The Epson Tour will play its largest golf match on the Indian Wells Golf Resort in 2024, however officers from the Metropolis of Indian Wells and the golf resort are making no secret that they wish to carry the LPGA again to the Coachella Valley at their programs.
“First, it places us again within the recreation,” stated Robin Graf, the brand new common supervisor on the Indian Wells Golf Resort. “It provides us a possibility to probably host extra occasions sooner or later, and greater occasions.”
The Indian Wells Metropolis Council voted 5-0 on Thursday to approve a one-year $100,000 sponsorship for the 2024 season finale of the Epson Tour, the developmental tour for the LPGA. That occasion, to be known as the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells, will probably be performed on the Gamers Course of the golf resort on Sept. 30-Oct. 6.
Whereas the Epson Tour Championship turns into the most important golf occasion performed on the golf resort for now, metropolis employees and council members talked overtly in regards to the prospect of an LPGA occasion for the town sooner or later. The LPGA left the desert after the 2022 Chevron Championship at Mission Hills Nation Membership in Rancho Mirage, with the key championship transferring to Houston. That left the Coachella Valley with out an LPGA occasion for the primary time in 51 years.
The Epson Tour occasion may present the LPGA {that a} common LPGA occasion is viable for the desert within the fall, and that the Indian Wells Golf Resort is the place to carry such a match.
“Let’s not lose sight of the truth that we have now had a golden alternative dropped into our laps,” council member Greg Sanders stated throughout council dialogue of the sponsorship. “The Dinah Shore, the ANA match, the final yr it was right here it was sponsored by Chevron, I believe. They moved out. I’m going to ask Go to Higher Palm Springs what the financial spinoff was from the ANA. I assure you it’s large.”
Sanders added the thought of the Epson Tour sponsorship is to get the LPGA to see Indian Wells as a top-flight candidate for an LPGA occasion.
“I see this as a strategic funding,” Sanders added.
Picture courtesy Epson Tour/Ben Harpring
Metropolis, residents advantages
The council selected a $100,000 sponsorship over a $50,000 possibility for the Epson Tour occasion. Metropolis supervisor Christopher Freeland defined that the $100,000 degree contains every little thing the $50,000 degree options together with the town identify and brand included into match promotion and promoting, pro-am groups within the match, participation in a meet the professionals social gathering and VIP passes for the 4 days of the 72-hole skilled match. However the $100,000 degree additionally contains discounted tickets for metropolis residents and a delegated seating space alongside the 18th inexperienced for residents. Freeland additionally identified the $100,000 sponsorship could be considered extra favorably by the LPGA for any future match discussions.
Indian Wells is already the house of the two-week BNP Paribas Open on the Indian Wells Tennis Backyard every March, the Ironman 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta in December and has a sponsorship cope with the Coachella Valley Firebirds hockey membership. For golf, the town hosted a PGA Tour Champion occasion at The Classic Membership from 1981-92 and on the golf resort in 1993 in addition to three years of the LG Skins Recreation from 2006-08.
“Golf is the epicenter of Indian Wells. It all the time has been because the Nineteen Eighties,” council member Bruce Whitman stated. “I believe golf is our previous, our current and our future. And so our golf resort, that campus with the lodges and the golf programs, that’s the financial engine of our metropolis. All we will do to encourage extra golf on this metropolis can solely profit this metropolis.”
Council member Dana Reed stated he helps the sponsorship deal, however would really like the town employees to audit claims in regards to the golf match and different sports activities sponsorships the town has. One such declare is the Epson Tour saying the Tour Championship will produce 1,930 room nights in space lodges, with Freeland acknowledging a few of these room nights might be in different desert cities.
Freeland added that whereas the sponsorship voted on by the council Thursday is a one-year deal, it may result in a multi-year settlement with the Epson Tour and deeper discussions with the LPGA a couple of match on that bigger tour.
Because the developmental tour for the LPGA, the Epson Tour has 24 occasions throughout the nation, together with one in Beaumont every March. Purses for Epson occasions are between $200,000 and $375,000, with the Tour Championship that includes a $250,000 purse final month in Florida.
The highest 10 cash winners on the tour annually earn LPGA exemptions for the next yr, with the Tour Championship the ultimate occasion of that exemption chase. High gamers on the LPGA who’ve graduated from the Epson Tour embody main championship winners Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, with Epson Tour graduates profitable greater than 400 LPGA titles.
