ELMSFORD, N.Y. (June 10, 2015) - Last year, the PGA of America and KPMG partnered with the LPGA for the first time in the Associations 99-year history to re-brand and host the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. This marked the first time ever that the PGA of America would host an LPGA event.

Westchester Country Club has previously hosted various tournaments on the PGA Tour and Champions Tour prior to this event. Its last professional tournament was last hosted in 2011 for the Senior Players Championship.

The field includes a total of 156 players in its 61^st year as a LPGA major championship. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship includes the second highest purse at a total of $3.5 million. In last years tournament, South Korea’s Inbee Park defeated Brittany Lincicome on the first playoff hole with a par on the 18^th hole.

The field includes10 former champions, including two-time defending champion and world No. 2 Park, 2012 champion and top-five player Shanshan Feng, two-time winner Yani Tseng, top 10 player and 2010 winner Cristie Kerr, 2009 winner Anna Nordqvist, 2007 winner Suzann Petterson, 2002 and 2006 winner Se Ri Pak, top-ranked Australian, 2001 winner, and world No. 16 Karrie Web, and two-time winners Juli Inkster (1999, 2000), and Laura Davies (1994, 1996).

Local players within the field include Marina Alex, a Wayne, N.J. native and former two-time SEC Player of the Year and two-time National Golf Coaches Association first-team All-American at Vanderbilt. Since joining the LPGA last year, Alex has notched a top-10 and three-top-25 finishes. Her best result at a major includes a tie for ninth at the RICOH’s Women’s British Open. Last year, she missed the cut for the LPGA Championship by one-stroke.

Liz Caron, of West Hartford, C.T., is one of the eight teaching professionals who qualified at the 27^th LPGA Teaching and Club Professional National Championships last year in a playoff. Caron is currently a teaching professional at The Mill River Club in Oyster Bay, N.Y., with her husband Jason. In 2014, she was runner up at the Lincoln Women’s Met Open and is a former four-time Connecticut Women’s Open winner. Caron previously played on the LPGA and Symetra tour from 2006 to 2010.

The top teenage names to look for include World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who is hoping build off of her third place finish last year and win her first LPGA major title, and Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old Canadian who will be making her first appearance at the LPGA Championship. Alison Lee, a rookie this year, will also be playing in her first LPGA Championship and fourth major. Lee previously played on the UCLA golf team.

2014 Player of the Year and world No. 3 Stacy Lewis comes into the field looking for her first title of the season. 2014 LPGA Championship runner-up and winner of the ANA Inspiration Lincicome hopes to add a third major title to her resume and forget about her finish in last years playoff.

One of the years hottest players, Sei Young Kim, known for her dramatic chip in on the 18^th to force a playoff and 154-yard walk-off eagle on the first playoff hole, will also be in the field. She currently has two LPGA titles this year and is ranked third on the money list.

Former major champions and fan favorites Paula Creamer, Lexi Thompson, and Michelle Wie will make headline the biggest names in the field. Thompson and Wie both won two of the five major championships last year.

Other major champions include Na Yeon Choi, Eun-Hee Ji, Catriona Matthew, So Yeon Ryu, Morgan Pressel, Mo Martin, and Sun Young Yoo.   

With each player having proven they are deserving are their spot in the field, this years KPMG Women’s PGA Championship seems poised for another exciting finish.