NAPLES — LPGA stars will walk the green carpet Wednesday night at the annual Rolex Awards banquet, an event once held at Mar-a-Lago.
The LPGA Tour played its season-finale ADT Championship at Donald Trump’s course in West Palm Beach from 2001-08, during which time the banquet to honor the top players was held about 4 miles away on Palm Beach at the home of the president elect.
The player of the year was dominated by two golfers during that era: Annika Sorenstam from 2001-05 and Lorena Ochoa from 2006-08.
Sorenstam received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump Jan. 7, 2021, the day after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
This year’s banquet will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort at the Tiburon Golf Club, where the tour’s season-ending event, the CME Group Tour Championship, starts Thursday. Nelly Korda has clinched the 2024 Rolex Player of the Year award.
Trump, an avid golf fan, had a history with the LPGA Tour until 2017. Besides hosting the ADT for seven years, the 2015 Women’s British Open was played at Trump Turnberry in Scotland and the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open took place at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
The 2002 Women’s British Open was at Turnberry, 12 years before Trump purchased the property.
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Following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021, the R&A announced that as long as Turnberry had ties to Trump the British Open would no longer be played there.
Charley Hull, ranked No. 11 in the world, practiced at Turnberry this summer before the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews, and said then “it’s a shame” the course will no longer host the event.
“I thought (Trump Turnberry) was a great golf course,” she said. “Great fun. I love being out on the golf course, and the views on that golf course is brilliant. It was so much fun.
“I think it’s a shame. It is a really top track.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Donald Trump hosted LPGA awards banquet at Mar-a-Lago
