More tourneys, bigger purses for LPGA in 2012

Making good on promises that 2012 would be a stronger year than last season for the LPGA Tour, commissioner Mike Whan released a schedule Tuesday night that will have golfers playing four more tournaments than they did in 2011. The calendar, which includes the addition of four full-field contests, also has two more U.S. events than the women played in 2011.

Up from 27 competitions from 23, the tour also added $6.6 million in prize money for a total of $47 million this year. With the LPGA Founders Cup kicking off the U.S. portion of the schedule in March and paying out $1.5 million in place of last year’s mock purse, that really means there are five new events offering cash prizes.

Still, Whan proclaimed himself not "satisfied" with the status quo and told us Tuesday night he expected to add a 28th event sometime in the fall.

"I’m not completely sure I’m done with 2012," Whan said. "I still do believe we’ll add [another event] in ’12."

LPGA Tour commissioner Mike Whan adds four new events to the LPGA's 2012 schedule (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

New to the tour are the season-opening ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in Melbourne; the Manulife Financial LPGA Classic in Waterloo, Ontario; the return of the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic; and the recently announced LPGA Lotte Championship in Hawaii.

A surprise addition was a return to the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va., with the announcement of the new $1.3 million Kingsmill Championship in September. The tour last played in Williamsburg three years ago and Whan plans to move the 2013 event back its traditional May time slot.

The boost in venues and prize money was an obvious move in the right direction. "We’ve proven to all the people saying the LPGA is in trouble that that’s obviously not an issue," Whan said.

While he expected fans and pundits to focus on the new tournaments, Whan noted that he was "confident about the future" because of the "core elements" (tourney sponsors and marketing partners, especially) that have helped him offer expanded purses and enjoy a 29 percent spike in viewership in 2011 compared with the previous year. With the Golf Channel set to provide live weekend broadcasts of each North American event; the potential for a burgeoning rivalry between world No. 1 Yani Tseng and teen phenom Lexi Thompson; and the "raw talent" of players like Suzann Pettersen, Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, and Na Yeon Choi giving Tseng a run for her money, that number should increase again.

"I’d be really floored if there’s not a two-, there-, or four-horse race throughout 2012," Whan said. "But then I did not predict what happened [with Tseng dominating the tour] in ’11.

"There’s too much young talent to think someone could just run away and hide," Whan said.

Click here for the full roster -- thus far -- of LPGA tournaments for 2012.