PALM DESERT, Calif. – Sherri Steinhauer hasn’t played in the Samsung World Championship since 2000 and hadn’t won a major championship since 1992. But Steinhauer rectified both oversights on her resume Sunday, ensuring a spot in the Samsung World Championship field by winning the Weetabix Women’s British Open.
The Samsung World Championship, which features an elite, 20-player field, is scheduled for Oct. 9-15 at the Canyons Course at BIGHORN Golf Club.
Steinhauer is the fifth qualifier into the Samsung World Championship field, joining two-time defending, and five-time overall, champion and World No. 1 Annika Sorenstam, sensational teen and World No. 2 Michelle Wie, who turns 17 during Championship week (Oct. 11), Karrie Webb, who qualified by winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the year’s first major, and Se Ri Pak, the 1999 Samsung World Championship winner, who earned her spot by winning the McDonald’s LPGA Championship in June.
Steinhauer captured Women’s British Open championships in 1998 and 1999, before the event graduated into an LPGA major.
"People who thought the two that I won, they thought that they were a major. Now that it really is, now that I’ve really won it as a major, it makes the other wins that much sweeter too," she said. "That was the No. 1 thing that when I would think that I was on the golf course, that would make me the most nervous, because I really did want this bad. It just means so much for me to win it as a major."
Steinhauer’s first victory in two years came by four shots on a Royal Lytham & St. Annes course that caused trouble for most of her closest pursuers, who found many of the 200 bunkers sprinkled about the course. It came largely for that reason and for a six-hole stretch (No. 11 through 16) that Steinhauer played in five-under-par during Saturday’s third round.
At the age of 43 years, 7 months and 10 days Steinhauer became the second oldest player to win an LPGA major championship. Fay Crocker was 45 years, 7 months and 11 days old when she won the 1960 Titleholders Championship.
The $305,440 payday lifted Steinhauer eight spots (from 23rd to 15th) on the ADT Official Money List. Her best finish at the Samsung World Championship was a tie for second in her 1993 event debut. She finished 12th in 2000.
Joining Steinhauer, Pak, Sorenstam, Wie and Webb in October’s elite event will be the money leader from the Ladies European Tour (LET) and this year’s leading LPGA money-winners who have not already qualified.
The Samsung World Championship, a 72-hole stroke play event, has been contested on five continents in 25 years. The field will compete for an increased purse of $875,000 with a first prize of $218,750.
About Samsung
Samsung is a world leader in electronics, finance, and trade and services. Headquartered in Korea, Samsung operates 337 offices and facilities in 58 different countries. The company employs approximately 222,000 people worldwide, with 2004 net sales of US $121.7 billion.
Samsung believes that sports play a unique role in unifying people regardless of age, race, or gender. Samsung is a passionate supporter and active corporate sponsor of amateur and professional sporting events, training programs, teams and individual athletes in Korea and around the world.
The company extended its commitment to sports by becoming a worldwide Olympic Partner of the International Olympic Committee in 1997. Samsung’s official Olympic Games partnership will continue with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
For more information, please visit our website: www.samsung.com.
About BIGHORN Golf Club
BIGHORN Golf Club, a private club, has two spectacular golf courses. The CANYONS Course, designed by Tom Fazio, will provide a challenge for the world’s best lady golfers. The par-72, 7,083 yard Tom Fazio layout, is set among rock-studded canyons, copper foothills, meandering streams, majestic waterfalls, and rich desert flora. The back nine is located in the upper elevations, with many holes nestled along a natural desert wash and into the existing canyons of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The course was opened in December 1998 and hosted the BATTLE AT BIGHORN in 2000-2001-2002.
BIGHORN is also home to the Arthur Hills-designed MOUNTAINS Course, a par-72, 6,871-yard breath-taking course winding through the foothills and valleys of the Santa Rosa Mountains providing panoramic vistas of Palm Desert and the entire Coachella Valley. The MOUNTAINS Course has been home to THE SKINS GAME from 1992-1995 and also host to the 1998 World Senior Match Play Challenge.
For a private tour, contact BIGHORN Properties at 800-551-5578.
Contact:
Toby Zwikel/Brian Robin/Damian Secore
Brener Zwikel & Associates, Inc.
(818) 344-6195 ext. 104/110/114Toby Zwikel/Brian Robin/Damian Secore
Brener Zwikel & Associates, Inc.
(818) 344-6195 ext. 104/110/114
