LPGA.com counts down to the end of 2011 with the LPGA Tour’s 11 top stories of the year. Join us as we look back at the year’s most memorable milestones. Read about Stacy Lewis earning her first LPGA win at a major championship in Story No. 7.

Stacy Lewis Gets First LPGA Win At Major Championship

Stacy Lewis of Texas earned her first LPGA victory at a major championship this year. Lewis became the fourth player in LPGA history to record her first career LPGA win at the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She joined the group of Helen Alfredsson (1993), Nancy Bowen (1995) and Morgan Pressel (2007), who all earned their first victories at the Kraft Nabisco.

Lewis, 26, held off Rolex Rankings No. 1 and the tournament’s defending champion Yani Tseng of Taiwan for a three-shot victory. She fired a 3-under 69 in the final round to finish at 13-under par in the LPGA’s first major of the season to become a Rolex First-Time Winner.

Prior to this year’s win at the Kraft Nabisco, her previous best finish in a major was a tie for third at the 2003 U.S. Women’s Open Championship. Her best finish at the Kraft Nabisco came in 2007, when she tied for fifth as an amateur.

Her win at the Kraft Nabisco Championship marked a milestone in her inspiring personal story. Lewis overcame scoliosis that started at age 11 and forced her to wear a back brace for 18 hours a day for 7 ∏ years. She removed the brace only to play golf. Lewis later underwent surgery, in which a titanium rod and five screws were inserted into her back. She went on to win the individual title at the 2007 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championship. She completed her collegiate career at the University of Arkansas with 12 tournament wins.

Lewis also earned a spot on the 2008 U.S. Curtis Cup team as an amateur, and was a rookie member of the 2011 U.S. Solheim Cup team as a professional.

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LPGA.com counts down to the end of 2011 with the LPGA Tour’s 11 top stories of the year. Join us as we look back at the year’s most memorable milestones. Read about the LPGA’s inaugural RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup in which LPGA pros competed for charity in Story No. 6.

Innovative Founders Cup Donates Entire Purse To Charity

Hall of Famer Karrie Webb won the inaugural RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup in Phoenix, but the real winner of the March tournament was charity — with more than $1 million awarded to a variety of charities.

The event was designed to honor the 13 LPGA Founders, while celebrating and showcasing current LPGA players and providing funding for grassroots golf by contributing $500,000 to the LPGA Foundation and its LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. The tournament also distributed an additional $500,000 to the designated charities of the event’s top-10 finishers. Rather than earning money for their play during tournament week, top finishers in the field donated their winnings from the entire $1 million purse to charities of their choice.

Webb elected to split her first-place charitable prize of $200,000 between the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Foundation and the Japan Relief Effort. Runners-up Brittany Lincicome of Florida donated her share of the prize money ($77,500) to the First Tee of St. Petersburg, Fla., while Paula Creamer of California contributed her share ($77,500) to the Japan Relief Charity (following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan).

In addition, RR Donnelley committed $100 per birdie and $500 per eagle on holes 15-18 on Friday and Saturday to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF’s Japan relief efforts. Dubbed the “Japan Relief Zone,” RR Donnelley opted to “up” the donations on Sunday, contributing $500 per birdie and $1,000 per eagle on holes 15-18 at Wildfire Golf Club at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. Some 285 birdies and four eagles made possible a $53,300 donation from RR Donnelley to the U.S. Fund.

The top 10 finishers and ties each earned money for their designated charities.

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LPGA.com counts down to the end of 2011 with the LPGA Tour’s 11 top stories of the year. Join us as we look back at the year’s most memorable milestones. Read about Cristie Kerr becoming the top American money in Story No. 8.

Kerr Becomes Top American In LPGA’s Career Earnings

Cristie Kerr achieved a new milestone during the LPGA’s 2011 season. The Florida native surpassed Juli Inkster on the LPGA’s Career Money List to become the top all-time American money winner.

Kerr is now No. 4 with career earnings of $13,531,142.75, while Inkster is No. 5 with career earnings of $13,394,109.98. Kerr was able to move past Inkster on the money list by $137,033 during the 2011 season.

While neither Kerr nor Inkster were tournament winners this year, Kerr finished second on the LPGA’s 2011 Official Money List with season earnings of $1,470,979 in 22 tournaments. She also concluded the year as No. 3 in the Rolex Rankings with 12 top-10s, including three runner-up finishes in 2011.

Inkster recorded four top-10s this season and earned $298,123 in 20 events to finish 36th on the LPGA’s 2011 Official Money List. Her best finish this year was a tie for fourth at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational presented by Banamex and Corona Light.

The LPGA’s top career money winners are: 1. Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, with earnings of $22,573,192; 2. Karrie Webb of Australia, with earnings of $16,517,244.75; and Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, with earnings of $14,863,331. Of the top three players on the career money list, only Webb is currently active on the LPGA Tour.

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LPGA.com counts down to the end of 2011 with the LPGA Tour’s 11 top stories of the year. Join us as we look back at the year’s most memorable milestones. Read about three LPGA players who all notched two 2011 wins in Story No. 9.

Karrie Webb
Suzann Pettersen
Brittany Lincicome

Webb, Pettersen and Lincicome Each Notch Two Wins

While Yani Tseng was dominating the LPGA with seven tour wins this season, three top-ranked players also each notched two wins on the 2011 LPGA Tour.

Australia’s Karrie Webb, No. 18 in the Rolex Rankings, won early back-to-back wins in February and March at the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore and at the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup in Phoenix.

Second-ranked Suzann Pettersen of Norway won the Sybase Match Play Championship in mid-May in New Jersey, and added a second title in August at the Safeway Classic presented by Coca-Cola in Oregon. Pettersen was in contention numerous times in 2010, posting six runner-up finishes last year, but this season, she was able to make a solid move on the heels of Tseng. In addition to her two wins this year, the Norwegian posted 11 top-10 finishes.

Brittany Lincicome, who finished the season No. 11 in the Rolex Rankings, was a co-runner-up with Paula Creamer in March at the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup. But the big hitter from Florida won in June at the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey, and won again in late August north of the border at the CN Canadian Women’s Open.

Other than Tseng, Webb, Pettersen and Lincicome were the only three players to win more than once on the 2011 LPGA Tour. Conversely, normal frontrunners Creamer, Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie came up empty handed this year after winning in 2010.

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