There were plenty of recollections. For 15 years, from 1992 to 2006, the LPGA Tour’s best traveled to a southern suburb of Atlanta every April for the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship. Back then, the host site, Eagles Landing Country Club, wasn’t quite in the middle of nowhere – it sat about half a mile from I-75 and half an hour from the busiest airport in the world – but it wasn’t a bubbling metropolis, either.  

“I remember having a wonderful host family that housed me,” Angela Stanford said of those old days. “That was back when I was just trying to keep my head above water. I remember that there wasn’t much around here.”   

A lot has changed in 17 years. City sprawl has extended southward. The area now bustles with commerce. But the course hasn’t changed much, at least according to the 24 veterans who returned to Eagles Landing for a Legends of the LPGA event, aptly titled The Legends Return to Eagles Landing.  

“I found out I was pregnant in this locker room,” Nancy Scranton said, pointing to a door in the clubhouse. “I remember going out to the range in tears, saying, ‘I’m pregnant.’ I was older, so it was a big deal. I didn’t find out until later that they were twins.”  

Kris Tschetter remembers more about the state of her game than anything. “Oh, I remember starting out here triple, double, triple, par, bogey,” she said with a smile. “I finished 26th, so I’m really proud of that. But after that start, I’m getting in the shuttle to go from 5 to 6 and (my playing partner) looked at her watch and said, ‘We’re a little out of position. We’re going need to pick it up.’ I laugh about it now, but I had steam coming out of my ears back then.”  

There were a lot of those stories. Rachel Hetherington won the second of her eight career LPGA Tour titles at Eagles Landing. The LPGA’s communications department was stretched thin in those days, so when Rachel showed up for her press conference, no officials were around. Betsy King, who had just given a telephone interview, hopped on stage and ran Rachel’s press conference.  

The list of past winners couldn’t be more distinguished: Pepper, Trish Johnson, Val Skinner, Laura Davies, Nancy Lopez, Liselotte Neumann, Sophie Gustafson, Annika Sorenstam (twice), Juli Inkster, Se Ri Pak. 

“We sure have missed it,” one of the members of Eagles Landing said on the first tee as the final group of the Legends event teed off on Wednesday. “It’s great to see all these familiar faces, but it was heartbreaking to lose the Chick-fil-A.” 

Chick-fil-A made a strategic shift, dropping golf in favor of the Peach Bowl, which is now part of the College Football Playoffs. With the first pains of the Great Recession being felt in early 2007, no company seemed eager to jump into a long-term golf commitment in Atlanta.  

Now, everyone is glad to be back, even if things aren’t exactly as they were.  

“So, where do you spend the winter?” Scranton asked Nicole Jeray on the third tee as they waited on the fairway to clear.   

“I stay in Chicago,” Jeray said. “Naperville, actually, near where we used to play that event. We have a dome (for teaching), so I’m busier in the winter than any other time of the year.”   

 A lot of them teach. Others have moved on. Cindy Schreyer, who was president of the LPGA, runs a Whole Foods in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Gosh, I keep coming out here and remembering how I used to play,” Schreyer said. “Of course, I am 61, so I guess it’s not bad, all things considered.”   

Almost none of the Legends came with caddies. Laura Diaz was an exception. Her dad, Ron Philo, rode along (they take carts) and took out flagsticks. Diaz used one of her old Solheim Cup bags, faded and frayed around the edges. That was the perfect metaphor for most of their games. The talent was still there, the pop of the drives as crisp as ever. But the edges were dusty and chipped, like a fine crystal trophy that’s been jostled around for a dozen or so years. 

To the surprise of no one, Stanford won the Legends event in a trot, shooting 65 to capture the title by four shots over Diaz. Stanford has played in two Legends events – the first being the Senior LPGA Championship – and she has won both of them.  

 “It’s nice that they’ve welcomed me, and it’s great to see some people and play with them again,” Stanford said. “The whole week here was fun, being here for the pro-am and coming back to a course where we have some history, that was a lot of fun reliving some of those memories. Thanks, of course, to The Southern Company for stepping up as a sponsor.”  

 Stanford is also aware that her presence on both the LPGA Tour and Legends of the LPGA puts her in a historic position, one she never takes for granted.  

“My first Solheim Cup, I played with Meg (Mallon) and Beth (Daniel) and that generation,” she said. “Then I got to play with Paula (Creamer) and Morgan (Pressel), and then with Lexi (Thompson) in my last one. So, I’ve always been aware of how blessed I am in terms of where I fall in the history of our Tour.  

“I got to play with Annika and Lorena and Beth and Juli and all those people, and now I get to play against all the young ones.”  

Then she nodded, a hint of a smile creeping in as she stared back at the 18th green at Eagles Landing, a spot with a lot of history of its own.  

“Yeah,” she said. “I feel very blessed.”