Top LPGA Players Aim for Jackpot

To the sounds of golf balls rattling into holes and cash registers jangling, the LPGA joins the end-of-the-season money parade today with the first ITT LPGA Tour Championship.

The LPGA’s top 30 money winners will play for a $700,000 purse over 72 holes beginning today at Desert Inn Golf Club, where there’s some banking history to be made.

If Laura Davies or Karrie Webb wins the event and the prize money of $150,000 that goes along with it, she would become the first to pass $1 million in one year on the LPGA Tour.

Davies leads the money list with $897,302 in 18 tournaments and Webb is second with $852,000 in 24 tournaments.

Annika Sorenstam, third with $792,311, can win the money title but she can’t reach $1 million. Sorenstam won both the LPGA Tour and European Tour money titles last year. Davies, who already has won the European Tour money title, is trying to match Sorenstam’s accomplishment this year.