LPGA Tour Announces ‘12 Schedule, With More Tournaments And Optimism

The LPGA Tour begins a this year’s new season with four more tournaments and a lot more reasons for optimism.

The tour took a huge step toward beefing up its schedule by adding three more tournaments in the United States, including the return of two popular events in Virginia and Ohio.

The biggest surprise on Tuesday was the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, which was not played last year. The LPGA is also going back to Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, a favorite course among players that was last played in 2009.

The tour also announced previously new tournaments in Hawaii and Canada, along with sanctioning the Women’s Australian Open, which kicks off the new season Feb. 9-12 at the fabled Royal Melbourne Golf Club.

Just when it looked as though the LPGA Tour would suffer insurmountable harm from the downturn in the economy, Commissioner Mike Whan delivered a great schedule of 27 tournaments that’s worth $47 million in prize money, signaling a strong recovery.

Along with the new added tournaments, Whan stated the North American events will be televised live on the Golf Channel on the weekends, instead of being shown on tape delay. That had led to complaints from its fan base saying that it didn’t know when to watch.

Another big improvement is the flow of the schedule.

A year ago, when the LPGA was coming off its first major championship, where Stacy Lewis won the Kraft Nabisco Championship, it took three weeks off before its next tournament. Even with a global schedule where the tournaments will be played in a dozen different countries, the LPGA will not go more than two weeks between tournaments.

It should get more attention for its biggest event, the U.S. Women’s Open, which over the last three years was held a week before the men’s British Open. This year, the Women’s Open is scheduled to play on July 5-8, two weeks before the British Open.

Meanwhile, the Women’s British Open is to be held at Royal Liverpool on Sept. 13-16, and it was moved back a month in part because of the 2012 London Olympics.

The LPGA heads to Australia, Thailand and Singapore in consecutive weeks to start this year. The first U.S. tournament will be the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup just outside Phoenix, and this time the golfers will actually get paid. Last year, it was a mock purse. The earnings were applied on the money list, but actually money went toward a charity program to honor the LPGA founders.

Whan also said the LPGA was able to renew eight of the nine tournament contracts that had ended in 2011, and 10 of its 11 marketing agreements. The one tournament it did loose was the State Farm Classic in Illinois.

********************************************************************

CRWEnewswire is not liable for the contents of this news, as well as not being liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. The Views and Opinions Expressed by the author are his or her opinions only and do not necessarily reflect those of this Web-Site or its agents, affiliates, officers, directors, staff, or contractors. The author at the time of this article did not own any shares or receive any consideration financial or otherwise from any company or person mentioned or referred to in the article.