Inside Golf Magazine

Californian Alison Curdt Earns Exemption Into 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. (Photo via LPGA/Erika A. Photography)

PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida — Alison Curdt of Woodland Hills, California, posted a 1-under-par 71 Wednesday to grab runner-up honors in the PGA Women’s Stroke Play Championship and become one of four PGA Professionals to secure berths in the 63rd KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Curdt, 35, the PGA Director of Instruction at Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley, California, finished at 1-under par 215 and four strokes behind Karen Paolozzi of Atlanta, at PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker Course in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Paolozzi, the PGA First Assistant Professional at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta, captured a record third Women’s Stroke Play title. Paolozzi earned an exemption last summer in the LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals National Championship.

It will be Curdt’s fourth appearance in the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, to be conducted June 29 – July 2, at Olympia Fields (Illinois) Country Club. She competed in 2012, ’14 and ’15. Curdt is a 2005 graduate of the PGA Golf Management University Program at Florida State.

In addition to Paolozzi and Curdt, PGA Professionals Jessica Carafiello of Stamford, Connecticut, and Amanda McCurdy of Arlington, Texas, also earned berths last summer by finishing among the top eight finishers at the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals National Championship.  Carafiello is making her second straight Women’s PGA Championship trip, while it will be McCurdy’s debut. 

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship — a collaboration of the PGA of America, KPMG, and the LPGA Tour — continues the rich tradition of the LPGA Championship, which began in 1955. Broadcast in partnership with NBC and Golf Channel, the Championship offers a purse among the highest in women’s golf. The event combines an annual major golf championship with the KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit and an ongoing charitable initiative called the KPMG Future Leaders Program – all focused on the development, advancement and empowerment of women on and off the golf course.