Jeeno Thitikul is the LPGA\u2019s hottest player after winning fourth title this season<\/a><\/p>\nWhen the tour showed the schedule to players at the FM Championship in Boston in August, they enthusiastically applauded the more efficient travel schedule, down 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometres) from 2026. The tour will travel 61,000 miles (98,000km) to and from events this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen players clap the way they clapped for this schedule,\u201d said Ricki Lasky, chief tour business and operations officer. \u201cI had a lot of conversations after the meeting. They were thrilled. They appreciated the routing work which we did to make it more efficient for them as they move around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, they\u2019re excited about the purse growth and how meaningful that is and then the upgraded courses. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s lost on them. They want to play the best courses in the world. They\u2019re so talented and our fans want to see them play the best courses in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tour still will travel plenty, spanning 11 countries, including the inaugural Futu Ladies World Championship event at Clearwater Bay in Hong Kong, and 13 US states.<\/p>\n
The season kicks off in February with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which previously started in January. There are back-to-back Hawaiian events in March, at Nanea Golf Club and The Plantation Course in Kapalua. There are still two Asia swings and a European swing through all of July that includes two majors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been extremely intentional about how we\u2019re building the schedule going forward, where our players go, when they go, the venues in which we play, and what they\u2019re competing for,\u201d Lasky said. \u201cYou\u2019ve probably heard [tour commissioner] Craig Kessler shout it from the rooftops that we\u2019re really focused on routing, courses and purses. In 2027, it\u2019s much better than it was in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have some work to do, but we\u2019re really proud of saving a few miles for our players and our caddies. I think you\u2019ll see the upgraded courses that we\u2019ve added to the schedule this year in Nanea, Kapalua and Clearwater Bay. We brought back Corning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The back-to-back Hawaii events are sure to be crowd-pleasers for fans and players, given the beauty of the venues and their ability to stay in the islands for two weeks. The tour is moving the Lotte Championship from October to March and putting it on the former PGA Tour course at Kapalua and added the new event on the Big Island that combines professional and college players.<\/p>\n
As previously announced, the tour will return to Corning in New York for the first time since 2009 with The Classic in May, and the $US5 million purse is one of the largest non-major, non-CME Group Tour Championship purses.<\/p>\n
The Hanwa Plus International Crown, a biennial event that features teams representing their countries, will be played at Lake Merced Golf Club in near San Francisco in September, giving the tour another stateside event.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s tour schedule continues with the October swing in Asia, with four consecutive events, and two Asia swings remain on the schedule for next year. Any sport going up against college football and the NFL has a tough hill to climb with American television ratings.<\/p>\n
Asked if that could change, Lasky said: \u201cI think that\u2019s a really great question. We\u2019ve spent a lot of time in a lot of rooms discussing optimising our schedule for the future. There\u2019s still some work to be done. We think we\u2019re making strides, This is a stair-stepped approach as we move forward. But absolutely, everything is on the table right now. We\u2019re looking at everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chevron Championship is in April at Memorial Park for the second consecutive year, which starts the major swing in Houston. They tour hopes to make a splash, literally and figuratively, like it did this year when world No.1 Nelly Korda had a successful jump in the temporary pool. (A larger and more natural body of water is expected to be in place for 2027.)<\/p>\n
Then the tour plays majors at two highly regarded courses that have hosted numerous majors, with the US Women\u2019s Open at Inverness Club in Ohio and the KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, DC. The Amundi Evian Championship returns to Evian Resort Club in France, followed by the AIG Women\u2019s Open at Royal St George\u2019s Golf Club in England, which is hosting its first women\u2019s major.<\/p>\n
