RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – English women’s golf is on the rise, and it just got another big boost with Saturday’s announcement that the next UL International Crown will be played at the Centurion Club just north of London, Aug. 27-30, in 2020.
The English made a hard run at winning the Crown last year, before watching the host South Koreans win with massive weekend crowds supporting them in a week that set a new standard for the event.
The Brits turned out strong to support England’s Georgia Hall when she won the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes last year. Hall, Charley Hull, Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Bronte Law made the English team that played in the UL International Crown in South Korea.
“Team England will be a formidable force on their home soil,” UL CEO and president Keith Williams said by video during the announcement.
Centurion Club has previously hosted the European Tour’s Golf Sixes.
The announcement backs LPGA commissioner Mike Whan’s stated intention to truly make the event international, after the first two events were played in the United States.
The LPGA also announced that IMG will stage the event in 2020.
Spain won the inaugural UL International Crown at Caves Valley outside Baltimore in 2014. The Americans won in 2016 at the Merit Club outside Chicago and the South Koreans at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon last year.
Whan told GolfChannel.com last fall that the LPGA was studying the possibility of changing the UL International Crown qualifying rules, so that the host country would be exempt from qualifying. That would allow a country like Canada to host regardless of rankings, with Brooke Henderson’s popularity there adding appeal to that country’s potential as a host. Canada has yet to qualify for the event.
“We are always looking at ways to enhance and change the event,” said Dennis Baggett, the LPGA’s vice president of properties. “What we need to determine, and we are talking about that, are ways to take this event to countries that may not have four players qualified but maybe have two who are. So, how can we create an opportunity for countries outside the top eight [team qualifying standard] and still maintain the integrity of the event? I think we will get there.”
