Natalie Gulbis and Hae-ran Ryu have accepted sponsor exemptions to compete in the 2018 HUGEL-JTBC LA Open, to be played April 16–22 at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles.
Gulbis has been a fan favorite throughout her 16-year career on the LPGA. She has played on three winning Solheim Cup teams (2005, 2007, 2009) and won the 2007 Evian Championship. She has won nearly $5 million in prize money and posted 37 top ten finishes in her career. This will mark the first time she has played an LPGA event in Los Angeles since 2002, her rookie year on tour. She was a freshman at Univ. of Arizona when Wilshire Country Club last hosted the LPGA in 2001.
Ryu is a highly-accomplished junior golfer and a rising teenage star in South Korea. Last year she won the Evian Championship Junior Cup and went wire-to-wire to win the inaugural Faldo Series Korea Championship. She was also the low amateur at the Korea Women’s Open and qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey.
The LPGA returns to Los Angeles for the first time in more than a decade when the best in women’s professional golf compete for a $1.5 million purse at historic Wilshire Country Club.
Visit www.hugeljtbclaopen.com to purchase tickets and to learn more about pro-am and volunteer opportunities.