ESPN Golf

SINGAPORE -- Taking a cue from the men's HSBC Champions event, the LPGA Tour announced a new Asia-based tournament to be added to the schedule in 2008.

The HSBC Women's Champions will take place Feb. 28-March 2, with a field of 78 players competing over four rounds of stroke play. Winners on the LPGA Tour, leading money winners from the Japan Ladies Professional Golf Association (JLPGA), Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour, Ladies European Tour (LET), Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG), Duramed Futures Tour, Ladies Asian Golf Tour (LAGT) and the top player from the continent of Africa will each qualify for the event.

"This event will bring together the champions from the LPGA and from the leading tours around the world and will showcase the global talent of women's professional golf," LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said in a statement. "By bringing this event to Asia, we believe we are extending the popularity of the game."

The inaugural HSBC Women's Champions will boast a prize money of $2 million (with $300,000 to the winner), the largest purse for a women's event in Asia, and will be played at the prestigious Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. Tanah Merah has already hosted a number of top class professional events including the Singapore Open, the Johnnie Walker Classic and the LPGA-sanctioned Lexus Cup in 2005 and 2006.

"I am really excited to hear about the HSBC Women's Champions," Korea's Se Ri Pak said. "The new location and qualifying criteria will make it a very exciting week. When my countryman Yong-Eun Yang won the men's Champions event, the papers called it Asia's Major, so this would be a fantastic title for me to win."