Four decades ago, an idea turned into reality in northwest Ohio.
In 1982, Toledo native Judd Silverman, who was caddying for Craig Stadler on the PGA Tour, walked into the LPGA headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and told commissioner John Laupheimer that he wanted to bring a tournament to Toledo.
After two years of raising money, the first tournament commenced at Glengarry Country Club (now Stone Oak). In two weeks, the Dana Open, which began as the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, will be played for the 40th time, the second-longest-running non-major championship on the LPGA Tour.
To recognize the milestone achievement, The Blade looks back at the most memorable moments in tournament history.
■ The Dana Open’s roll call of winners is a Who’s Who of women’s golf, with four World Golf Hall of Famers and 16 major champions — Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak, Laura Davies, Meg Mallon, Lydia Ko, Paula Creamer, Danielle Kang, Jane Geddes, Brandie Burton, Lauri Peterson, Alice Miller, Kelly Robbins, Na Yeon Choi, So-yeon Ryu, IK Kim, and Sei-young Kim.
■ Nancy Lopez is a hall of famer who won three majors and 48 LPGA Tour events, helping popularize women’s golf in the 1970s and 80s with her Arnold Palmer-like charisma and ability to captivate galleries. She nearly won 52 LPGA events, finishing runner-up in the Farr four times.
■ The Farr’s celebrity pro-am garnered some of the biggest names in sports in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1987, Wayne Gretzky made an appearance, signing hundreds of autographs, many of them on hockey sticks. At the time, he was one of the greatest athletes in the world, already a three-time Stanley Cup champion and en route to becoming the best hockey player of all time.
■ In the mid-1980s, the Glengarry clubhouse was lost in a fire. In 1988, the club was acquired by Cavalear, contributing to the tournament’s move to Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania. Penny Hammel won her second Farr in 1989, the first year the tournament was played at Highland Meadows.
■ Miller was a dominant player on the LPGA Tour in the mid-1980s, winning seven times from 1983-1985, including one major. But she had gone more than five years without a victory when she arrived at Highland Meadows in 1991. That streak ended with a 14-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole, marking the first playoff in tournament history.
■ Charles Barkley was at the height of his NBA career when he showed up at Highland Meadows for the 1993 Farr, just weeks after his Phoenix Suns lost to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals. Barkley played in one of the tournament’s pro-ams, which attracted massive crowds. He returned in 1994 and 1997.
■ The first four playings of the tournament were 72 holes before being shortened to 54 holes from 1989-96 to try and entice a better field. In 1997, the event moved to 72 holes permanently.
■ Se Ri Pak took the golf world by storm in 1998, winning the LPGA Championship and US Women’s Open as a rookie. The week after her US Open triumph, Pak came to Highland Meadows and set a tournament record with rounds of 71, 61, 63, and 66 for a 23-under-par total, besting Lisa Hackney by nine shots.
■ The very next year Pak was in the winner’s circle again at the Farr, but this time it didn’t come so easy. She defeated Carin Koch, Kelli Kuehne, Mardi Lunn, Sherri Steinhauer, and Karrie Webb in an LPGA record six-person playoff. Pak won with a birdie on the first hole.
■ From 2000-2005, Sorenstam won an astounding 66 LPGA events. It was the height of Annika mania, and one of those victories in 2000 came at Highland Meadows, where Sorenstam beat Rachel Hetherington in a two-hole playoff.
■ The tournament has a reputation for being a birdie fest and a race to 20 under, with the player who can hole the most putts being victorious. Not so in 2004. That year, Mallon won with the highest 72-hole total in tournament history — 7 under. The Ohio State alum’s third-round 74 is the highest single round ever by a Farr/Dana Open winner.
■ In 2007, Pak’s win rate had slowed down. She had only won twice since 2003, but an affinity for Highland Meadows still existed. And for the fifth time, after four rounds in the 60s, Pak won the Farr for a fifth time, the most wins by a single player at one golf course in LPGA Tour history.
■ There was more history at the Farr the next year. In the first round of the 2008 edition, Paul Creamer fired a course-record 60 at Highland Meadows, birdieing nine of her final 11 holes to finish one shot shy of Sorenstam’s LPGA Tour record 59. Creamer went on to shoot 16 under and win by two strokes.
