Tournament's history is ladened
with first-timers, money increases

By Ryan Finley,
Contributor

In the words of an old, sexist cigarette saying--"You've come a long way, baby."

The same can be said for the Welch's/Circle K Championship, which takes place at the Randolph Park Golf Course in Tucson. Since the tournament's inception in 1981, the winners have been every bit as much a variation as the tournament purses, which has multiplied more than nine times over in its 19 years of existence.

The tournament's history has been (Dottie) Pepper-ed with various winners.

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The all-time lowest total score at the tournament, not counting Jan Stephenson's rain-shortened three round 207 in 1983, was Chris Johnson's 272 in 1984. Her 16-under par score won her all of 22, 500 dollars.

The only women to take the tournament twice were Johnson ('84 and '91) and Donna Andrews, who won in 1994 and '97. The defending champion of the Welch's/Circle K Championships is Juli Inkster---the newly-elected member of the LPGA Hall of Fame shot a 273 in 1999 en route to one of her five tournament titles. Two such victories were majors.

As the tournament field's talent quotient has increased, so too has the prize money that comes along with victory. In the first tournament, held in 1981, the victor won all of 18,750 dollars---chump change by today's standards. The purse was raised to 22,500 dollars in 1983 and 45,000 in 1988.

Currently, the tournament's purse stands at a robust 103,000 dollars, a far cry from the 93,750 dollars Inkster was paid upon her victory last year.

All in all, the Welch's/Circle K Championship at Tucson's Randolph Park Golf Course has turned into one of the LPGA's greatest tours since its inception in 1981.

From increases in talent to the subsequent increase in purses, the tournament has set the made celebrities out of dozens of women, many of them golf's greatest contributors. And come March 12th, its will make one player significantly rich.