPGA member, set records on the LPGA Tour by winning three of the nine tournaments in which she played, including the Women's British Open and the season-ending ADT Championship with its $1 million first place prize. She became the first non-LPGA member ever to win three events.

The LPGA organization also attracted attention in 2008 when commissioner Carolyn Bivens announced a new policy in August that would have required all players who had been on the tour for two years to show proficiency in English or face suspension.^[1][2] The Tour rescinded the policy two weeks later after increasing criticism from the media and from LPGA Tour sponsors.^[3][4]

Tournament schedule and results

ADT Playoff Categories:

• winner: Official LPGA Tour events with a purse of at least $2,000,000. Winners of these events automatically qualify for the ADT Championship.
• standard: Winners do not automatically qualify for the ADT Championship; the ADT points system is used.
• unofficial: These events are not official LPGA Tour events and participation is not part of the ADT Playoff system.

The number in parentheses after winners' names show the player's total number of official money, individual event wins on the LPGA Tour, including that event.

Dates	Tournament	Location	ADT Playoff Category	Winner
Jan 18–20	Women's World Cup of Golf	South Africa	unofficial	Philippines (Jennifer Rosales / Dorothy Delasin)
Feb 14–16	SBS Open at Turtle Bay	Hawaii	standard	Annika Sörenstam (70)
Feb 21–23	Fields Open in Hawaii	Hawaii	standard	Paula Creamer (5)
Feb 28 – Mar 2	HSBC Women's Champions	Singapore	winner	Lorena Ochoa (18)
Mar 14–16	MasterCard Classic	Mexico	standard	Louise Friberg (1)
Mar 27–30	Safeway International	Arizona	standard	Lorena Ochoa (19)
Apr 3–6	Kraft Nabisco Championship	California	winner	Lorena Ochoa (20)
Apr 10–13	Corona Championship	Mexico	standard	Lorena Ochoa (21)
Apr 17–20	Ginn Open	Florida	winner	Lorena Ochoa (22)
Apr 24–27	Stanford International Pro-Am	Florida	winner	Annika Sörenstam (71)
May 1–4	SemGroup Championship	Oklahoma	standard	Paula Creamer (6)
May 8–11	Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill	Virginia	winner	Annika Sörenstam (72)
May 15–18	Sybase Classic	New Jersey	winner	Lorena Ochoa (23)
May 22–25	LPGA Corning Classic	New York	standard	Leta Lindley (1)
May 29 – Jun 1	Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika	South Carolina	winner	Seon Hwa Lee (3)
Jun 5–8	McDonald's LPGA Championship	Maryland	winner	Yani Tseng (1)
End of first half of the season
Jun 19–22	Wegmans LPGA	New York	winner	Eun-Hee Ji (1)
Jun 26–29	U.S. Women's Open	Minnesota	winner	Inbee Park (1)
Jul 4–6	P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship	Arkansas	standard	Seon Hwa Lee (4)
Jul 10–13	Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic	Ohio	standard	Paula Creamer (7)
Jul 17–20	LPGA State Farm Classic	Illinois	standard	Ji Young Oh (1)
Jul 24–27	Evian Masters	France	winner	Helen Alfredsson (6)
Jul 31 – Aug 3	Ricoh Women's British Open	England	winner	Jiyai Shin (1*)
Aug 14–17	CN Canadian Women's Open	Ontario, Canada	winner	Katherine Hull (1)
Aug 22–24	Safeway Classic	Oregon	standard	Cristie Kerr (11)
Sep 11–14	Bell Micro LPGA Classic	Alabama	standard	Angela Stanford (2)
Sep 25–28	Navistar LPGA Classic	Alabama	standard	Lorena Ochoa (24)
Oct 2–5	Samsung World Championship	California	standard	Paula Creamer (8)
Oct 9–12	Longs Drugs Challenge	California	standard	In-Kyung Kim (1)
Oct 16–19	Kapalua LPGA Classic	Hawaii	standard	Morgan Pressel (2)
Oct 24–26	Grand China Air LPGA	China	standard	Helen Alfredsson (7)
Oct 31 – Nov 2	Hana Bank-KOLON Championship	South Korea	standard	Candie Kung (4)
Nov 7–9	Mizuno Classic	Japan	standard	Jiyai Shin (2*)
Nov 13–16	Lorena Ochoa Invitational	Mexico	standard	Angela Stanford (3)
Nov 20–23	ADT Championship	Florida	n/a	Jiyai Shin (3*)
Nov 28–30	Lexus Cup	Singapore	unofficial	Team International
Dec 13–14**	Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge	Nevada	unofficial	Champions Tour

Tournaments in bold are majors.
**The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge was held on November 17. It was broadcast on television on December 13 and 14. The official LPGA Tour schedule lists the tournament dates based on the date of the television broadcast.
*Shin was not an LPGA member in 2008.

Leaders

Money List leaders

Rank	Player	Country	Earnings ($)	Events
1	Lorena Ochoa	Mexico	2,763,193	23
2	Paula Creamer	United States	1,823,992	26
3	Yani Tseng	Taiwan	1,752,086	27
4	Annika Sörenstam	Sweden	1,735,912	22
5	Helen Alfredsson	Sweden	1,431,408	26
6	Seon Hwa Lee	South Korea	1,187,294	30
7	Suzann Pettersen	Norway	1,177,809	24
8	Inbee Park	South Korea	1,138,370	27
9	Angela Stanford	United States	1,134,753	28
10	Cristie Kerr	United States	1,108,839	26

Full 2008 Official Money List - navigate to "2008"

Scoring Average leaders

Rank	Player	Country	Average
1	Lorena Ochoa	Mexico	69.70
2	Annika Sörenstam	Sweden	70.47
3	Paula Creamer	United States	70.56
4	Yani Tseng	Taiwan	70.77
5	Cristie Kerr	United States	70.88

Full 2008 Scoring Average List - navigate to "2008", then "Scoring Average"

Award winners

The three competitive awards given out by the LPGA each year are:

• The Rolex Player of the Year is awarded based on a formula in which points are awarded for top-10 finishes and are doubled at the LPGA's four major championships and at the season-ending ADT Championship. The points system is: 30 points for first; 12 points for second; nine points for third; seven points for fourth; six points for fifth; five points for sixth; four points for seventh; three points for eighth; two points for ninth and one point for 10th.
  • 2008 Winner: Lorena Ochoa. Runner-up: Paula Creamer
• The Vare Trophy, named for Glenna Collett-Vare, is given to the player with the lowest scoring average for the season.
  • 2008 Winner: Lorena Ochoa. Runner-up: Annika Sörenstam
• The Louis Suggs Rolex Rooke of the Year Award is awarded to the first-year player on the LPGA Tour who scores the highest in a points competition in which points are awarded at all full-field domestic events and doubled at the LPGA's four major championships. The points system is: 150 points for first; 80 points for second; 75 points for third; 70 points for fourth; and 65 points for fifth. After fifth place, points are awarded in increments of three, beginning at sixth place with 62 points. Rookies who make the cut in an event and finish below 41st each receive five points. The award is named after Louise Suggs, one of the founders of the LPGA.
  • 2008 Winner: Yani Tseng. Runner-up: Na Yeon Choi

See also

• 2008 in golf
• 2008 Duramed FUTURES Tour
• 2008 Ladies European Tour

References