NAPLES, United States: Next year’s LPGA season will feature a revamped major tournament, a new event and a $4m boost in total prize money, tour commissioner Mike Whan announced yesterday.
Ahead of today’s start of the season-ending LPGA Titleholders tournament, Whan revealed the 33-event schedule for 2015 that includes a new opener in Florida and a new name and sponsor for the first major of the year.
The former Dinah Shore tournament, a major known since 2002 as the Kraft Nabisco Championship, will now be called the All-Nippon Airways (ANA) Inspiration, with a 25 percent purse boost to $2.5m.
The event will remain at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, and still be staged the week before the first men’s major event of the year, the Masters at Augusta National.
Last May, the LPGA announced the LPGA Championship would be renamed the Women’s LPGA Championship with new sponsor KPMG and the June event will get a purse boost to $3.5m.
The 2015 tour has 33 events, one more than this year, worth $61.6m compared to $57.55m this season. AFP
