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PXG Woman’s Matchplay Championship
A WOMEN’S INITIATIVES COLLABORATION WITH
The mission of the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship was fairly simple: shine a light on the developmental level of women’s professional golf and create playing opportunities for these women by extending their season with a new event. Players and organizers may have extended the season more than they expected as it took 224 holes - 36 holes in the rain-shortened 54-hole stroke play seeding event and then 188 grueling match play holes the following week for Jessica Porvasnik to prevail as the its first champion.
Held October 25 – November 4 at World Golf Village and using both courses, Porvasnik was the top seed in the match play event, having won the Stroke Play title at King & Bear. Porvasnik (Hinckley, OH) dominated at Slammer and Squire Golf Course in first-ever double round robin Pod Play Points format in which the 64 players were broken into 16 groups of four, each playing one another twice, with one point being awarded for each hole. She won her group by 8 points, showing why she was the #1 overall seed. Her consistent play, her ability to make big putts, and her steely resolve simply proved too much for her competition to handle.
But it wasn't easy. In the final match she ran into New Zealander, Julianne Alvarez, the 14th overall seed. Alvarez pulled off the first upset in the matchplay bracket by defeating 2-seed, Sofia Garcia, fresh off of advancing to this month’s LPGA Q School Final Series. Alvarez is no stranger to the big stage, or to match play. The 2016 National Champion at the University of Washington has also won the New Zealand Amateur,
The very first shot at the Inaugural PXG Women’s Match Play Championship, hosted in the Slammer & Squire golf course at World Golf Village in St. Augustine, FL. Sunset over the 9th green of the Slammer & Squire Golf Course, looking off the VIP Hospitality Deck of the Slammer & Squire.
both of which are match play events. She gave Porvasnik all she could handle, taking to 20 holes to decide a winner.
The Championship match showed the type of player Porvasnik is, who went to the back nine four down. Alvarez’s lead down to one on the 18th, Porvasnik stuck her approach shot and made the routine par. Alvarez caught the lip on her 4-foot slider, and the Championship match went to extra holes. Back to the tee on 18, this time it was Alvarez who buried the long putt to keep the match going. Over to the 165-yard par three 13th they went for the second playoff hole. Porvasnik put her tee shot over the back left flag-stick to about 15 feet.
Alvarez pushed her tee shot to about 20 feet from the stick on the opposite corner. With two humps to climb on the way to the hole, she left herself another 4-footer. Porvasnik nearly birdied the hole, and Alvarez conceded the 6-incher for par. It was all up to Alvarez. With four feet separating her from a third playoff hole, she burnt the edge, sealing an all-time comeback win for Porvasnik. With her dad on the bag for all 188 match play holes, Porvasnik was able to pull off the victory, banking the $8,000 Champions' check. With that and her $5,000 from the week before, Porvasnik collected more than $40,000 during a calendar season, a developmental tour milestone. Porvasnik played the full season on the WAPT, one of only three US developmental tours for women, and the number-one money winner, earning the former Ohio State All-American a jump to the Second Stage of Q School. The PXGWMPC aligned with the WAPT and was included in their 2021 tournament schedule as an unofficial money event.
While it took more than 200 holes for Porvasnik to win the PXGWMPC, it took nearly two years to build the tournament. Since its inception, its organizer, Mark Berman, Managing Partner of Ponte Vedra’s MediaShare Consulting Group, Inc, billed the two-week event as a celebration of women’s initiatives inside and outside the ropes. The entire two-week event was a collaboration with national women’s empowerment organization Generation W, which hosted as an equal part of the PXGWMPC the Generation W Links to Leadership Summit, during which a room full of professional women golfers, three full women’s college teams, high school female players and many other local business women being treated to a day of coaching, leadership and mentoring by a panel of high powered female C-suite executives, including President and founder of PXG Apparel, Rene Parsons, former LPGA interim Commissioner Marty Evans and Whitney Meyers, VP of Community Engagement for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. The panel discussion was moderated by Donna Orender, former President of the WNBA, who founded Generation W ten years ago to inspire girls and women. Later in the
PXGWMPC player Maddie Luitweiler, a three year WAPT veteran and University of Texas graduate, chats with a future star player at the Spooktacular Junior Clinic
Along with PXG’s Jason “Willy” Williams, Match Play and wire to wire PXG Women’s Match Play Champion Jessica Porvasnik stands in front the “draw baord” with the champions’s trophy, a custom-designed manatee made by Ocean Sole Africa, a Ponte Vedra based non-profit that makes art from recycled flip flops washed up on the beaches of Kenya.
program, there were 10 equally amazing women acting as mentors for round table discussions with our players and guests about life outside of sports, because what if they don’t make it to the LPGA?
The INK! Charity Pro-am at the PXGWMPC raised more than $50,000 for local non-profit, Investing In Kids (INK!), and 100 kids came out on Halloween day for the free Spooktacular Junior Clinic, which was taught by the players.
Said Berman, who came to realize the lack of women’s playing opportunities while helping his own daughter plan her developmental schedule, “The PXGWMPC has always been about demonstrating how good these players are, but at the same time showing how little opportunity there is, especially compared to men, to earn a living, let alone get to the LPGA.” He continued, “The story is about young women who since the earliest days of their golf journey have been made to feel less valuable by living in the shadows of boys at events small and big, and then seeing that same crush through amateur, high school, college and finally professional golf. The PXG Women’s Match Play Championship was created to elevate the playing experience for them, demonstrating what it means to feel valued as women athletes and at the same time giving them some much needed connection to life outside the ropes.”
Berman points out the economics of being a professional woman player simply don’t currently work. “It might seem like a decent living for a 25 year old player to make $40,000 in a season, but that means she still lost $10,000 during this year’s campaign. A guy in a similar position will earn six figures and be profitable.” Noting it’s not just the money, but the playing opportunities with there being more than 30 “mini-tours” in the US for men and only three for women. Berman added, “this is why we don’t see enough American flags on the LPGA leaderboard. It isn’t a lack of talent or work ethic. It’s just a financially impossible model for these women to get to the promised land. It’s a race against time and money less than it is against other players.”
Thanks to events like the PXGWMPC and the corporate support from companies like Title Sponsor PXG and Founding Partners Murgado Automotive Group’s Bentley and Maserati of Jacksonville dealerships, SQAIRZ Golf, Baptist Health of Jacksonville and On Point Ball Markers, “that conversation will get louder and the change will happen.”
In the meantime, these players, like the 64 who played in the PXGWMPC, will compete and grow and continue to aspire to the LPGA.
World Golf Village General Manager Lon Grundy offers an official "warm welcome" to the players of the PXGWMPC as well as a little “chalk talk” on how to play the King and Bear Golf Course.
