ADT Championship


The ADT Championship was a women's professional golf tournament on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. The season-ending event on the tour, it became the LPGA Playoffs at The ADT from 2006 through 2008.

History

The tournament was played in its final playoff form for the first time in November 2006; the champion of the event, Julieta Granada, won $1 million, the highest first-place prize in the history of women's golf. The event took place at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
From 1996 through 2005 the tournament was a standard, 72-hole stroke play event. It had a purse of $1,000,000 in its final season, with a winner's share of $215,000.
The playoff event in 2006 was the first time golf has ever used a postseason of any kind on any tour. Beginning in 2007, the PGA Tour also employed a playoff system.
Through the 2008 season, the title sponsor was ADT, a worldwide supplier of electronic security and fire alarm systems, communication systems and integrated building management systems, with headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.

Successors

On October 16, 2008 it was announced ADT would not extend its sponsorship. Another entirely new tournament, the LPGA Tour Championship, took ADT's place on the LPGA schedule for two years in 2009 and 2010; it was succeeded by the CME Group Titleholders in 2011

Selection process

2008 selection

As in the two previous seasons, the 2008 season was split into two halves, with 15 players from each half qualifying for the ADT Championship using a performance-based points system. In addition, two wild card players were chosen at the end of the regular season; a total of 32 players competed in the ADT Championship.
The first half began with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and ended with the LPGA Championship. The second half began with the Wegmans LPGA and ended with the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, one week before the Playoffs.
LPGA members qualified for the ADT Championship by accumulating ADT Points during each half of the season or by winning an automatic entry by winning one of 13 designated "winner" events—defined as any event with a purse of at least $2 million—throughout the season. The two wild cards were the top two players from the LPGA Official Money List who were not otherwise qualified after the Lorena Ochoa Invitational: Sun Young Yoo and Christina Kim.

2007 selection

The selection process in the 2007 LPGA regular season was the same as in 2008, with the only differences being:
More details on selecting competitors for the 2007 Playoffs can be found at: .

2006 selection

The 2006 LPGA campaign was split into two halves. The first half began with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay and ended with the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic. The second half began with the Evian Masters and ended with The Mitchell Company Tournament of Champions, one week before the Playoffs. The top 15 points scorers and one wild card from each half qualified for the Playoffs, making for a total of 32 players who will take part in the season-ending event.
Most of the events on 2006 LPGA schedule were "points" events, in which the top twenty finishers were awarded points. In addition, all winners of the LPGA's majors and five limited field events, such as the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship, automatically qualified for the Playoffs.
Once the first half ended, and the first 16 players were awarded spots in the Playoffs, the point totals from the first half were wiped out, and the second half began with a fresh scoresheet, meaning points did not carry over from half-to-half.
More details on selecting competitors for the 2006 Playoffs can be found at: .

2008 qualifiers

First half qualifiers

  1. Lorena Ochoa: won the HSBC Women's Champions
  2. Annika Sörenstam: won the Stanford International Pro-Am
  3. Seon Hwa Lee: won the Ginn Tribute Hosted by ANNIKA
  4. Yani Tseng: won the McDonald's LPGA Championship
  5. Paula Creamer: 923,742 points
  6. Jeong Jang: 664,249 points
  7. Song-Hee Kim: 509,000 points
  8. Karrie Webb: 505,867 points
  9. Suzann Pettersen: 484,664 points
  10. Na Yeon Choi: 464,709 points
  11. Maria Hjorth: 422,446 points
  12. Karen Stupples: 378,342 points
  13. Jee Young Lee: 375,695 points
  14. Inbee Park: 368,124 points
  15. Laura Diaz: 367,228 points

    Second half qualifiers

  16. Eun-Hee Ji: won the Wegmans LPGA
  17. Helen Alfredsson: won the Evian Masters
  18. Jiyai Shin: won the Women's British Open
  19. Katherine Hull: won the Canadian Women's Open
  20. Cristie Kerr: 848,850 points
  21. Angela Stanford: 764,706 points
  22. Angela Park: 667,346 points
  23. In-Kyung Kim: 625,780 points
  24. Candie Kung: 582,429 points
  25. Hee-Won Han: 548,572 points
  26. Ji Young Oh: 469,308 points
  27. Shanshan Feng: 452,236 points
  28. Morgan Pressel: 416,137 points
  29. Meena Lee: 378,254 points
  30. Nicole Castrale: 365,501 points
Inbee Park, who won the U.S. Women's Open, qualified via first-half points.

