LPGA Tour returning to Shadow Creek in Las Vegas in April
The LPGA Tour will be back in Las Vegas in the spring for the fifth edition of its match-play event at Shadow Creek.
The T-Mobile Match Play will be held April 2-6 and offer a $2 million purse. Nelly Korda is the defending champion.
The tournament will be the third event in a four-tournament West Coast swing to begin the year. Shadow Creek falls after the Seri Pak Championship in Palos Verdes Estates, California (March 20-23), and the Ford Championship in Chandler, Arizona (March 27-30). It is followed by the LA Championship in Los Angeles (April 17-20).
The announcement of the tournament’s return is welcome news to Las Vegas golf fans with the future of both the PGA Tour stop at TPC Summerlin and LIV Golf’s event at Las Vegas Country Club in jeopardy of not returning in 2025.
Tournament officials have not announced the format for the 2025 LPGA event, although it is expected to follow the revamped method used in 2024 where 96 players begin the week on Wednesday for three days of stroke play, with the top eight moving on to match play on the weekend.
What is clear, however, is the tournament will be without a large number of top American players who have stepped away from competition following the 2024 season, which ended Sunday.
Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome, Angela Stanford, Marina Alex and 2021 match-play winner Ally Ewing have all announced their retirements from the tour. Between them, they have 31 LPGA Tour wins, including four majors, and 23 Solheim Cup appearances.
Shadow Creek is one of 35 events on the 2025 LPGA schedule, with players vying for $131 million in prize money. That total is more than double what was on the table just four years ago.
The schedule includes two new events, including the Black Desert Championship from May 1-4 outside St. George, Utah. It will be played at Black Desert Resort, the same venue the PGA Tour added to its schedule this past season.
Q-School marches on
Six Las Vegas players will tee it up next week at the second stage of Q-School looking to gain or retain status for the 2025 season.
Qualifying events are being held at five locations, but all six Las Vegas players will be at Valencia Country Club in Valencia, California, starting Tuesday.
Those in the field include Sangmoon Bae, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour a decade ago; Grant Booth, who played last season on PGA Tour Americas; Nathan Maas, a mini-tour player originally from Minnesota; Hazen Newman, an Arbor View and Oklahoma State alum who was medalist at his first-stage qualifier; Scott Piercy, a four-time winner and veteran of 410 PGA Tour starts who stumbled to 182nd in this year’s FedEx Cup standings; and Norman Xiong, who made just six of 18 cuts this season during his rookie year on the PGA Tour.
Players who make it through second stage to final qualifying later in December will be guaranteed some form of status on the PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour or PGA Tour Americas.
Chip shots
*Winners of the Southern Nevada Golf Association Shootout held Sunday and Monday at Red Red Country Club and Arroyo Golf Club include Preston Harris (Championship), Todd Roberts (Senior), Gary Carpendale (Silver), Barry Jacob (Championship Net), Brian Freymueller (Senior Net) and Brent Bingham (Silver Net).
*The teams of Scott Turner/Scott Mitchell and Bill Kodama/Bill Sitman tied for top honors at the annual Legacy Men’s Club member-guest tournament.
Greg Robertson covers golf for the Review-Journal. Reach him at grobertson@reviewjournal.com.