Epson Tour’s arrival in desert marks possible step toward LPGA return

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Is this really the first step for the LPGA to come back to the Coachella Valley?

Could playing the Epson Tour Championship at the Indian Wells Golf Resort truly open the door to the LPGA’s return to the desert after the women’s tour left following the 2022 Chevron Championship, ending a run of 51 years at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage?

Officials at the City of Indian Wells have not been shy about how they covet the LPGA returning and making sure that return happens at the city-owned golf resort. As the Epson Tour Championship comes to the resort this week to award 15 tour cards for the 2025 LPGA season, the possibility of an LPGA return to the desert is tantalizing.

But it is hardly a slam dunk, either.

Lots of cities in the country would love to host a professional golf event, anything from the LPGA or PGA Tour or the PGA Tour Champions. But the things that have to fall into place for any such tour to bring its traveling road show to your town are numerous and varied.

The LPGA had a great date in the desert at the end of March and the start of April with the Chevron Championship, the major championship played under various names at Mission Hills Country Club. But that date in the first quarter of the year was gobbled up by the PGA Tour Champions with the Galleri Classic. Could an October date, with weather that can be fantastic or very hot, fit into the LPGA schedule down the road?

The Players Course at Indian Wells Golf Resort will be the home of the Epson Tour Championship this year, with the Celebrity Course the possible home in 2025 as the Players Course undergoes major renovations and re-routing. Some of those renovations will be designed to accommodate a big-time tournament better than the course’s current configuration. Will the LPGA look at the reconfigured course and approve?

The simple translation for that is money. A sponsor has to carry a large part of the cost of producing a tournament, from setting up the golf course to television costs to the purse of the event. The City of Indian Wells is the sponsor of the Epson event, but the city might not want to carry the burden of an entire LPGA tournament. That would mean finding either a title sponsor or at least a presenting sponsor to throw some money into the pot. Remember, a new event in the desert would still have a purse of at least $2 million, if not more.

Every tournament requires someone, either one person or more likely a group of people, to…