Rolex To Be Presenting Sponsor Of LPGA's Season-Ending Tourney

By Jon Show, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

IMG has signed Rolex to serve as presenting sponsor of the LPGA’s season-ending event in Houston. The LPGA Tour Championship presented by Rolex, to be held November 17-22, is owned and operated by IMG and sanctioned by the LPGA. Terms were unavailable, but industry sources said IMG was recently seeking $2-3M annually for the event. As previously announced, all four rounds of the $1.5M purse event will air on Golf Channel. The tournament, originally title sponsored by Stanford Financial, was planned with a $2M purse and two rounds of television coverage on NBC, but the U.S. government placed the company in receivership earlier this year amid fraud allegations. Unlike most LPGA events, the tournament, scheduled for The Houstonian Golf & Country Club, will make cuts after the second and third rounds to take the field from 120 players to the top 30 plus ties in the final round. Rolex’s golf portfolio includes sponsorship of the LPGA’s world rankings, the Solheim Cup, and deals with Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam.