McPherson gaining playing opportunities

In the past couple weeks, Conway native Kristy McPherson and her fellow players on the LPGA Tour have gained a few opportunities to play and earn more later this year. They'll have to travel, however. The LPGA Hana Bank Championship was added to the 2010 schedule, according to an announcement on the the LPGA Tour web site, and the Sybase Match Play Championship in Gladstone, N.J., was added two weeks ago. That gives the LPGA, which lost tournaments and sponsors in bunches last year, 25 official events with 11 international events, including five in Asia. The LPGA season begins in Asia next week with the Honda PTT LPGA Thailand tournament. The HSBC Women's Champions follows the next week in Singapore, and McPherson plans to play in both. She has an overseas flight scheduled this upcoming Saturday.
The new Hana Bank Championship will be played Oct. 29-31 at a course yet-to-be-named in or around Seoul, South Korea. The tour said Hana Bank signed a three-year sponsorship agreement. The event will have a limited field of 69 players with a $1.8 million purse, and there will be spots for 50 of the LPGA's top players, according to the tour's announcement. That should include McPherson, who finished 16th on the 2009 money list with more than $800,000 earned.
The Hana event is part of a three-tournament fall swing through Asia. The LPGA China event, expected to lead off the swing Oct. 22-24, has yet to announce a title sponsor. The Mizuno Classic in Japan is scheduled Nov. 5-7.