LPGA Cognizant Founders Cup Visits Mountain Ridge Country Club

WEST CALDWELL, N.J. – Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Mariylnn Smith, Sally Sessions, Betty Jameson, Opal Hill, Helen Hicks, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias. These 13 women changed the game of golf, establishing the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950. This week especially, these 13 women will be honored and celebrated as the Cognizant Founders Cup is set to visit the beautiful Mountain Ridge Country Club from October 7-10.

The impact these women have made on the game of golf is nothing short of incredible.  

“I’m so glad we have this tournament and I think it’s super important for players to know where we came from,” expressed LPGA veteran Angela Stanford. “You can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you came from so thank you for carrying on this tournament, it’s a big deal.”

From countless LPGA victories, breaking down barriers, conducting golf clinics and more, these ambassadors of the game did it all.

Cognizant, an IT company based out of Teaneck, New Jersey is the title sponsor of the event. Most notably, Cognizant announced their purse to total a whopping $3 million, the second-largest purse behind the LPGA majors. Not only does the purse reflect the importance towards women’s golf, but Cognizant feels that the diversity and inclusion message that the LPGA proclaims, aligns with their own organizations message.

“The LPGA is such an incredibly diverse sport with players from all around the world and in order to increase our brand awareness, that is one of our key factors and that’s why we were so excited with partnering with the LPGA and more specifically with the founders because the story around the founders is just so incredible and rich in its history," expressed Cognizant CPO, Becky Schmitt. "One of the key things we are working on is honestly when you look at technology and the sector we struggle with diversity. Brining a greater amount of diversity to technology is one of our key indicatives. The LPGA partnership made complete sense to us."

The LPGA is eager to continue recognizing the 13 founding members and their devotion to not only the growth of the women’s game thus far, but women’s sports as a whole.

“This is an event created to honor and celebrate the hard work and dedication of those 13 women,” said Tournament Director Scott Wood. “This golf tournament is more than a commemoration of the many achievements of the and successes of the LPGA over the 70 years.”

The early October event will surely be a battle of the best, featuring a field of 132 female competitors, it is highlighted by Olympic Gold medalist and World No. 1 Nelly Korda, 2021 U.S. Women’s Open Champion Yuka Saso, 2021 AIG Women’s Open Champion Anna Nordqvist, as well as 33 of the top 50 in the Rolex Women's World Golf Ranking.

“We want this to be a homecoming, we want this to be a celebration of the LPGA and everybody involved with it and have Cognizant on site to celebrate with their partners,” said Stanford. “It’s truly going to be a special week.”

Mountain Ridge Country Club was home to several New Jersey Championships such as the 2007 Compher Cup matches, 2005 State Amateur, 1993 Mid-Amateur, 1971 Women’s Amateur, 1960 Junior, and 1938 Four-Ball.

Prior to coming to the Northeast to play on Mountain Ridge, a Donald Ross gem, the Founders Cup was originally scheduled to be played in Phoenix, Arizona. Mountain Ridge is known for wide fairways and deceptive greens. A recent restoration has brought many of Ross’s characteristic run-off areas back to their original closely mowed state.

To order tickets for the Cognizant Founders Cup, click here. Live coverage of the event will be on Golf Channel Wednesday-Sunday.