Past RDGA Women’s Champions

The RDGA Women’s Championship – Danielle E. Downey Memorial

Jenna Hoecker of Brook-Lea Country Club won the Danielle E. Downey Memorial trophy in 2021 after capturing the RDGA Women’s Championship at The Golf Club at Blue Heron Hills.

The Rochester District Golf Association’s Women’s Championship was held every year but one between 2010 and 2021 as an extension of the District’s Women’s Golf Initiative – becoming an integral part of the RDGA’s efforts to provide the area’s best women golfers an opportunity to compete against other top players on some of the most storied venues in the Rochester area.

Played as a two-day, 36-hole, stroke play competition, the RDGA Women’s Championship is open to any women RDGA members with a USGA® Handicap Index® of 15.0 and under – and include those exempt from qualifying, such as past champions and/or the top-20 finishers from the the previous year’s championship.

Between 2010 and 2016, the RDGA Women’s Championship was held each year concurrently with the RDGA Men’s District Championship, with competitors teeing off in separate flights during the final two rounds of the Men’s District Championship.

In 2014, the RDGA Women’s Championship took on a new title, when in January of that year, 33-year-old Spencerport native Danielle Downey was killed in an auto accident near her alma mater at Auburn University in Alabama, where she was Director of Golf and coach for the women’s golf team.

Having attained her dream of playing at the highest levels of women’s golf – as an amateur, Division I collegiate player and a member of the LPGA Tour – one of Downey’s life missions had been to support those young women who shared that dream of making golf their career. Recognizing those goals and other accomplishments – in life and in golf – the RDGA announced later that year that it was re-naming the annual Women’s District Championship in her honor as the RDGA Women’s Championship Danielle E. Downey Memorial.

In 2017, the decision was made to suspend the event while seeking out alternatives for a premier championship format for top women amateurs in Rochester. The Championship would return a year later, when the decision was made to incorporate the RDGA Women’s Championship into the popular RDGA Women’s Open event – in which the Championship division competitors will play 18 holes at the same site the day before the Women’s Open, then play the second 18 hole round at the same time as the Women’s Open.

That year, Jenna Hoecker of Brook-Lea Country Club earned her third Danielle E. Downey Memorial title, winning the 2018 RDGA Women’s Championship by 5 shots over Kristen Bromley at Ridgemont Country Club. Hoecker posted rounds of 79 and 74 in the 36-hole Championship to win the title with a 9-over-par 153 total.

In 2021 – the most recent year that the RDGA Women’s Championship was held – Hoecker won her fourth title. McDonnell began the final round two shots behind Locust Hill’s Kristen Bromley but made up the difference in the final round with a 1-over-par 73 to finish with a 9-over-par 153. Bromley finished with scores of 78-79–157.

The RDGA Senior Women’s Championship

Jan Lavigne of Ravenwood Golf Club won the second Rochester Women’s Senior Championship at Blue Heron Hills in 2021.

To date, there has only been two Rochester District Golf Association Senior Women’s Championships. The first was held in 2016 as an extension of the RDGA Women’s Championship, as well as another opportunity to offer some of the area’s best women golfers a chance to compete against other top players in the Rochester area.

Held concurrently with the RDGA Women’s Championship, the RDGA Senior Women’s Championship was also conducted as a two-day, 36-hole, stroke play competition. The field was open to any women RDGA members, age 50 and above, with a USGA Handicap Index of 15.0 and under.

In 2016, Ridgemont Country Club hosted the inaugural RDGA Senior Women’s Championship, with Maggie Kril of Braemar Country Club posting a second-round score of 82 for a 36-hole total of 172 to claim victory. Joy Florczak finished second after posting a second round 86 for a 175 total.

In 2021, two one-day Senior Championships – including the Senior Women’s Championship for players ages 50 to 64, as well as the Super Senior Women’s Championship for players ages 65 and above – were held concurrently with the final round of the Women’s Championship.

In the Senior Women’s Championship, Jan Lavigne of Ravenwood Golf Club posted the low round of 79 on the 5,293-yard Red tees to earn the title. Amy Mason of Sodus Bay Heights Golf Club was the runner-up with a round of 82.

In the Super Senior Women’s Championship, Oak Hill Country Club’s Kitty Colliflower posted a round of 79 on the 4,598-yard Red-Black tees to win the title. Lynn Quinn of Clifton Springs Country Club was the runner-up with a round of 80.