An international women’s golf event is coming to Kentucky in 2028. Here are the details.
For the first time, a major international women’s golf event is coming to Kentucky.
On Tuesday morning, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) announced that Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville will host the Solheim Cup in 2028.
The Solheim Cup is a biennial, international match-play event that pits American golfers from the LPGA Tour against European golfers from the Ladies European Tour. The 2028 edition of the Solheim Cup at Valhalla will be the 21st time the event is played.
This will mark the first major women’s golf competition to be held at Valhalla. Dates for the 2028 Solheim Cup, which will be in either the late summer or early fall, are yet to be announced.
Opened in 1986 and designed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus, Valhalla is a familiar setting for elite golf in the commonwealth. The course has hosted the PGA Championship, one of men’s golf’s four major championships, on four occasions in 1996, 2000, 2014 and 2024. Additionally, Valhalla hosted the men’s Ryder Cup in 2008 and the Senior PGA Championship in 2004 and 2011.
The Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup are equivalent events across the worlds of men’s and women’s golf.
“Showcasing our extraordinary athletes at venues that have hosted the world’s largest and most prestigious golf tournaments and that are recognizable to fans around the world will continue to elevate the LPGA Tour and the Solheim Cup,” LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a news release. “Hosting the 2028 Solheim Cup at Valhalla Golf Club, with its rich tradition of competitive excellence, exemplifies this commitment.”
“Valhalla has a history of providing compelling finishes and we are excited to add this event to our championship lore,” added Jimmy Kirchdorfer, an executive with ISCO Industries who, along with a group of three other Louisville investors, purchased Valhalla in 2022. “We look forward to welcoming golf fans from around the globe back to our Kentucky home for what promises to be an unforgettable week of competition and camaraderie.”
Solheim Cup set to bring women’s pro golf back to Kentucky
With the 2028 Solheim Cup being awarded to Valhalla, the LPGA Tour is set to return to Kentucky for the first time in more than 50 years. From 1965 to 1974, the Bluegrass Invitational was held at Hunting Creek Country Club in Prospect, which is located to the northeast of Louisville.
In early June, the Legends of the LPGA, the official senior tour of the LPGA, held the inaugural Woodford Legends Invitational at The Woodford Club in Versailles. This came after a successful two-day preview event was held last October at The Woodford Club.
Two more editions of the Solheim Cup will still be contested before it comes to Valhalla.
The 2024 event will be held in September at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. The 2026 Solheim Cup will be held in The Netherlands.
All-time, the United States team leads the European team in the Solheim Cup, 10-7-1 (W-L-T). Europe has held the Solheim Cup since 2019. The most recent Solheim Cup was held in Spain last year, with the U.S. and Europe tying for the first time, 14-14. Because of the tie, Europe retained the competition’s trophy.
Pro golf has had plenty of recent news in Kentucky
Tuesday’s announcement that the Solheim Cup would be coming to Kentucky for the first time is just the latest domino to fall in what’s been an active summer in the Kentucky golf world.
In May, Valhalla hosted the 2024 PGA Championship. That event, won by American Xander Schauffele, was marred by the arrest of Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, prior to the second round of the event while Scheffler attempted to drive into the entrance of Valhalla.
In June, the Legends of the LPGA event took place in Versailles.
In July, the PGA Tour hosted its annual stop in Kentucky when the newly named ISCO Championship was held at the Champions at Keene Trace golf course in Nicholasville. That event set a record for the lowest 36-hole cut-line score in an individual, stroke-play event in PGA Tour history.
Later in July, it was announced that the ISCO Championship, which was previously known as the Barbasol Championship, would be moving to Louisville’s Hurstbourne Country Club.
The ISCO Championship had taken place at Keene Trace since 2018 after being contested in Alabama starting in 2015. When that tournament arrived in Kentucky, it became the state’s first regular season PGA Tour event since the Kentucky Derby Open was held in Louisville from 1957-59.
This story was originally published August 13, 2024 at 10:48 AM.
