Allie White wears a name tag that simply says – Golf Pro. Technically, she’s the director of golf at Lancaster (Ohio) Golf Club, but that title feels a bit too much for the self-deprecating White, whose first job in the game was at the snack bar, that is until someone realized she was the one burning the hot dogs. That’s when she joined the grounds crew.
“I was totally that person who took a nip out of the fringe,” she confessed.
White’s longest job in the game, however, was that of touring pro, and most of her time was time was spent grinding on the Epson Tour, the developmental circuit of the LPGA. A veteran of more than 200 pro golf events, White quit playing the tour full-time after the 2022 season, yet now finds herself teeing in it up June 19-23 in her first KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in in Sammamish, Washington.
White, 34, won the 2023 LPGA Professionals National Championship in a playoff on the River Course at Kingsmill Resort to earn her spot in the LPGA’s second-longest running tournament. Of the 156 players at Sahalee, there will be eight PGA/LPGA professionals that make up the Corebridge Financial PGA Team. White, a veteran of two U.S. Women’s Opens, is the only one in the group making her KPMG Women’s PGA debut.
“This is the golf tournament that celebrates people who have worked in the golf industry,” said White. “I have mostly dabbled, but it’s been a lot of dabbling.”
Former Epson Tour pro Allie White poses at the pro shop counter at Lancaster Golf Club, where she’s now director of golf. (courtesy photo)
Other members of the team include Wendy Ward, a four-time winner on the LPGA competing in her 19th career KPMG Women’s PGA and first since 2013. Ward, 51, now works as a golf instructor at Manito Golf & Country Club in Spokane, Washington.
She’s joined by Kim Paez of Peoria, Arizona; Samantha Morrell of Naples, Florida; Allie Knight of Knoxville, Tennessee; Stephanie Connelly-Eiswerth of Fleming Island, Florida; Sandra Changkija of Kissimmee, Florida; and Jennifer Borocz, also of Kissimmee, Florida.
The tournament has changed dramatically since Ward last played. It’s now been 10 years since KPMG, the PGA of America and the LPGA came together to recreate what was formerly known as the LPGA Championship, an event first won by Beverly Hanson, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame earlier this week.
Hanson won the inaugural LPGA Championship in 1955 at Orchard Ridge Country…
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