DETROIT (June 4, 2025) – Bailey Davis, a 22-year-old University of Tennessee product and native of White Plains, Maryland, has earned exemptions to compete in two LPGA tournaments – the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and the Dow Championship – after winning THE JOHN SHIPPEN Women’s Invitational presented by Dow at Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Michigan this week.
Davis will tee it up alongside the world’s best female golfers at the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give starting Thursday, June 12, after shooting 68-76---144 at Plum Hollow on Tuesday and Wednesday to earn a four-stroke victory at the SHIPPEN event. Davis and her Allyn Stephens will also compete in the Dow Championship starting Thursday, June 26, in Midland, Michigan. The Dow is a team event, and Davis chose Stephens as her teammate.
Davis is the first amateur to win THE JOHN SHIPPEN Women’s Invitational presented by Dow in its five-year history.
THE JOHN SHIPPEN National Invitational is a series of competitions created to provide playing opportunities on the LPGA Tour and PGA TOUR for the nation’s top Black amateur and professional women and men golfers. The series includes THE JOHN SHIPPEN Women’s Invitational presented by Dow and THE JOHN SHIPPEN Men’s Invitational presented by Rocket. The events are named after John Shippen, Jr., who was both the first American-born golf professional and the country’s first Black golf professional.
Davis edged former SHIPPEN champion Anita Uwadia by four strokes, and despite not playing her best round Wednesday, gave herself enough of a cushion Tuesday by birdieing four of five holes from the sixth through the 10th and playing bogey-free golf over her last 13 holes of the opening round.
“I feel good. I’m excited. I was nervous throughout the day but I’m really excited now,” Davis said. “The greens were really tough because they were very fast. It was really important to stay below the hole today. Today was so tough, and I wasn’t really playing well, so I was just thinking I’m glad that I got the job done.
“I think it’s really important (for THE JOHN SHIPPEN to provide opportunities like these) because you don’t really see anybody out there that looks like us. So with girls, they don’t really want to get into the sport because it’s intimidating when you don’t see anyone who looks like them.”
Davis won the 2020 Maryland State Girls Amateur and was a three-time Maryland 4A high school champion. In 2021, she became just the second Black golfer to advance to a U.S. Girls' Junior final before falling to Rose Zhang at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Davis played in the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open, and she entered the Dow Championship in 2023 when the low amateur from the SHIPPEN, Christina Carroll, was given an exemption and she chose Bailey as her partner.
THE JOHN SHIPPEN was created to identify historical barriers, expand Black representation in golf, and address the lack of Black representation in business and leadership roles within the golf and larger sports industry for people of color.
Since 2021, 90 of the nation’s best Black men and women golfers have competed in THE JOHN SHIPPEN. THE JOHN SHIPPEN has awarded 16 playing opportunities on the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour, and donated $340,000 to local charities, scholarships and fellowships. SHIPPEN alumni continue to see success beyond the National Invitational through player-earned memberships on the PGA TOUR Champions, PGA TOUR Americas and Ladies European Tours.
Intersport, a leading Chicago-based sports marketing and media agency, partnered with Woods & Watts Effect in 2021 to create THE JOHN SHIPPEN - a series of competitions created to provide playing opportunities on the LPGA Tour and PGA TOUR for the nation’s top Black women and men golfers.
THE JOHN SHIPPEN was created to identify historical barriers, expand Black representation in golf, and address the lack of Black representation in business and leadership roles within the golf and larger sports industry for people of color. The events are named after John Shippen, Jr., who was both the first American-born golf professional and the country’s first Black golf professional.
Since 2021, 90 of the nation’s best Black women and men golfers have competed in THE JOHN SHIPPEN. THE JOHN SHIPPEN has awarded 19 playing opportunities on the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour, and donated more than $300,000 to local charities, scholarships and fellowships. SHIPPEN alumni continue to see success beyond the National Invitational through player-earned memberships on the PGA TOUR Champions, PGA TOUR Americas and Ladies European Tours.
In 2022, Women’s Invitational champion Sadena Parks paired with 2021 winner Uwadia at the Dow Invitational and finished tied for 36th, becoming the first SHIPPEN champions to make a cut after securing a start in an event based on their results at THE JOHN SHIPPEN.
The 2023 season was another historic one for THE JOHN SHIPPEN, as, for the first time in the event’s history, the Men’s Invitational champion, Chase Johnson, made the cut at the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Classic.
Last year, Women’s Invitational champion Georgia Oboh teamed with Lakareber Abe to finish tied for eighth at the Dow Championship, the best finish in an LPGA Tour or PGA TOUR event for a SHIPPEN winner. The 2024 season was also a notable one for a former SHIPPEN winner, as Tim O’Neal, the 2021 Men’s Invitational champion, secured his first victory in a PGA TOUR Champions event, winning the Dominion Energy Classic. It marked the first victory for a former winner of a SHIPPEN event on one of professional golf’s top tours.
Next up is the 36-hole JOHN SHIPPEN Men’s Invitational on June 21-22 at Detroit Golf Club.
For updated information on THE JOHN SHIPPEN, please visitwww.TheJohnShippen.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram (@TheJohnShippen) and Twitter (@TheJShippen). For information about sponsorship opportunities or how to get involved, please email us atTHEJOHNSHIPPEN@intersportnet.com.
About Intersport
Intersport is an award-winning agency and leader in the creation of ideas, content and experiences that attract and engage passionate audiences. Its industry-leading team offers expert insights in content marketing, customer engagement, experiential marketing, hospitality, production and sponsorship consulting. The Chicago-based agency also owns and operates events across the professional and collegiate sports landscape, including basketball, football, golf, pickleball and volleyball. In addition to launching and operating the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Classic, Intersport is the proud operator of other world-class, ground-breaking golf properties such as The Jackson T. Stephens Cup, THE JOHN SHIPPEN National Golf Invitational and the World Champions Cup. Intersport has been headquartered in Chicago since its inception in 1985, with additional offices in Boston, Detroit and New York. Learn more at www.intersport.global/ and on social media (LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook).
About Woods & Watts Effect
Woods & Watts Effect is an equity and inclusion consulting firm of transformation engineers, co- founded by Sommer Woods and Michele Lewis Watts, Ph.D. They are a solutions-driven team that adeptly designs programs that assess a company’s strengths and areas for improvement relative to inclusion and social equity. Woods & Watts Effect is innovative in their thinking, their engagement and their execution. Through a bold, non-traditional and engaging approach, they produce viable and actionable solutions for sustainable change. More information is available at WoodsWattsEffect.com.
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