Nancy Scranton Looking Forward to Playing in Versailles

Former UK golfer Nancy Scranton, left, at the 2024 Woodford Legends Invitational with partner Elaine Crosby.

Nancy Scranton was an all-Southeastern Conference golfer at Kentucky and was inducted into the UK Athletics Hall of Fame in 2012 — and remains the only women’s golfer in UK’s Hall of Fame.

Scranton also remains Kentucky’s most successful player ever on the LPGA Tour as she won three tournaments, including one major, the 1991 du Maurier Classic. She won more than $3.3 million her career and also won the LPGA’s Heather Farr Award for the player who “best exemplifies outstanding dedication and perseverance.”

Now Scranton, who transferred from Florida State to UK in 1982, will be back in Kentucky for the third annual Woodford Legends Invitational June 7-8 at The Woodford Club in Versailles.

Five-time LPGA Legends winner Scranton thought this was a “great event” last year and is glad to be back. She will play with Ashli Bunch, a Tennessee native who played on the LPGA Tour from 1998-2012.

“I don’t get back to Lexington often and I still have friends there. I don’t play in a lot of individual events any more. I have arthritis in my left wrist and am not competitive,” said Scranton. “Team events are more fun. Ashli is a lot younger than me, which is really nice. There is a big difference between age 64 and early 50’s.

“My distance has changed a lot as I have got older. I played with Elaine Crosby last year and we hit it about the same distance. Ashli will hit it a lot longer and that’s a big help.”

Scranton played 24 years on the LPGA Tour and admits she was “well below average” on driving distance by the end of her career after starting her career as one of the tour’s longer hitters.

“I didn’t get shorter. I stayed the same. It was crazy the way the younger players all got longer,” Scranton said.

Scranton is glad The Woodford Club is hosting the Legends Invitational again. She not only was impressed by the course last year but also by Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman’s speech at the business luncheon and the high school golfer who was her caddy during the tournament.

Scranton also likes that two-player teams of the state’s top female amateurs play with the LPGA Legends.

“The younger girls are a great addition and last year had all kinds of questions and it’s nice for us to be able to help them,” Scranton said. “I remember in college going to a LPGA event and I played better after I went. I am not sure what I learned but I was better. I saw the composure the LPGA players had and the way they reacted to good and bad shots.”

Scranton didn’t start playing golf seriously until she was 15 years old because she played other sports. Once she got serious about golf, she opted to leave Illinois after high school and go south to Florida State to play in college.

“I played quite a bit my freshman year but I didn’t get to go to nationals. The team won and had no seniors. I came home (to Illinois) and sat out a year. I couldn’t do a lot of research. There was no internet then. I remembered a few of the coaches and teams that we played that looked like fun and Kentucky was one of them,” Scranton, who played for the 2000 U.S. Solheim Cup team, said. “Once I went to visit Kentucky, it was a no-brainer to go there. If I had visited before I went to Florida State, I likely would have gone then.”

Her best memories at UK were not her tournament wins but traveling with coach Bettie Lou Evans and her teammates. If the team did not fly to a tournament, they took Evans’ motorhome.

“We played cards the whole trip. It was so much fun. I missed that fun and camaraderie on tour. It was really different from college,” Scranton said. “I was very sad to lose her (in 2023). I was so happy I got to come back for her induction into the (UK) Hall of Fame. I just wish I had gone to Kentucky and played for her all four years.”

Scranton played with some of the world’s best players during her time on the LPGA Tour. Kathy Whitworth was a seven-time LPGA Player of the Year, Annika Sorenstam won 72 LPGA events and 24 more international events. Patty Sheehan won 35 LPGA events and six major championships. Michelle Wie turned pro in 2005 before her 16th birthday and won the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open.

“Those are some of the best women who have ever played golf and I could name more,” Scranton said. “I was so lucky to have been able to do what I did.

“I was almost 48 when I retired and had 4-year-old twins. Now they are both 20 playing sports in college. My daughter is on the track team at St. Louis University and my son plays soccer for Flagler College.”

Scranton now lives in Florida between Jacksonville and St. Augustine. She doesn’t play a lot of golf but is excited about the upcoming event in Versailles.

“It takes a lot now to get me on the golf course but when I do I am still competitive and want to play well. I also think we will have even bigger crowds this year and that always makes it fun,” she said.

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To purchase tickets, see who’s in the field and get the full schedule for The Woodford Legends Invitational, please click here.