A new event, The Championship, will precede the Women\u2019s Open and replaces the Women\u2019s Scottish Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur schedule impacts every stakeholder, but our athletes remain at the heart of how we build it. Our progress is evident in how our athletes and the entire LPGA ecosystem will move around the world next year, creating more opportunities to rest, recover and ultimately operate more efficiently,\u201d Kessler said in a release. \u201cThe venues we play at matter, and we\u2019re adding even more courses that fans will love and recognise. Our players have earned the chance to compete on these stages, and we encourage fans to tune in to watch them do it. The prize fund reflects the incredible collaboration and support of our partners, who keep recognising the value of our players. We know our players and fans care about all three of these things, and we can\u2019t wait to keep making even more progress in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
2027 LPGA Schedule <\/p>\n
Feb. 1-7: Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions
Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, Orlando, Florida
Purse: $2.25m<\/p>\n
Feb. 15-21: Honda LPGA Thailand
Siam Country Club (Old Course), Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand
Purse: $2m<\/p>\n
Feb. 22-28: HSBC Women\u2019s World Championship
Sentosa Golf Club (Tanjong Course), Singapore, Singapore
Purse: $3.10m<\/p>\n
Mar. 1-7: Futu Ladies World Championship
Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club, Hong Kong
Purse: $3.4m<\/p>\n
March 8-14: Nanea Cup
Nanea Golf Club, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Purse: $4m<\/p>\n
March 15-21: Lotte Championship
The Plantation Course at Kapalua, Lahaina, Hawaii
Purse: $3m<\/p>\n
March 22-28: Ford Championship
Whirlwind Golf Club at Wild Horse Pass, Cattail Course, Chandler, Arizona
Purse: $2.25m<\/p>\n
March 29- Apr. 4: Fortinet Founders Cup
Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club, Menlo Park, California
Purse: $3m<\/p>\n
April 12-18: JM Eagle LA Championship
Wilshire Country Club, Los Angeles, California
Purse: $4.75m<\/p>\n
April 19-25: Chevron Championship
Memorial Park Golf Course, Houston, Texas
Purse: $9m<\/p>\n
May 3-9: Riviera Maya Open
Mayakoba Resort, El Camaleon Course, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Purse: $2.5m<\/p>\n
May 10-16: Mizuho Americas Open
Mountain Ridge Country Club, West Caldwell, New Jersey
Purse: $3.25m<\/p>\n
May 24-30: The Classic
Corning Country Club, Corning, New York
Purse: $5m<\/p>\n
May 31-June 6: US Women\u2019s Open
Inverness Club, Toledo, Ohio
Purse: $12.5m<\/p>\n
June 7-13: ShopRite LPGA
Seaview Hotel & Golf Club (Bay Course), Galloway, New Jersey
Purse: $2m<\/p>\n
June 14-20: Meijer LPGA Classic
Blythefield Country Club, Belmont, Michigan
Purse: $3.25m<\/p>\n
June 21-27: KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship
Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland
Purse: $13m<\/p>\n
July 5-11: Amundi Evian Championship
Evian Resort Golf Club, Evian-les-Bains, France
Purse: $9.1m<\/p>\n
July 19-25: The Championship
Site TBD, United Kingdom
Purse: $4m<\/p>\n
July 26-Aug. 1: AIG Women\u2019s Open
Royal St George\u2019s Golf Club, Sandwich, England
Purse: $10m<\/p>\n
Aug. 16-22: CPKC Women\u2019s Open
Royal Ottawa Golf Club, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
Purse: $2.75m<\/p>\n
Aug. 23-29: FM Championship
TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
Purse: $4.7m<\/p>\n
Sept. 6-12: Hanwha Plus International Crown
Lake Merced Golf Club, Daly City, California
Purse: $2.5m<\/p>\n
Sept. 13-19: Standard Portland Classic
Columbia Edgewater Country Club, Portland, Oregon
Purse: $2.1m<\/p>\n
Sept. 20-26: Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, Arizona
Purse: $3m<\/p>\n
Sept. 27-Oct. 3: Dow Championship
Midland Country Club, Midland, Michigan
Purse: $3.3m<\/p>\n
Oct. 11-17: BMW Ladies Championship
Site TBD, Republic of Korea
Purse: $2.4m<\/p>\n
Oct. 18-24 Buick LPGA Shanghai
Sheshan International Golf Club, Shanghai, China
Purse: $3.3m<\/p>\n
Oct. 25-31: Maybank Championship
Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Purse: $3m<\/p>\n
Nov. 1-7: Japan event
Taiheiyo Club (Minori Course), Ibaraki, Japan
Purse: $3m<\/p>\n
Nov. 8-14: The Annika
Pelican Golf Club, Belleair, Florida
Purse: $3.25m<\/p>\n
Nov. 15-21: CME Group Tour Championship
Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida
Purse: $11m<\/p>\n
Dec. 6-12: Grant Thornton Invitational
Tiburon Golf Club, Naples, Florida
Purse: $2.1m<\/p>\n
*all prizemoney figures in $US<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Julio Aguilar] The new LPGA schedule that the tour announced overnight (Australian time) features fewer miles travelled,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,350095,755,138747,58251,487893,44,487894,85],"class_list":["post-919913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-craig-kessler","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-lpga","tag-lpga-2027-schedule","tag-news","tag-ricki-lasky","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}