After a two-week break following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the LPGA’s third major of the season, the tour is back in action at Michigan’s Midland Country Club for the third edition of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. The only team event on the LPGA calendar, the competition runs Wednesday through Saturday and features 70, two-woman teams in a 72-hole, stroke-play tournament that uses both foursomes and four-ball formats.
This week’s field, which is competing for a prize purse of $2.5 million (winners receive $303,810 each plus two-year exemptions), includes three of the top 10 players on the Rolex Rankings -- world No. 3 Nelly Korda, No. 6 Lexi Thompson and No. 9 Jennifer Kupcho -- as well as three of this season’s winners in Marina Alex, Kupcho and Leona Maguire. The top 70 available players on the 2021 LPGA Priority List were able to choose their playing partners, who must have LPGA Tour playing status. After two rounds the top 35 teams (plus ties) will advance.
How to watch the 2022 Dow Great Lakes Invitational:
- Wednesday, July 13: 3-6 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
- Thursday, July 14: 1-4 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
- Friday, July 15: 1-4 p.m. ET, Golf Channel
- Saturday, July 16: 3-4 p.m. ET, NBC Sports app (streaming); 4-6 p.m. ET, CBS
Who’s playing in the 2022 Dow Great Lakes Invitational?
Defending champions and sisters Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn look to repeat as winners at Midland Country Club, located in the city of Midland in central Michigan. They’re joined in the field by two other teams of sisters: Jessica and Nelly Korda, and Vivian and Yu Sang Hou.
Also playing this week are 2019 winners Cydney Clanton and Jasmine Suwannapura, with other notable teams including:
- Lexi Thompson and Brittany Altomare
- Leona Maguire and Mel Reid
- Lizette Salas and Jennifer Kupcho
- Stacy Lewis and Maria Fassi
- Yealimi Noh and A Lim Kim
- amateurs Savannah Grewal and Annabelle Pancake (teammates at Clemson this past spring who won the tournament qualifier)
- World Golf Hall of Famers Annika Sorenstam (with Madelene Sagstrom) and Karrie Webb (with Marina Alex)
Format for the Dow Great Lakes Invitational:
This week’s event is 72-hole, stroke-play event featuring 70 two-woman teams. Similar to the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, teams will alternate competition formats between rounds, playing foursomes (alternate shot) in the first and third rounds, and four-ball (better ball) in the second and final rounds.
In the case of a tie at the end of regulation, a sudden-death playoff will be played in the foursomes format.
Last year at Midland Country Club:
Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn closed with 59 in the best-ball format to finish at 24-under 256 and win by three strokes over defending champion Cydney Clanton and Jasmine Suwannapura. Clanton and Suwannapura, who won the title in 2019 (the event was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic), posted four rounds of 65 or better, finishing with a 64 on Saturday (21-under total). The Jutanugarns opened with a 67 in the foursomes format and followed up with their first 59 of the week in four ball. A 71 in the third-round foursomes left them trailing the defending champs and the team of Pajaree Anannarukarn and Aditi Ashok by one stroke entering the final round. Anannarukarn and Ashol finished T-3 at 19 under along with A Lim Kim and Yealimi Noh.
The NBC research team contributed to this report.
