LPGA International Busan

BMW To Sponsor New LPGA Event In S. Korea

SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- German automaker BMW will sponsor a new LPGA Tour event to be held in the southeastern port city of Busan, officials said Thursday.

BMW agreed to serve as the main sponsor for the US$2 million tournament, which will be held at the Asiad Country Club in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, for three years starting in 2019. The exact name of the tournament will be determined later.

Busan and the LPGA reached an agreement for the tournament in March. The course will be renamed LPGA International Busan following major renovations by renowned golf course architect Rees Jones.

"As a global brand, BMW is already hosting a number of great international golf tournaments on the PGA Tour and the European Tour," said Kim Hyo-joon, chairman of BMW Korea. "Building on the know-how of having hosted a Korean women's tournament over the past three years, we'd like to make further contributions to the golf industry. We'll work with the city of Busan and the LPGA to build a great tournament together."

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan added, "This tournament has all the ingredients of a world class event -- great brand, great city, great golf course, and the best female golfers on the planet. This will be big."

Busan is the second South Korean host city of an LPGA event. Incheon, just west of Seoul, has been staging the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship since 2008. The tournament began in 2002 in Jeju under a different corporate sponsor.

South Korea is one of seven Asian nations that stages an LPGA tournament, along with China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. The LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship is held in October during LPGA's annual Asian swing, while events in Thailand and Singapore come in the early part of the season, usually late February and early March.

South Korean players have dominated the LPGA Tour for several years. In 2017, two South Koreans, Park Sung-hyun and Ryu So-yeon, shared the Player of the Year honors, the first time there were co-winners for the top individual award since its inception in 1966. Park also won the top rookie award, becoming the third-straight South Korean to be so honored.

A dozen tournaments into 2018, four different South Koreans have each won once. On the current women's world rankings, five of the top-10 players hail from South Korea.

In this photo provided by BMW Korea on May 24, 2018, Kim Hyo-joon (L), chairman of BMW Korea, and Mike Whan, commissioner of the LPGA, pose with an agreement on BMW's sponsorship of a new LPGA tournament to take place in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, starting in 2019. (Yonhap)