Kentucky’s Laney Frye to play in this week’s LPGA Tour event. Here’s how to watch.
It was only a matter of time for Laney Frye.
We’ve watched the Nicholasville native thrive on the golf course since her middle school days on through her career at the University of Kentucky.
On Thursday, the UK senior and All-American will play in an official LPGA Tour event for the first time.
Frye, a two-time Kentucky Miss Golf at Lexington Christian Academy, will be the only amateur in the LPGA Drive On Championship at Bradenton (Florida) Country Club after gaining entry through a sponsor exemption. The tournament takes place Thursday through Sunday.
Frye will tee off at 9:04 a.m. on hole No. 1, in a group with University of Louisville alumna and former Elizabethtown High School standout Lauren Hartlage and Southern California alumna Malia Nam.
The Drive On Championship is the second LPGA event of the year, with 120 players competing in the first full field of the season. The event includes the top four players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, including No. 1 Lilia Vu, No. 2 Ruoning Yin, No. 3 Celine Boutier, and No. 4 Nelly Korda.
This will be Frye’s first go against the top players in the world since she qualified for the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open, a USGA-run event in which she failed to make the cut.
“It is a dream,” Frye told the Herald-Leader before that tournament. “But I feel like if I keep doing what I’m doing it won’t be the only chance I get . . . I’m going to go out and try to soak it up and be aggressive and just do what I know I can do.”
Frye is the 12th-ranked female amateur in the United States and the 46th-ranked amateur in the world, averaging a 69.9 stroke average through four tournaments and 11 rounds in 2023-24. Seven of her 11 rounds in the fall were under par, including six rounds in the 60s. She placed in the top 15 in all four tournaments in the fall, including three finishes in the top 10 and one finish in the top five. She capped UK’s fall schedule with a 7-under-par 209 for fourth place at the Ruth’s Chris Tar Heel Invitational.
Frye set UK’s single-season record for stroke average last season at 70.9 across 10 tournaments and 30 rounds. For her career, she has accumulated a program-record 54 rounds of par-or-better, including 24 rounds in the 60s.
Frye, who led Lexington Christian Academy to state titles in 2018 and 2019 and won the 2018 KHSAA individual state championship, has played three times in the U.S. Women’s Amateur (2021, 2022, 2023) and was invited this week — along with teammate Jensen Castle — to compete in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur for the second time.
Herald-Leader Staff Writers Cameron Drummond and Caroline Makauskas contributed to this article.
This weekend
LPGA Drive On Championship
When: Thursday through Sunday
Where: Bradenton (Fla.) Golf Club
TV schedule
Thursday: Noon-3 p.m. (Golf Channel, Peacock)
Friday: Noon-3 p.m. (Golf Channel, Peacock)
Saturday: 2-5 p.m. (Peacock), 4-5 p.m. (Golf Channel)
Sunday: 2-5 p.m. (Golf Channel, Peacock)
