Ping/Welch's Championship, Former LPGA Tournament
First played: 1980
Last played: 1997
Tournament names: This event had five different names over its run. It debuted as the Boston Five Classic and had that name from 1980 through 1990. In 1991 it was the LPGA Bay State Classic, and in 1992 the Welch's Classic. From 1993-96, the name was Ping/Welch's Championship, and in its final year of 1997 just Welch's Championship.
Winners of LPGA Ping/Welch's (Boston Five Classic)
1980 — Dale Lundquist, 276 (def. Amy Alcott in playoff)1981 — Donna Caponi, 276
1982 — Sandra Palmer, 271
1983 — Patti Rizzo, 277
1984 — Laurie Rinker, 286
1985 — Judy Clark, 280
1986 — Jane Geddes, 281
1987 — Jane Geddes, 277
1988 — Colleen Walker, 274
1989 — Amy Alcott, 272
1990 — Barb Mucha, 277 (def. Lenore Rittenhouse in playoff)
1991 — Juli Inkster, 275
1992 — Dottie Pepper, 278
1993 — Missie Berteotti, 276 (def. Dottie Pepper in playoff)
1994 — Helen Alfredsson, 274
1995 — Beth Daniel, 271
1996 — Emilee Klein, 277
1997 — Liselotte Neumann, 276
Jane Geddes was this tournament's only multiple winner. She won back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. It was very nearly three in a row for Geddes, because she finished second in 1985. (Geddes had another runner-up finish in 1988.)
Others came close to second wins. Amy Alcott, who won in 1989, lost in a playoff at the inaugural 1980 Boston Five Classic. Donna Caponi won in 1981 and tied Geddes for second in 1985. Colleen Walker won in 1988 and was second in 1995. Juli Inkster won in 1991 and was runner-up in 1994. And Dottie Pepper won in 1992 then, the next year, lost in a playoff to Missie Berteotti (it was Bertotti's only LPGA Tour victory).
The tournament's largest margin of victory was eight strokes by Walker in 1988 over a quartet of runners-up (Geddes, Kathryn Young, Patty Sheehan and Jan Stephenson). The lowest winning score was 271 by Daniel in 1995. That win by Daniel was the 32nd of her 33 career wins on the LPGA Tour. It was another eight years before she got her final win in 2003.
In 1996, Emilee Klein earned her first career LPGA victory in this tournament. The very next week she won the Women's British Open. Klein had only one more win after that.
Caponi's win in 1981 was the last of her 24 career LPGA Tour victories. Something else that happened in that 1981 tournament: a player won a hole-in-one prize despite acing the wrong hole.
Golf Courses: Ferncroft Country Club in Danvers, Mass., and Blue Hill Country Club in Canton, Mass. Ferncroft was the home from 1980 through 1991, Blue Hill from 1992 through the end.
Sources:
LPGA Tour. Tournament Chronology, 1980-89 (via Internet Archive), https://web.archive.org/web/20110629095854/http://www.lpga.com/content/Chronology80-89.pdf.
LPGA Tour. Tournament Chronology, 1990-1999, via Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/20070920192212/http://www.lpga.com/content/Chronology90-99.pdf.
