Life insurance provider Symetra has extended its title sponsorship of the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s official developmental tour and two of its tournaments.
The deal will run for four seasons, from 2017 to 2021.
The LPGA’s development tour has been known as the ‘Symetra Tour – Road to the LPGA’ since the firm began its sponsorship in 2011, and will retain this name under the new deal.
Symetra will also continue its sponsorship of the Symetra Classic held in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the season-ending Symetra Tour Championship Presented by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
In addition, Symetra has pledged incremental dollars to a purse subsidy fund that provides a financial match to tournaments that raise their purses starting in 2016. As part of this programme, the 2016 purses of the Symetra Classic and Symetra Tour Championship will increase to $150,000 (€131,000) and $200,000, respectively.
Mike Nichols, chief business officer of the Symetra Tour, said: “Symetra has been a committed partner for the past four years, but challenged us to find a way they could contribute to raising purses across the schedule.”