Historic edition of Kentucky Women's Open begins on Monday.

ASHLAND, KY (July 10, 2022) – The 26^th Kentucky Women’s Open is bound for Bellefonte Country Club for the first time in tournament history. It’s a historic week for Bellefonte, as hosting this championship will make it the first course in Kentucky to hold every major individual tournament operated by the Kentucky PGA and Kentucky Golf Association. This will be the first major state championship for women at Bellefonte since 1983, when the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Women’s Kentucky Amateur was conducted here and won by Anne Combs.

History is also set to be made this week as the tournament is set to be broadcast to a national audience for the first time. MyTown TV will air the action from Bellefonte across the country via their suite of products. Viewers will be able to access the streams through their televisions by downloading the MyTown TV app on either Apple TV or Roku. The broadcast will also be accessible through mobile devices, with the MyTown TV app accessible on both the Apple app store and Google Play store. The streams will also be viewable through the MyTown TV Facebook page. Coverage will begin at 11:00 a.m. EDT on Monday and Tuesday.

A strong field has assembled to play in front of the enhanced spotlight this week. For Monday’s opening round, there are two featured groups containing some of the notable players prepared to play for this prized championship. Those groups and their tee times off the 1^st tee are as follows:

• Macey Brown, Olivia Hensley, Sarah Fite – (8:50 a.m EDT): Three past champions of the KHSAA Girls State Championship make up this group. Brown won in 2020 representing Apollo High School, Hensley in 2019 with Boyd County, while Fite claimed victory in 2016 with Sacred Heart. Each player is in a different point of their careers with Brown about to begin her freshman year with the University of Indianapolis this fall. Hensley’s junior year with Morehead State commences this season while Fite is a newly turned professional having just completed her college career with Kentucky.
• Ryan Bender, Mary Keene Marrs, Ke’Asha Phillips – (9:00 a.m.): Bender is another past KHSAA State champion, winning at Bowling Green Country Club in 2017. Joining her is Mary Keene Marrs who was a member of two team State Championships won by Lexington Christian Academy. Phillips rounds out the group with plenty of high school success in her own right, which included first team all-state honors in 2017 and a third-place finish at the KHSAA State Championship that same year. After high school, she competed collegiately with Xavier and won the inaugural Kentucky Women’s Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 2020.

Click here to view all first-round tee times

In addition to the broadcast on MyTown TV, Golf House Kentucky will have full coverage of the championship on its Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages. Public attendance to the championship is permitted with spectators welcome free of charge.

FAST FACTS

About the Kentucky PGA:
The Kentucky PGA Section (KPGA) is one of forty-one Sections across the country representing the PGA of America and its Members. It is also one of three organizations encompassed within Golf House Kentucky, which also includes the Kentucky Golf Association (KGA) and Kentucky Golf Foundation (KGF). The KPGA contains more than 275 Members and more than 30 Associates working in various roles across Kentucky; all of whom share the goal of bettering the game and its players. The KPGA and its Members assist with the organization of many chief growth-of-the-game initiatives including PGA HOPE and PGA Jr. League among others. The Section also operates more than thirty tournaments throughout the golf season, including the three State Open championships and qualifiers for the Barbasol Championship.

Media Contact:
Ethan Fisher, PGA | Golf House Kentucky | efisher@kygolf.org | (502) 792-9703