LPGA returning to Los Angeles

The LPGA Tour will return to the Los
Angeles area after a
five-year absence with a tournament in 2010, funded by its new deal
with JoongAng
Broadcasting Corp. of Korea.
LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens announced an agreement Thursday that
makes J Golf the
tour's official Korean media rights partner starting next year.
J Golf, a division of JBC, will have exclusive broadcast rights
within Korea for nearly all
LPGA Tour events through 2014. It is the country's leading cable and
satellite provider,
reaching 8 million households.
As part of the deal, JBC will underwrite an event in the Los Angeles
area for five years,
with the location and tournament name to be announced later.
The tour has been absent from the area since 2005, when the Office
Depot Championship was
last played at Donald TrumpZZTO's course in suburban Rancho
Palos
VerdesZZTO. Before that, the event frequently moved around
and changed
sponsors.
The tour currently plays three events in California, including its
first major
championship, the Kraft Nabisco in Rancho Mirage on April 2-5.
JBC has also taken over title sponsorship rights to this year's
Phoenix LPGA International,
with the tournament name to be unveiled later. The company also has
the rights to create
and operate the official Korean-language Web site of the LPGA.
J Golf currently owns the broadcast rights in Korea for the Korea
LPGA, Ladies Professional
Golfers' Association of Japan, PGA European Tour and the Ladies
European Tour.
"This is the largest contract ever signed in the history of the
LPGA," Bivens said on a
conference call following the announcement in Beverly Hills.
Financial terms were not
disclosed.
The deal followed Wednesday's news of a 10-year agreement with Golf
Channel that makes the
network the tour's exclusive cable home starting next year. The tour
will receive a rights
fee for domestic broadcast coverage.
"It really shows the progress of women's golf and the positive
direction we're moving in,"
said tour player Sherri Steinhauer, who is on the tour's board of
directors.
The two contracts come at a time when the tour is offering three
fewer tournaments this
year because sponsorships were lost due to the failing economy. Prize
money also has been
reduced by about $5 million.
"In some of the most difficult economic times in our lifetimes, we're
able to show an
around-the-world investment in the women of the LPGA," Bivens
said.
Asian players have dominated the tour in recent years, winning three
of the four majors in
2008. LPGA Tour membership includes 121 international players from 26
countries, including
45 from South Korea.
Besides televising LPGA tournaments, J Golf will produce event
programming involving the
tour.
JBC is owned by JoongAng Ilbo, a major Korean media conglomerate
headquartered in South
Korea that also includes Forbes Korea and Newsweek Korea. JBC
includes J Golf, Q Channel
and Cartoon Network