The LPGA stands for Ladies Professional Golf Association and is the longest-running women’s sports association in the world. The LPGA is a “ladies” golf association. Under its charter, men may not join. The LPGA was founded over 50 years ago by a group of dynamic and talented women golfers.

The LPGA has two major divisions – the Tour division and the Teaching and Club Professional Division. The LPGA Tour is very international. Many LPGA Tour events are played outside of the U.S. and the women competitors come from many countries.

In order to play on an LPGA Tour event, a female golfer must be 18 or over, declared herself a “professional” and have demonstrated the required skill through previous tournament play. Amateur golfers are not allowed to accept prize money or commercial endorsements.

In addition to LPGA tournaments, there is also the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division, which is led by my friend, Dr. Betsy Clark, Vice President of Professional Development. There are only about 1,200 female LPGA instructors. It is difficult to get accepted into the program so, when you link up with an LPGA teaching pro, consider yourself fortunate.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 10:14 am and is filed under Golf Associations, Golf Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.