S. Korea's lone LPGA tournament to be played at new venue in Oct.

▲ In this file photo from Oct. 24, 2021, Ko Jin-young of South Korea holds a cake celebrating the 200th LPGA victory by a South Korean player after winning the BMW Ladies Championship at LPGA International Busan in Busan, some 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

▲ In this file photo from Oct. 24, 2021, Ko Jin-young of South Korea kisses the champion's trophy after winning the BMW Ladies Championship at LPGA International Busan in Busan, some 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

LPGA Tour-S Korea

S. Korea's lone LPGA tournament to be played at new venue in Oct.

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's only LPGA tournament will be played at a new course this fall, the event's organizers announced Tuesday.

BMW Korea said the third edition of the BMW Ladies Championship will take place at Oak Valley Country Club in Wonju, some 85 kilometers east of Seoul in Gangwon Province. The 72-hole stroke play tournament will run from Oct. 20 to 23.

Oak Valley, designed by the renowned architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., has 36 holes over courses named Oak, Pine, Maple and Cherry. The BMW Ladies Championship will be played on Oak, Maple and Cherry, the organizers said.

BMW Korea noted Oak Valley's natural beauty, highlighted by its signature oak trees, and its convenient location for fans from the greater Seoul area and the adjacent Chungcheong provinces.

The first two editions of the tournament were held at LPGA International Busan in Busan, some 325 kilometers southeast of Seoul. The event was inaugurated in 2019, but the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It rejoined the LPGA calendar last October during the tour's annual Asian swing.

Tickets to the tournament will be on sale later this month, once the official website is up and running, BMW said.

In June this year, BMW had said it would move the tournament around South Korea each year, taking cues from the way the U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open are run by the United States Golf Association.

The tournament will offer US$2 million in total purse, with $300,000 going to the champion, making it the second-most lucrative competition in Asia this year.

The organizers said this year's event will feature 78 players -- 68 from the LPGA Tour, eight on special invitations and two amateurs as selected by the Korea Golf Association.

A South Korean player captured each of the first two editions of the tournament: Jang Hana in 2019 and Ko Jin-young in 2021.

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