For over three decades, the Corning Classic was synonymous with the LPGA's visit to the Crystal City, home of its namesake Fortune 500 company.

In August, Corning announced that the LPGA would be returning to the Corning Country Club in 2027, but with a slight twist.

Corning is still sponsoring the tournament, a four-day showcase that puts New York state's Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions on a global stage, but the event will now simply be known as "The Classic."

What happened to Corning?

Well, a lot has changed at the company since the LPGA's last visit in 2009.

Lewis Steverson, Corning Inc. Vice Chairman, said there was a lot of debate about changing the name of the tournament from the LPGA Corning Classic, as it was known for 31 years, to The Classic. 

“People liked the name of the LPGA Corning Classic, and that's what everybody still calls it,” Steverson said. “Now it’s The Classic. There is a pretty straightforward reason behind it, and there's a little bit of a nuanced reason for it.” 

Steverson said Corning wanted to pay homage to the previous name of the longstanding tournament while adding to the prestige of the event when it returns May 27-30 with a $5 million purse.

“At Corning Inc. we are all about legacy,” Steverson said. “We really like having that tied back, but there are 34 LPGA tournaments. A few of them have 'classic' in their name. There is no tournament on the LPGA or the PGA called The Classic. We want to be iconic, and we want it to represent what the word classic means, kind of like the Masters. There is no other Masters, this is The Classic.” 

Steverson also said the company didn't want the tournament to just be about Corning – the company, the town or the country club – giving room for attention to fall on the players and other event partners.

“We wanted to see more about the players. We want to see more about the tournament,” Steverson said. “One of the things that we're doing is we're going to pull in other sponsors. If we had Corning in the name, then maybe big companies that are now coming back as part of the resurgence of Western New York coming in might be a little bit reluctant to be a sponsor, so we want it just to be The Classic and it will be The Classic for the players on tour and for Western New York.” 

At the same time, Corning will still have plenty of its branding around the tournament.

“We are the title sponsor,” he said. “But we want it to be less about us and more about the players and about the tournament.” 

A little mystery, though, may not be a bad thing. Steverson said he wants people who watch The Classic to wonder who the sponsor is. 

“Then they look it up and they look up Corning Inc. and realize this is not the Corning Inc. they thought it was,” Steverson said. “When a lot of people think of Corning, they still think of dishes, they think of Pyrex.” 

The company has changed a great deal since Yani Tseng won Corning's last LPGA event.

As Steverson puts it, “This is not your grandmother’s Corning.”

Today, Corning Inc. is at the epicenter of the infrastructure driving the artificial intelligence boom, an industry that didn't even exist in 2009.

“You don’t use AI without Corning Inc.,” Steverson said. “To make AI work the way AI needs to work, it’s going to be done with Corning Inc. fiber. One thing I tell people when I first meet them is that when you woke up today and did anything, you touched a Corning Inc. product.” 

This year alone, Corning has struck partnerships with Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, AT&T and Verizon totaling billions of dollars. In 2025, Apple announced that Corning will produce 100% of the cover glass on iPhone and Apple Watch units.

“That’s Corning Inc. glass on your phone,” Steverson said. "All the fiber optics that create the backbone of the internet, that’s Corning Inc. technology. TVs, display glass, catalytic converters in your car, glass in your car, that comes from Corning Inc. technology, and people are stunned by that.“ 

Steverson said Wendell Weeks, Corning's Chief Executive Officer, likes to say that material science is slow, slow, slow, and then it’s really fast. 

"Right now, it's really fast," Steverson said.  

LPGA quickly builds excitement around return to Corning

The LPGA has already noted a wave of momentum for Corning's return to the tour. Former champion and current broadcaster Morgan Pressel said it has been "one of the most excited and talked about tournament announcements that I can remember in my career."

LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler said anytime the LPGA introduces a new event, it starts from scratch and has to build the excitement among the players, sponsors and fans over time.

Not so in Corning.

“This is different,” Kessler said. “We’ve been on a short 18-year hiatus in Corning, but the fact that there's so much pent-up demand for this event means we're off to the great start. My hope is that other tournaments we add to our schedule can take a page out of the Corning playbook and build something special. This event existed here for generations.”