LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan
The LPGA will return to Hawaii in 2012 with the LPGA LOTTE Championship Presented by J Golf.
The event, which has a deal for the next three years, will be played April 18-21, two weeks after the season's first LPGA major - the Kraft Nabisco Championship - and will feature a Saturday finish. A 144-player field will play for a $1.7-million purse. No venue has been confirmed but the tournament will be staged on the island of Oahu.
It marks a return to Hawaii for the LPGA since 2009 when it last staged the Kapalua LPGA Classic. At one point, the LPGA had as many as three events in Hawaii.
The tournament is the third new event to be confirmed on the 2012 calendar, joining the Women's Australian Open and the Manulife Classic in Waterloo. Several reports indicate at least two more new events could be announced, taking the 2012 schedule to 28 events this year which would be an increase from the 23 that were staged in 2011.
LOTTE is one of the most respected industrial conglomerates in Korea and Japan and its sponsorship of the LPGA event in Hawaii marks the company's first foray into global sports sponsorship outside of Asia.