Wild cards

  1. Sun Young Yoo: $674,983
  2. Christina Kim: $664,598

    2007 qualifiers

First half qualifiers

  1. Morgan Pressel: won the Kraft Nabisco Championship
  2. Brittany Lincicome: won the Ginn Open
  3. Suzann Pettersen: won the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill
  4. Nicole Castrale: won the Ginn Tribute Hosted by Annika
  5. Lorena Ochoa: 1,524,404 points
  6. Paula Creamer: 685,729 points
  7. Mi Hyun Kim: 647,110 points
  8. Sarah Lee: 580,948 points
  9. Stacy Prammanasudh: 552,707 points
  10. Jee Young Lee: 521,842 points
  11. Karrie Webb: 407,786 points
  12. Cristie Kerr: 395,180 points
  13. Angela Park: 375,519 points
  14. Juli Inkster: 372,980 points
  15. Angela Stanford: 367,855 points

    Second half qualifiers

  16. Seon Hwa Lee: won the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship
  17. Natalie Gulbis: won the Evian Masters
  18. Maria Hjorth: 756,904 points
  19. Jeong Jang: 748,129 points
  20. Se Ri Pak: 490,656 points
  21. Christina Kim: 434,742 points
  22. Ai Miyazato: 427,108 points
  23. Laura Davies: 354,785 points
  24. Inbee Park: 349,906 points
  25. Laura Diaz: 326,537 points
  26. Annika Sörenstam: 325,940 points
  27. Sherri Steinhauer: 302,618 points
  28. Shi Hyun Ahn: 292,816 points
  29. Reilley Rankin: 281,929 points
  30. Sophie Gustafson: 264,607 points
The remaining three "winner" events in the second half were won by golfers who had already qualified via first-half points—the U.S. Women's Open by Cristie Kerr, and the Women's British Open and Canadian Women's Open by Lorena Ochoa.

Wild cards

  1. Catriona Matthew: $504,366
  2. Meaghan Francella: $499,292

    Current format

Most players have supported the tournament, though some criticism has been raised. Annika Sörenstam, for example, commented that a player who had a great year, like Sörenstam did in 2005, when she won 10 times, could miss the cut after round three, and not only lose the tournament, but also the title given to the player who tops the LPGA Money List for the year to someone not even in the List's top 10 at the event's start.
Sörenstam, as well as others, have suggested that only half the prize count toward the money list, while the other half be given as a bonus, and not counted on the money list. The LPGA said it would consider this before the 2007 event. No change was made for 2007.

Possible revival of the ADT Championship?

On November 21, 2009, Golf Channel's Randall Mell reported in a blog post that the LPGA was in preliminary discussions to bring back the tournament in 2011.

Winners

LPGA Playoffs at The ADT

The total tournament score is not shown because that does not determine the winner. Championship round score is shown in bold.

ADT Championship

Tournament names through the years:
YearDatesChampionCountryScoreTournament
Location
Purse
Winner's
share
2005Nov 17–20Annika Sörenstam282 Trump International Golf Club1,000,000215,000
2004Nov 18–21Annika Sörenstam275 Trump International Golf Club1,000,000215,000
2003Nov 20–23Meg Mallon281 Trump International Golf Club1,000,000215,000
2002Nov 21–24Annika Sörenstam275 Trump International Club1,000,000215,000
2001Nov 15–18Karrie Webb279 Trump International Club1,000,000215,000
2000Nov 16–19Dottie Pepper279 LPGA International Legends Course1,000,000215,000
1999Nov 11–14Se Ri Pak276 Desert Inn Golf Club1,000,000215,000
1998Nov 19–22Laura Davies277 Desert Inn Golf Club1,000,000215,000
1997Nov 20–23Annika Sörenstam277 Desert Inn Golf Club750,000160,000
1996Nov 21–24Karrie Webb272 Desert Inn Golf Club700,000150,000

Tournament record