CLIFTON, N.J. (May 13, 2024) – Ashley Shaw, a 15-year-old amateur golfer from Litchfield Park, Arizona, made her LPGA Tour debut after winning THE JOHN SHIPPEN Cognizant Cup on Monday, May 6, and earning an exemption.
From May 9-12, Shaw teed up alongside the world’s best female golfers in the LPGA Tour’s Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J. after shooting 1-over par 73 on the same course Monday to earn a two-stroke victory in the SHIPPEN event.
The course showed no mercy to the talented teen, who missed the cut (81-85) for a final score of 166 (+22). But the experience was the fulfillment of Shaw’s dream of a lifetime and solidifies her commitment to become an even better player.
THE JOHN SHIPPEN National Invitational is a series of competitions created to provide playing opportunities on the LPGA Tour and PGA TOUR for the nation’s top Black amateur and professional women and men golfers. The series includes THE JOHN SHIPPEN Cognizant Cup, THE JOHN SHIPPEN Women’s Invitational and THE JOHN SHIPPEN Men’s Invitational. The events are named after John Shippen, Jr., who was both the first American-born golf professional and the country’s first Black golf professional.
“I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity that THE JOHN SHIPPEN, Intersport and Sommer Woods has given me to play in this event,” Shaw said. “To have the opportunity to play in an LPGA event is amazing. To be just 15 and to be able to have that experience of playing in a tournament with professionals at such a young age … I’m extremely grateful.”
Shaw’s mother, Slyvia, is serving as her caddie this week and said she was thrilled to have a front-row seat as her daughter achieved one of her dreams.
At the John Shippen Shaw came out on top of an elite eight-player field in which she was the only amateur by playing her best golf on the back nine. After a bogey on the eighth hole and a double on the ninth left her three over par at the turn, she birdied the 10th and 11th holes, then parred her way in while the players chasing her failed to make ground. Atlanta native Mariah Stackhouse and Manchester, England native Georgia Oboh tied for second, shooting 75, and Royal Palm Beach, Florida native Janelle Johnson (77) was fourth. Defending champion Paige Crawford (78) finished fifth.
