Looking Back: LPGA Konica San Jose Classic

The San Jose Classic, known for most of its brief history as the Konica San Jose Classic, was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour in the 1980s. It took place in California as one of the late-season tournaments on the LPGA schedule.

First played: 1983

Last played: 1989

Winners of the Konica San Jose Classic

1983 — Kathy Postlewait, 213
1984 — Amy Alcott, 211
1985 — Val Skinner, 209 (def. Pat Bradley in playoff)
1986 — Patty Sheehan, 212 (won playoff vs. Betsy King, Amy Alcott and Ayako Okamoto)
1987 — Jan Stephenson, 205
1988 — Kathy Guadagnino, 207
1989 — Beth Daniel, 205

The tournament was played every year at Almaden Golf & Country Club in San Jose, California. The tournament was always 54 holes (three rounds) in duration.

Jan Stephenson won the 1987 tournament by five strokes over runner-up Amy Alcott. It was the last of Stephenson's 16 wins on the LPGA Tour. That was one of two times that Alcott, in addition to her win here in 1984, was runner-up in the Konica San Jose Classic. Alcott's other runner-up was in 1986, when she was part of a four-way playoff with Patty Sheehan, Betsy King and Ayako Okamoto — all future Hall of Famers (Sheehan won).

Stephenson's 205 in her 1987 victory set the tournament scoring record, tied by Beth Daniel in 1989. Stephenson's five-stroke margin of victory was also the tournament record.

Kathy (Baker) Guadagnino's victory in 1988 was her only one on the LPGA other than the 1985 U.S. Women's Open. Beverly Klass tied for second in the 1984 San Jose Classic, behind Alcott. It was one of two second-place finishes for Klass on the LPGA. A youth phenom, Klass first played on the LPGA Tour in 1965 at the age of nine. She never won on the LPGA Tour.

The tournament field in 1989 included Susie Maxwell Berning and her daughter, Robin Berning. They thus became the first mother and daughter in LPGA history to play in the same tournament together.