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Circling Raven to host

LPGA qualifying tour event

WORLEY — Circling Raven Golf Club announced it will host a Symetra Tour “Road to the LPGA” tournament for three years, beginning with the inaugural championship Aug. 24-30, 2020.

Named the Circling Raven Championship (CRC), it will feature a full field of competitors battling for $200,000 in prize money.

The Symetra Tour is the official qualifying tour of the LPGA Tour and enters its 39th competitive season in 2019.

The top 10 players in the Volvik Race for the Card at the end of each season earn full LPGA Tour membership for the following year. From 1999-2002, the official qualifying tour of the LPGA handed out three cards. From 2003-2007 that number increased to five. Ten were distributed starting in 2008. Since the inaugural year, a total of 147 players have graduated to the big stage.

Symetra Tour graduates have had success on the LPGA in 2019, with Hannah Green (2017 grad) making her first LPGA win a major at the Women’s PGA Championship, joining Nelly Korda (2016), who secured her second LPGA tour victory at the Women’s Australian Open and Celine Boutier (2016), who captured the Handa Vic Open. These players join a list of other Symetra Tour alums who have recently won on the LPGA including Marina Alex (2013), Mo Martin (2011) and former world No. 1 Inbee Park (2006). World Golf Hall of Fame member Lorena Ochoa, who retired in 2010, finished No. 1 on the Symetra Tour Money List in 2002.

Since Symetra’s inaugural sponsorship year in 2012, the Symetra Tour has grown from 16 tournaments and $1.7 million in prize money to $4.0 million in prize money awarded over the course of 23 events. With more than 600 alumnae moving on to the LPGA, former Symetra Tour players have won a total of 437 LPGA titles.

Information: SymetraTour.com

Hatley, Grove finish in

top 10 at Northwest Open

WALLA WALLA — Amateur Reid Hatley of Hayden Lake Country Club tied for sixth and Russell Grove, men’s and women’s golf coach at North Idaho College, tied for eighth at the Northwest Open Invitational at Wine Valley Golf Club, which concluded Thursday.

Hatley finished at 5-under-par 211 (67-68-76), five strokes back of the winner, Derek Berg of Pacific Northwest Golf Academy in Issaquah, Wash. Grove finished at 4-under 212 (71-71-70)

Berg shot a 2-under 70 in the final round for a three-shot victory in the Pacific Northwest Section major.