The “Palos Verdes Open” Arrives On The Peninsula
• Professoinal golf comes to the Peninsula this weekend.
For the first time, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour has come to the Palos Verdes Golf Club. The Peninsula course is hosting its inaugural LPGA Tour tournament, the Palos Verdes Championship, from April 28 to May 1. It’s a high-stakes tournament, as the rewards purse amounts to $1.5 million.
Palos Verdes Golf Club is not a new player in the world of Southern California golf. The course opened in 1924 and has hosted many events, but nothing as important as the Palos Verdes Championship.
The PV Golf Club is the annual host of the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge, and an annual women’s college golf tournament that attracts universities from around the country.
Main parking for the Palos Verdes Championship is being held at Ernie Howlett Park, with shuttles driving patrons to and from the course all day. The event is being televised on the Golf Channel each evening throughout the tournament.
As is typical for the LPGA Tour, tournament competition is stiff. The current number one female player in the world, South Korean Jin Young Ko, is competing along with 8 of the top 10 players in the world in a field of 144 champion female golfers.
The Palos Verdes Championship comes a week after the L.A. Open, hosted by Wilshire Country Club. Japan’s Nasa Hataoka took home the trophy last week, winning by five strokes. She did not choose to compete in the Palos Verdes Championship.
Southern California residents should get used to hosting notable professional golf tournaments. Beyond the annual events in Los Angeles for the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, the Los Angeles Country Club will host the U.S. Open in 2023, and The Riviera Country Club will host the U.S. Women’s Open in 2026.
The Los Angeles area continues to increasingly become a Mecca for the golf world.
The Palos Verdes Championship marks a new and exciting era for the Peninsula’s golf community, as some of the best female golfers in the world bring Palos Verdes Golf Club to the forefront of the female golfing world for the first time.
