Franklin aims for fifth straight CGA women’s senior major title; Eaton eyes record-tying sixth CGA Women’s Senior Stroke Play win
By Gary Baines – 8/14/2020
The CGA Women’s Senior Stroke Play Championship has been around since 1983, but only two players can say they’ve won the event three consecutive times.
Lynn Larson (1996 through ’98) and Patty Crigler (2002 through ’04) managed three-peats in the tournament, but the list ends there.
Next week, however, Kristine Franklin of The Ranch Country Club can crash the party.
Last month, Franklin became the first golfer to win four consecutive women’s senior majors in Colorado. She’s captured the last two Senior Match Play titles along with the 2018 and ’19 Senior Stroke Plays.
On Monday and Tuesday at The Olde Course at Loveland, Franklin will go for five women’s senior majors in a row overall and three consecutive in the Senior Stroke Play.
Heady stuff indeed.
But Franklin figures to have plenty of competition in Loveland as the 81-player field also includes five-time champion and Colorado Golf Hall of Famer Kim Eaton, who has finished runner-up to Franklin in the last three CGA senior women’s majors.
There’s a lot on the line for Eaton as well. A victory would tie her for the most overall in the Senior Stroke Play with six-time champ Larson. In addition, a win would give Eaton a record 26 CGA/CWGA women’s championship titles for her career, moving her out of a tie for the top spot with Flenniken.
Also in the 12-player championship field at the Women’s Senior Stroke Play is Marilyn Hardy of Dos Rios Golf Club, a consistent contender in CGA women’s senior majors and Colorado-based USGA senior and mid-amateur qualifying tournaments, and Stacey Arnold of West Woods Golf Club, who made match play at the 2019 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur.
In all, the Senior Stroke Play will feature competitions in six flights — championship and first through fifth.
For Monday’s tee times in the 36-hole tournament, CLICK HERE.