WHAT: The 13th edition of the Four Winds Invitational, a 54-hole professional golf tournament at South Bend Country Club with prize money totaling $262,500. It is the 15th stop on the 19-event Epson Tour which is the Road to the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
WHO: A field of 132 professional and amateur women golfers. Among the golfers are 13 of the previous 14 Epson Tour event winners and current leading money-winner Jessica Porvasnik of Hinckley, Ohio. The Ohio State graduate has not recorded a victory but has earned $88,888 with the help of five Top 10 finishes in her 14 previous events.
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WHEN: First round Friday, second round Saturday and final round (after cut) Sunday. Play begins at 7:30 a.m. each day off the first and 10th tees.
WHERE: The par-72, 6,430-yard South Bend Country Club is a design of noted architect and golf teacher George O’Neil that opened in 1916. It is located at 25800 Country Club Drive on South Chain Lake near Lydick, just a little under six miles west of downtown South Bend. Railroad tracks for Amtrak and South Shore Line run past holes 12 through 14. Among those who used to depart the train and head up the hill to the clubhouse was O’Neil’s most famous student, Charles “Chick” Evans. It was he who helped the Western Golf Association establish the Evans Scholars Foundation that helps send deserving caddies to college.
LOCAL TIES: Former Notre Dame women golfers Becca Huffer and Lauren Beaudreau are both in the field. Huffer finished tied for second at last year’s tournament behind eventual winner Gabriela Ruffels of Australia and earned her LPGA card. Beaudreau, a 2024 NCAA Tournament individual qualifier who earned a master’s degree in business analytics last spring, finished 60th in the recent pre-qualifying stage for the LPGA Q-School to advance.
NOTABLE PAST WINNERS: World No. 2 Lilia Vu, who won two majors (Chevron Championship, Women’s British Open) in 2023, captured the 2021 Four Winds Invitational at South Bend Country Club, while No. 23 Brooke Henderson won the 2015 Four Winds title at Blackthorn Golf Club.
PRINCIPAL SPONSOR: The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and its Four Winds Casinos in Hartford, Dowagiac, New Buffalo and South Bend.
BENEFICIARY: Beacon Children’s Hospital.
PARKING/ADMISSION: Complimentary.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Things to about the Epson Tour’s Four Winds Invitational this weekend
