Corning Classic is back on LPGA calendar in 2027 after 18-year absence
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The Corning Classic is back. One of the longest-running events in LPGA history – 31 years – will return to the tour’s schedule in 2027 after an 18-year absence.
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It will be the same town, same course, same sponsor – only different.
“This is not your grandmother’s Corning,” said Corning executive Lewis Steverson.
Forget cookware; today’s Corning develops everything from cell phone cover glass that won’t scratch or break to the optical fiber that’s delivering the call. In June, Corning and Amazon announced a multi-billion dollar deal for Corning to deliver the optical fiber needed to expand U.S. data centers. In May, Nvidia announced a new partnership with Corning that will create upwards of 3,000 new jobs in the U.S. In January, Corning announced a multiyear partnership with Meta that's worth up to $6 billion to build out its data centers.
“We are at the epicenter of doing AI from an infrastructure standpoint,” said Steverson.
As Corning celebrates 175 years, the company has decided to get back into the business of hosting the best players in the world in Corning, New York. The event, now simply called “The Classic,” will be held May 27-30, 2027 and feature a stout purse of $5 million purse, among the highest of non-major events.
A beloved LPGA stop for decades, past champions include some of the greatest to ever play the game – JoAnne Carner, Betsy King (twice), Patty Sheehan, Pat Bradley, Beth Daniel and Annika Sorenstam.
The last player to win the event in 2009 was, fittingly, five-time major winner Yani Tseng, who is in the midst of her own comeback. She’ll return with a twist of her own – putting left-handed.
"Community support was always at the heart of what made this tournament so enjoyable to play," said Sorenstam, who won in 2004, "so I know that the latest generation of players are going to love the event just as much as we all did.”
The event will be held at Corning Country Club and will be promoted and operated by IMG. Steverson, vice chairman, executive vice president and chief legal and administrative officer at Corning, said he’s been talking to IMG and the LPGA about bringing the event back for seven years. It makes sense now, he said, because Corning wants to share the success of the company with the community.
“This event has been a way for us all to share something together, and when I say community, I don't mean just Corning,” he said, “I mean, the southern tier of New York and Western New York.”
The town of Corning has a population of about 11,000 people, and 5,000 of them are Corning employees.
As for the name change, Steverson said they put a lot of thought into that too.
“There are lots of tournaments out there, both PGA and LPGA, that have ‘Classic’ in the title, but there's no tournament out there that is called ‘The Classic,’” said Steverson. “And so, what we're trying to do is we want this tournament to be unique. Our vision for it is that it's going to be a beacon on the hill for all the other tournaments. So we don't want it to be the whatever classic. We wanted to be ‘The Classic.’ We want it to be iconic and something that everybody else looks to. So that's sort of the straightforward aspect of it.
“The more nuanced aspect of it is we're being kind of subtle in, when people look at the name, they won't know who the sponsor is immediately. And so, they're going to have to look it up. And then when they look it up, they're going to see, oh, it's Corning. And so their perception of what Corning is, is likely to be wrong. So if it had Corning, the Corning Classic, and they didn't have to look it up, they would think about Pyrex and they would think about cookware. And we've been out of those businesses for 30 years.”
The last reason for the title change, he added, is that they want to give other world-class companies in the area a chance to get involved, and keeping the Corning name out of the title allows for a better chance of that happening.
Corning dropped off the schedule during a time of great upheaval on the LPGA under the leadership of former commissioner Carolyn Bivens, who was ousted several months after Tseng won the final edition. As the company worked through layoffs of its own and the event hemorrhaged money, Corning joined a list of lost events on the LPGA.
Much has changed, however, in nearly 20 years. What Corning delivered best for so long is what many would argue the tour needs the most right now – a great atmosphere.
Perhaps in that way, it will be like your grandmother's Corning.
Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek, covering the LPGA and women's golf.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Corning Classic is back on LPGA calendar in 2027 after 18-year absence