The LPGA Tour is bringing back its Tournament of Champions event, re-christening it starting in 2019 with the help of Diamond Resorts International.
The Tour and Diamond Resorts announced the formation of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, set to kick off the 2019 LPGA season from Jan. 17-20 at Tranquilo Golf Club at Four Seasons Resort (the former Osprey Ridge Golf Course at Walt Disney World) in Orlando, Fla.
The Tournament of Champions was previously played at various sites in the southeastern United States from 1994 to 2007, most recently at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail's Magnolia Grove Golf Course in Mobile, Ala.
The tournament will feature a field of LPGA winners from the 2017 and 2018 seasons vying for a $1.2 million purse. The field will also include 45 celebrity participants and 10 amateurs, who will each be paired with LPGA players for all four tournament days. The celebrity field will play for their piece of a $500,000 purse, similar to how the Diamond Resorts Invitational worked when it was an unofficial event on PGA Tour Champions. That event appears to be no longer, with Diamond Resorts focusing on an official LPGA event.
All 2018 LPGA winners will also receive a week-long stay at any Diamond Resorts-managed property.
The tournament will air on Golf Channel on Thursday and Friday, with NBC airing weekend afternoon coverage after a Golf Channel lead-in window.
