La Costa Resort and Spa to Host An Official LPGA Event For The First Time in March 2010

The La Costa Resort and Spa will host an official LPGA event for the first time in March.

The LPGA Tour announced its 2010 schedule on Wednesday. Among its 24 tournaments is the LPGA Classic Presented by J Golf on March 25-28 at the La Costa Resort and Spa. J Golf, a Korean broadcasting company, recently signed a five-year deal with the LPGA. The tournament will have a $1.7 million purse and will be the first event of the season in the United States.

The LPGA season kicks off in Thailand on Feb. 18, followed by a tournament in Singapore before coming to La Costa.

The schedule, which includes 13 tournaments in the United States, is the LPGA's smallest in nearly 40 years.

The LPGA Championship, the season's second major, will be held at Locust Hill golf course in suburban Rochester, N.Y., in June.

The recession-pinched LPGA Tour is shrinking to 24 tournaments in 2010, down from 27 this year and 34 in 2008.

Newly named the LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans, the $2.25 million tournament will be held June 24-27 in the suburb of Pittsford. Locust Hill has been a perennially popular LPGA Tour stop since 1977 and the Wegmans LPGA will return there in 2011.

"We are grateful to Colleen Wegman and Wegmans Food Markets for their continued commitment to the LPGA," acting commissioner Marty Evans said in a statement, "and look forward to working closely with them while concurrently continuing our discussions with potential long-term partners for the LPGA Championship."

The championship, launched in 1955, is one of four majors on the LPGA Tour.