■ Some of the darkest days in LPGA Tour history occurred under the leadership — or lack thereof — of former commissioner Carolyn Bivens, who was in charge from 2005 until her resignation in 2009. Her popularity was extremely low among players after she remarked that foreign players should become proficient in English and alienated personnel at several tournaments that eventually folded. At a secret dinner at Mancy’s during the 2009 Dana Open, a group of top players met and wrote a letter demanding that Bivens resign. She did one week later.
■ Before she was the No. 1 player in the world, Ryu blitzed the field in the 2012 Farr, winning by seven shots after rounds of 67, 68, 67, and 62. Her 9-under-par round on Sunday was the lowest final-round score by a winner in tournament history.
■ From 1997 to 2012, the tournament had numerous sponsors, including Kroger, Alltel, Owens Corning, and O-I. When the title sponsorship expired after the 2012 event, Findlay-based Marathon Petroleum — which already sponsored Toledo-born Stacy Lewis — sprung into action and served as the title sponsor for nine years, elevating the purse from $1.3 million to $2 million throughout its deal, helping strengthen the field.
■ Lexi Thompson, just 18 years old at the time, hit the most famous hole-in-one in tournament history during the final round in 2013. Playing in the final group, Thompson was the last player of the week to tee off on the 180-yard par-3 14th hole. An ace earned a Kia Cadenza. After Thompson’s 6-iron tee shot took one bounce and a few rolls, it hit the pin and fell into the cup. She raced down the rope line and high-fived fans on the way to the green. Thompson finished tied for third behind champion Beatriz Recari.
■ One year after withdrawing, Urban Meyer played in a pro-am at Highland Meadows. The Ohio State-adoring crowd showered Meyer with cries of “O-H!” and “Go Bucks!” throughout his five-hour round, and he responded with plenty of “I-Os,” good golf shots, and autographs.
■ More than a million people watched the final round of the 2016 Marathon Classic on CBS, nearly outdrawing the number of viewers who tuned into the final round of the US Women’s Open. Record crowds at Highland Meadows saw Ko win her second Marathon Classic, defeating Ariya Jutanugarn and Mirim Lee in a dramatic four-hole playoff.
■ Thidapa Suwannapura was an unknown when she won the 2018 Marathon Classic, her maiden victory on the LPGA Tour. The finish was one of the best in the event’s history, as long-hitting Brittany Lincicome, needing one birdie on either the par-5 17th or the par-5 18th, parred both holes, lipping out a putt that would have won the tournament. Then during the playoff, she hit her second shot into Tenmile Creek.
■ Ko nearly won for a third time at Highland Meadows in 2020 but stumbled with a disastrous double-bogey on the 72nd hole, allowing Kang to win for the second consecutive week in Toledo. (She won the Drive On Championship at Inverness the week prior.) Ko had a four-shot lead after 54 holes and led by five on the 13th tee Sunday. But she unraveled coming in, bogeying 14 and 16 and doubling 18.
■ In 2021, Nasa Hataoka was 19 under after 54 holes, on pace to break Pak’s 72-hole tournament scoring record. But Mother Nature was not on her side. Hataoka hit two shots on Sunday, and then play was suspended for what even the LPGA’s meteorologist thought would be a short delay. Instead, it turned into a Sunday deluge, as showers hovered over Sylvania and forced the cancellation of the final round for the first time in tournament history.
■ There were anxious days for Toledo after the 2021 tournament when Marathon stepped aside as the title sponsor. Finally, in November of that year, Dana agreed to put its name on the event.
■ A name change wasn’t the only major difference in 2022. For the first time in tournament history, the Dana Open was played in September.
■ Gaby Lopez had one of the most flawless rounds ever for a come-from-behind winner, firing an 8-under 63 in 2022 to go from outside the top 10 to holding the crystal. She birdied her final three holes and let out a roar and a fist pump on the 18th green.
■ 15-year-old Mia Hammond wasn’t satisfied with simply Monday qualifying for the Dana Open in 2023. She wanted to make the cut. The New Albany, Ohio, native did that and more, shooting rounds of 68, 68, 70, and 72 to finish at 6 under, tied for 26th.
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