Ahead of the Amundi Evian Open, we present you with all the essential information to get ready for the tournament including details of Brooke Henderson’s triumph in the previous year.
Location
Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France
Yardage
6,523; par 71
Tournament Record
263 – In Gee-Chun (2016)
Purse
$6.5 million
Tournament Insight
The Amundi Evian Championship has been played since 1994 and became an official LPGA Tour event in 2000 and a designated major championship in 2013. The only major in continental Europe, it is played annually at the Evian Resort. The location, surrounded by lake and mountains, affords breathtaking views while offering a challenge to the top women players in the game.
Course Insight
The Evian Resort course sits on the shores of Lake Geneva, at the foot of the Alps, providing the most beautiful backdrop for any course in Europe. It has a long history, dating back to a nine-hole layout designed by Scotsman Willie Park Jr. in 1904, with nine holes added in 2022. It was extensively renovated in 1990 by Cabell Robinson, and then again in 2013 by European Golf Design in preparation for the event’s major championship status. Existing bunkers were deepened, other bunkers were added, water features either expanded or added, and trees planted to increase the challenge. The last four holes were all redesigned.
The layout winds its way up and down on hilly terrain with demanding approach shots from various lies to undulating, mostly elevated greens. The course concludes with a dramatic finishing hole, a 484-yard par 5 that offers a birdie or eagle opportunity but only if the player delivers two excellent shots. Water guarding the front right of a long, narrow green comes into play in the decision and execution of the second shot.
How Brooke Henderson won in 2022
Brooke Henderson survived a wild final round that at one point on the back nine featured a seven-way tie for the lead by making a birdie on the 18th hole for a one-stroke victory. The Canadian laid up with her second shot on the par-5 18th after a poor drive but got her birdie with a wedge to 10 feet and a putt that tracked into the hole. Henderson held a two-stroke lead through 54 holes with rounds of 64-64-68 but ran into trouble early in the final round with a bogey on the first hole and a double bogey on the sixth, where she four-putted. She finished the round in style, though, with birdies on three of the last five holes to shoot an even-par 71 and claim her second major victory, adding to the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship, which she won at age 18. Tour rookie Sophia Schubert was second after a 68, while there was a five-way tie for third, two strokes back, with all the players shooting in the 60s in the final round as they made a run at Henderson.
- Henderson became the first player to shoot rounds of 64 or better in each of the first two rounds of a women’s major championship.
- The 72-hole scoring record for the tournament is 261 by In Gee Chun in 2016.
- Since the tournament became a major championship in 2013, it has twice been won by Europeans—Norway’s Suzann Pettersen (2013) and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist (2017).
- There has not been a multiple winner of the event since Ai Miyazato took the title in 2009 and 2011.
This was first published in Essential Golf – you can read the complete magazine here.