Former Women's British Open Champ on 'The Chase' Game Show

Who is Penny Grice-Whittaker? On October 8, 2021, she was a contestant on the British game show The Chase. But in an earlier time of her life, Grice-Whittaker was a professional golfer. And she won some significant tournaments, including the Women's British Open.

Grice-Whittaker added her name to the list of Women's British Open winners in 1991, when the tournament was known as the Ladies British Open. Unfortunately for Grice-Whittaker, her greatest win didn't come with the greatest timing.

Today, the Women's British Open is one of the major championships of the LPGA Tour. But in 1991, not only was the Ladies British Open not counted as a major, it wasn't even counted as an LPGA Tour win. So while Grice-Whittaker won the biggest tournament title available in British golf at the time, she is not credited for an LPGA win, and she is not counted as a major championship winner. (The LPGA Tour only recognized the Ladies British Open beginning in 1994, and it did not become recognized as a major championship until 2001.)

In her appearance on The Chase game show, Grice-Whittaker told the host she had also won the Belgian Open, French Open and Australian Open. But, in fact, she did not win the latter two of those titles.

Penny did win the Belgian Ladies Open in 1986 by a whopping nine strokes (which remains the tournament record). In 1991, she did win in France, but not the Women's French Open. Her victory in France was in the Longines Classic, a tournament played only twice in 1990 and 1991. And she did win Australia in 1992, but not the Women's Australian Open. Her victory was in the Queensland Open.

Still, she won in four different countries during her career on the Ladies European Tour, something few professional golfers ever get to say. (Winning on tour is hard!)

And how did Penny Grice-Whittaker do on The Chase? She earned £4,000 for her team.

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