After a four-year absence, a regular LPGA tour stop is returning to the Bay Area in the form of the Fortinet Founders Cup.
Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park will play hots to the four-day event from March 19-22, the LPGA announced Tuesday. Fortinet, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Sunnyvale, has agreed to a multi-year deal, the LPGA said. The length of the deal was not announced, but the LPGA said the Bay Area debut of the Founders Cup will have a purse of $3 million, up from $2 million this year.
The most recent regular LPGA tour stop in the Bay Area was the Mediheal Championship from 2018-2021 (there was no event in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic) at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City. The Bay Area hosted the 2023 International Crown, a team event, at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park. The 2021 U.S. Women’s Open was at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open was played at CordeValle in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Next year will be the 15th edition of the Founders Cup, an event established to celebrate the 13 players who founded the LPGA in 1950. The event has been played in Arizona, New Jersey and Florida, and didn’t have a corporate sponsor this year. Concord’s Yealimi Noh won this year’s event over Jin Young Ko in February for her first tour victory. Stanford’s Rose Zhang won in 2024 for her second professional victory.
Rose Zhang of the United States imitates taking a selfie with the trophy after winning the Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club on May 12, 2024 in Clifton, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
“We’re fired up to welcome Fortinet as the title partner of the Founders Cup and grateful for their commitment to elevating this historic event,” LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler said in a release. “The Founders Cup is about honoring the 13 women who built the LPGA from the ground up, and there’s no better stage for that than Sharon Heights — a world-class course that will challenge and showcase our players. … Many of our athletes have deep ties to Northern California, and this partnership with Fortinet allows us to celebrate that connection while growing the game and inspiring future generations.”
The 13 players who founded the LPGA 75 years ago were: Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Marlene Hagge, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs, and Babe Zaharias.
