POINT CLEAR — The 2024 and 2025 Sun Belt Women’s Golf Championships will take place at The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa and the Lakewood Golf Club in Point Clear, the conference announced Wednesday.

The women’s golf tournament will serve as the fourth Sun Belt Conference championship slated to be held in Baldwin County for the 2023-24 season. Men’s and women’s cross country, women’s soccer and women’s volleyball championships are all set to hosted in Foley this fall.

In addition, the 2024 event will mark the first time the Sun Belt will determine its women’s golf team champion in a match-play format.

 The 2024 event is slated for April 15-18, 2024, will feature all 13 Sun Belt women’s golf programs and will be televised by ESPN+. The championship will begin with three rounds of stroke play. The top-four teams following 54 holes of stroke play advance to match play, with semifinals and the championship to be contested on April 18.

“We are looking forward to having Lakewood Golf Club serve as the home of our women’s golf championship,” Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill said. “We’re also particularly excited to introduce a match-play format to determine our women’s golf team champion. This first-class course, coupled with the enhanced championship format, will make this a premier experience for our women’s golf student-athletes.” 

The Lakewood Golf Club, a member of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, had its beginnings in 1944. Perry Maxwell, designer of the Tulsa Southern Hills Country Club, created Lakewood’s original Dogwood course in 1947, making it the first professional quality golf course in south Alabama. Lakewood Golf Club hosted the 1974, 1986 and 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship.

“The Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa and the Lakewood Club are proud to be selected to host the Sun Belt’s Women’s Golf Championship in 2024 and 2025,” said Kevin Hellmich, Director of Sales & Marketing at The Grand Hotel. “We have hosted the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in 1974, 1986, and again in 2021 and our Grand Hotel & Lakewood Club teams are excited to now welcome these student-athletes from the 13 Sun Belt Conference programs to the Queen of Southern Resorts for this important championship event for the next two years.”

ULM claimed its first-ever Sun Belt Conference women’s golf championship last season, representing the league at the NCAA Regionals. Sun Belt individual champion Leah Onosato of Old Dominion and James Madison’s Kendall Turner both participated in the NCAA Regionals as individuals in 2023.