Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship begins Thursday in Avon
The Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship begins Thursday at The Golf Club of Avon.
AVON, July 22, 2026 — Professional golf will be in Avon this weekend with the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship at The Golf Club of Avon beginning Thursday.
An international field of 144 women will be competing for a $250,000 purse in the event that moved to Avon after three years in Milford at the Great River Golf Club. The winner will take home $37,500.
The event is part of the Epson Tour, the official developmental golf tour of the LPGA Tour.
One-day general admission tickets are $15 each or $35 for a four-day pass. Children age 18 and under are free along with Avon residents and children and family members from First Tee CT. Parking is at Avon Middle School and a shuttle will bring you to the club and back to your vehicle.
Most of the competitors are from the United States (76) but there are also golfers from Canada (7), Chinese Taipei (7), Philippines (6), China (6) and Australia (5). Golfers will tee off in groups of three beginning at 7 a.m. through 2 p.m. for the first two rounds of the tournament.
The field will be cut after two rounds with the top 60 golfers, plus ties, advancing to compete in Saturday and Sunday’s rounds.
The tournament has also developed a reputation for showcasing future LPGA Tour stars.
A year ago, American Gina Kim captured the Hartford HealthCare Women’s Championship for her third Epson Tour victory of the season, a win that helped propel her to regain her LPGA Tour membership.
Now back on the LPGA Tour, Kim is back and stronger than ever having already claimed her first LPGA Tour victory, teaming up with fellow 2025 Epson Tour graduate Yana Wilson to win the Dow Championship earlier this season.
The top 15 money winners at the end of the Epson Tour season gain membership on the LPGA Tour for the next season. The Epson Tour was once known as the LPGA Futures tour.
The tour highlighted four players to watch this week in Avon – Gabriella Ruffels, a LPGA Tour veteran, Daniela Iacobelli, who won this tournament in 2024 in Milford, rookie Jieni Li, who had first professional top 5 finish last week and Megha Ganne, another rookie who helped Stanford win the 2026 NCAA Division I championship.
Ruffels, the 2023 Epson Tour Player of the Year, is set to make her first Epson Tour start of the year in Avon. Ruffels, 26, has earned $1.5 million on the LPGA Tour with five career top 10 finishes.
Iacabelli, 38, comes to Avon off her best finish of the season, tied for eighth at last week’s Greater Toledo Classic. An Epson Tour veteran since 2010, she is the tour’s all-time leader in earnings ($553,000) and has five career wins.
Li had her first top five finish last week in Toledo and has made the cut in the last three tournaments.
Founded in 1925, The Golf Club of Avon has been a fixture of Connecticut golf for more than a century. Originally built as a nine-hole course before expanding to 27 holes in 1967, the club has hosted numerous state and regional championships, including the Connecticut Open, Connecticut Women’s Open and Connecticut PGA championship.
Earlier this year, Hartford HealthCare and Munich Re announced an extension of their sponsorship of this tournament through 2028. Since joining the schedule in 2023, the tournament has quickly established itself as one of the Epson Tour’s premier stops through strong community engagement and its continued support of women’s golf in Connecticut.
There are other tickets available for the tournament, too. The daily Porch Patio pass for Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday is $50 per day or one can purchase the four-day Porch Patio pass for $100. The daily VIP hospitality pass is $100 or $250 for the four-day VIP hospitality pass.