Annika Sorenstam among first three women members of elite Pine Valley
Annika Sorenstam will be one of the first three female members of Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey, joining amateur champions Sarah Ingram and Meghan Stasi.
The club notified its members via email Friday morning, Golf Digest reported. Club president Jim Davis told members in May that it planned to begin accepting women members who were accomplished players. The club was one of a handful remaining in the U.S. that don’t accept women members.
The very private Pine Valley is the No. 1-ranked course on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses list for layouts built before 1960, and it is the highest-rated course in all of Golfweek’s Best database for courses around the world. Pine Valley was designed by George Crump and Harry S. Colt and opened in 1914 as an 11-hole layout that was completed several years later.
Previously, women had limited playing opportunities at Pine Valley, allowed to play only on Sunday afternoons. That changed in May, and the first tee is open to women without restrictions.
Meghan Stasi, pictured at the 2015 South Atlantic Amateur (Sally) in Ormond Beach, Fla., will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)
Sorenstam won the last of her 10 women’s major championships 15 years ago this week at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island. The 50-year-old briefly came out of retirement in February this year and made the cut in the Gainbridge LPGA event at her home club of Lake Nona in Orlando, and she played in the Scandinavian Mixed in June. She plans to play the U.S. Women’s Senior Open on July 29-August 1 at Brooklawn Country Club in Connecticut.
Sarah Ingram, pictured at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Golf Club of Tennessee, will be one of the first three women members of Pine Valley. (Golfweek files)
The other two new women members of Pine Valley are both accomplished amateurs. Ingram was an All-American at Duke, won three U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events and will captain the U.S. team at the Curtis Cup in August in Wales. Stasi played at Tulane and has won four U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateurs among many other events.
