LPGA expands with extra dollars and dates

NEW YORK — 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.

Coming off a year in which 17 players earned at least $1 million, the LPGA Tour put together a 2018 schedule that it hopes to build momentum. While it lost two events, the 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 in North America and around the world, while growing overall purse levels every year,” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said on 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 Hugel-JTBC Championship on April 19-22, with the host club to be announced early next year.

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.” Mike Whan,

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 seven-tournament 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.

The New Zealand Women’s Open will return in 2019 with a spring date.

While the LPGA Tour will visit 14 countries, there is a distinct flow between domestic and international events.

The season starts in the Bahamas on Jan 25, and then three weeks later goes to Australia for one week and Asia for two. The first American event is the Founders Cup in Arizona, and that kicks off 16 consecutive tournaments in the United States over four months.

The tour will have a week off for the men’s Masters at Augusta National before resuming in Hawaii, followed by the two California events.

The US Women’s Open begins its new spring date at Shoal Creek in Alabama, which will start on May 31.