LPGA adding 2 events on West Coast for 2018

The LPGA Tour is adding two tournaments in California next year as part of a 34-tournament schedule that offers a record $68.75 million in prize money.

While the LPGA Tour lost two events — Lorena Ochoa Match Play in Mexico and the Manulife LPGA Classic in Canada — the LPGA replaced them with three new tournaments.

Two of them are in the United States, bringing the number of domestic events to 19.

“Perhaps the most important aspect of our schedule is the consistency — continuing to deliver strong playing opportunities both in North America and around the world, while growing overall purse levels every year,” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan said Tuesday in a news release.

The new California events will be held in the Los Angeles area and at Lake Merced in San Francisco. The Los Angeles event is the HugelJTBC Championship on April 19-22, with the host club to be announced early next year.

South Korea-based L&P Cosmetic will be the title sponsor of the San Francisco event a week later at Lake Merced. Still to be determined is the name of the tournament. The LPGA Tour was at Lake Merced for three years through 2016 until the title sponsor, Swinging Skirts, moved the event to Taiwan.

The other addition is a tournament in Shanghai. The LPGA said it would disclose the name of the event and the course next year. That will be played Oct. 18-21 as part of a seventournament swing through Asia. One of those events is the UL International Crown, held every other year and featuring four-player teams from the top eight countries. It will be played at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea in Incheon, South Korea, where the 2015 Presidents Cup was held.