THE Caribbean’s number one rated golfing destination — Jamaica — will stage the inaugural MOJO 6 Raceway Golf tournament at Cinnamon Hill Course in Montego Bay from April 13-16.

This is the first time in 20 years that Jamaica will host an event sanctioned by the Ladies Professional Golf Association, (LPGA).

The MOJO 6, which was launched at the Caymanas Golf and Country Club yesterday, will boast 15 elite female golfers, including six of the world’s seven top-ranked players.

Paula Creamer, Cristina Kim and Suzann Pettersen have already confirmed their participation, while fans will be invited to vote to select a 16th player to compete for the US$ 1 million dollar purse. Fifteen-year-old Mariah Stackhouse has also been invited by the tournament’s organisers to compete.

Raceway Golf is played over two days with 16 golfers playing six-hole matches. The top eight will go on to the Championship on day two and will compete in a bracket single-elimination where three match victories crown the champion.

The tournament will be broadcast on network television on CBS on May 1 and 2 and is expected to attract viewers in over one million households world-wide.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who was keynote speaker at the launch, said he was pleased about golf’s return to the Olympics at the 2016 event in Rio de Janeiro and said that six years would not be too short a time to bring high profile attention to the sport locally.

“The kind of attention that it is going to bring to Jamaica, the exposure, the publicity that it is going to give us is far beyond the value of the prizes that are being awarded,” he said.

Jamaican female golfers such as local champion Jodi Munn and junior player Vittoria Marley will also be able to display their skills in the amateur section.

Olympic medal winning swimmer, Ed Moses, who is part of the organising committee, was optimistic about the new format of the sport as well as the event and what it has to offer.

“We really believe it’s gonna shock the world and we want this to be one of the most viewed events for the LPGA this year,” Moses said.