When fans walk into Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., next week for the ANA Inspiration, the first LPGA major of the season, the "most obvious change will be a switch from the red and white colors of former sponsor Kraft to the blue of All Nippon Airways," according to Larry Bohannan of the Palm Springs DESERT SUN. ANA Inspiration Dir Gabe Codding, who works for IMG, said, "You are going to see a complete rebrand. You are going to see that right off the bat. You are going to see a transition in color palette. You are going to see small instances where the culture has come in to take and amplify the current traditions." Bohannan notes other changes, "perhaps small for 2015 with larger possibilities" for '16, "reflect ANA's first year of a five-year sponsorship deal for the tournament," which had been called the Kraft Nabisco Championship. The ANA deal "provides the tournament with a needed bump in the purse" from $2M in '14 to $2.5M this year, "more in line with the event's major championship status." The partnership of the LPGA, ANA and IMG "only goes back to November." That left "little time for significant changes to be put in place" for the '15 event. Tournament officials "hope fans feel a renewed energy in the event that ANA can provide, energy that might have been absent as Kraft pieced together an exit strategy from the major event championship in the last few years." Codding: "I think there is a tangible atmosphere when there is someone who is engaged as opposed to someone who is not engaged." Bohannan notes for ANA, sponsoring a women's golf tournament in the U.S. "is an opportunity to elevate the company's profile for American travelers" (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 3/27).
