End of women golf drought in Hawaii, Lotte Championship returns to Oahu
The LPGA has announced that the two-year women golf drought in Hawaii will end this year, as the region is set to host the Lotte Championship, presented by J Golf in mid April.
Lotte announced that it has signed a three-year agreement to hold the $1.7 million purse event. The Hawaiian island, Oahu, will be the venue for the tournament.
However, the host golf course has not been finalised, but officials said it will be announced soon.
Lotte is known for its sponsorship deals with plenty of golf tournaments in Korea, particularly the Lotte Mart KLPGA Open, the Lotte Cantata KLPGA Open, the Lotte Mart Women’s Golf Team and the Lotte Card Women’s Amateur Golf Tournament.
“We are honored to host the LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii and to showcase our business, as well as the world’s best golfers, to a global stage,” said Kag-Gyu Hwang, President of the Global Business Division of Lotte Corporate Headquarters.
“Through this tournament, we will align Lotte’s tremendous success and prosperity with the LPGA and increase our visibility as Asia’s top global conglomerate,” he added.
Since 2010, the state of Hawaii has not seen any LPGA event organised on its soil. In 2008, there were three events played, which had to be dissolved later, due to lack of sponsorship deals from the companies.
One of the major reasons behind the decline of sponsorships is the global economic recession.
Following the devastating impact of the recession on corporations, they started to cut their marketing cost. As a result, a number of events had to be dissolved in the last three to four years.
Currently, two PGA tour events are held every year in Hawaii. Lotte Championship will be the only one to be co-sanctioned with LPGA.
Moreover, it will be the fourth one after the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic, the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic and the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open will be included in the LPGA Tour schedule.
The complete tour schedule will be announced in the coming week. The LPGA Tour officials plan to add at least one more event to the schedule to provide maximum exposure to women’s golf around the world.
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