The Greater Toledo Classic is a women's professional golf tournament on the Legends of the LPGA and Epson Tours. It was founded in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and has been played yearly, except in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, in

Sylvania, Ohio Sylvania is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 19,011 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Sylvania is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, and encompassed by Sylvania Township, Lucas County, Ohio, Sylvania Town ...

, a suburb northwest of

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Or ...

History

The tournament was founded after

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

caddie Judd Silverman, a Toledo native, sought to bring a ladies professional golf tournament to his hometown. He contacted sponsors and actor

Jamie Farr Jamie Farr (born Jameel Joseph Farah; July 1, 1934) is an American comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Corporal Maxwell Klinger, a soldier who tried getting discharged from the army by cross-dressing, on the CBS sitcom '' M*A*S*H'' ...

, also a Toledo native, brought his name and several of his celebrity friends to the tournament. Throughout the history of the event, children's charities in Northwest Ohio and Southern

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

have been the charitable beneficiaries of the tournament. They have received more than $14 million during the event's history. From 2004 to 2010, the title sponsor was

Owens Corning Owens Corning is an American company that develops and produces insulation, roofing, and fiberglass composites and related products. It is the world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass composites. It was formed in 1935 as a partnership between ...

, the world's largest manufacturer of fiberglass and related products, headquartered in Toledo, near the site of the tournament. In 2012, they became a presenting sponsor.

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

, one of the largest American

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

chains, with headquarters in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, has also been involved as a sponsor of the tournament since 1997.

Owens-Illinois O-I Glass, Inc. is an American company that specializes in container glass products. It is the largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe (after acquiring BSN Glasspack in 2004). Company ...

(O-I) became a sponsor in 2012. From 1984 to 1988, the tournament was held in the village of

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former provinces of the Netherlands, province on the western coast of the Netherland ...

at Glengarry Country Club which became Stone Oak Country Club The event moved several miles north in

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

to its current home, Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, just south of the Michigan state line. The largest playoff in LPGA history took place at the 1999 Jamie Farr, a six-player affair involving

Karrie Webb Karrie Anne Webb (born 21 December 1974) is an Australian professional golfer. She plays mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour, and also turns out once or twice a year on the ALPG Tour in her home country. She is a member of the World Golf Hall ...

Carin Koch Anna Carin Pernilla Hjalmarsson Koch (née Hjalmarsson; born 23 February 1971) is a Swedish professional golfer who previously played on the Ladies European Tour and on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was captain of the 2015 European Solheim Cup t ...

Sherri Steinhauer Sherri Steinhauer (born December 27, 1962) is an American professional golfer who plays on the Legends Tour. She retired from the LPGA Tour in 2012 after a 26-year career. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin and attended The University of Texas ...

Se Ri Pak Pak Se-ri or Se-ri Pak (, ; born 28 September 1977) is a South Korean former professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998 to 2016. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2007. Career Born in Taejon, she attended i ...

Kelli Kuehne Kelli Kuehne Doremus (born May 11, 1977) is a retired American professional golfer. Amateur career Kuehne was born in Dallas, Texas. She was the Texas UIL 4A Girls Individual State Champion four years in a row, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 while att ...

, and

Mardi Lunn Mardi Lunn (born 9 January 1968) is an Australian professional golfer. Her sister, Karen Lunn, is also a professional golfer. Lunn played on several tours including the ALPG Tour, LPGA Tour, and Ladies European Tour. She has won five times worl ...

. Defending champion Pak won it on first hole of sudden death, sinking a birdie putt. In

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, Pak won the Farr for the fifth time, becoming only the fourth player on the LPGA Tour to win the same tournament five times. The tournament was at risk of ending after

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, due to a variety of circumstances including the slumping worldwide economy and reported dissatisfaction with LPGA Commissioner

Carolyn Bivens Carolyn Bivens (born December 29, 1952, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) was the commissioner of the LPGA from 2005 until her resignation on July 13, 2009. She was the seventh person and the first woman to hold the position of commissioner since the LP ...

. Late in August 2009, after Bivens had resigned under pressure, it was announced that the tournament would continue for at least one more year, albeit with a sharply reduced purse. On June 29, 2010, LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan announced the Farr Classic would return for at least three more years beginning in 2012. The tournament took a one-year hiatus in

, as the Toledo area hosted the U.S. Senior Open, a major championship on the

Champions Tour PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

, at the Inverness Club in late July. A similar break occurred in

, when the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

was at Inverness in August. On December 2, 2011, tournament director Judd Silverman announced that the Jamie Farr Classic would have a new name and a new logo; it became the ''Jamie Farr Toledo Classic Presented by Kroger, Owens Corning and O-I''. On January 8, 2013, the LPGA announced that

Marathon Petroleum Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an petroleum industry in the United States, American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a cor ...

was replacing Jamie Farr as the title sponsor. In 2016, the event received broadcast network coverage for the first time when

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

televised the final round live. In 2022, Dana Incorporated took over title sponsorship of the tournament for three years. After celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024, the tournament decided to bring a new professional golf tournament to northwest Ohio – the "Greater Toledo Classic". In place of its annual LPGA tournament, tournament director Judd Silverman collaborated with the LPGA to bring the

Epson Tour The Epson Tour, previously known as the LPGA Futures Tour, and known for sponsorship reasons between 2006 and 2010 as the Duramed Futures Tour and between 2012 and 2021 as the Symetra Tour, is the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour ...

and Legends of the LPGA tours together for a dual event.

Stacy Lewis Stacy Lewis (born February 16, 1985) is an American professional golfer on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She has won two major championships: the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2011 and the Women's British Open in 2013. She was ranked number one in ...

, Toledo native and two-time

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian- American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving forc ...

captain, will host the event. The inaugural tournament will take place July 25–27, 2025 at Highland Meadows Golf Club. Tournament names through the years: *1984–1996: Jamie Farr Toledo Classic *1997–2000: Jamie Farr Kroger Classic *2001–2003: Jamie Farr Kroger Classic Presented by ALLTEL *2004–2010: Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by Kroger *2012: Jamie Farr Toledo Classic Presented by Kroger, Owens Corning and O-I *2013–2018: Marathon Classic Presented by Owens Corning and O-I *2019–2021: Marathon Classic Presented by Dana *2022–2022: Dana Open Presented by Marathon *2023-2024: Dana Open *2025: Greater Toledo Classic hosted by Stacy Lewis

Winners

Source:
''Notes: Green highlight indicates scoring records.'' '' 2021 event was rain-shortened to 54 holes''

Multiple winners

Four players have won the event more than once. *5 wins:

(1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2007) *2 wins:

Penny Hammel Penny Hammel (born March 24, 1962) is an American professional golfer, who joined the LPGA Tour in 1985. Amateur career Hammel was born in Decatur, Illinois. She won several amateur tournaments including the 1979 U.S. Girls' Junior. In the 197 ...

(1985, 1989),

Kelly Robbins Kelly Robbins (born September 29, 1969) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1992 and won nine LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career. Amateur career Robbins was born ...

(1994, 1997), and

Lydia Ko Dame Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a New Zealand professional golfer, member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, and the reigning Olympic champion. She first reached number one in the Women's World Golf Rankings on 2 February 2015 at of age, makin ...

(2014, 2016)

Tournament records

Source:

References

External links