Golf Channel’s domestic coverage of the 2012 LPGA Tour season is the most anticipated in the network’s history, featuring full coverage of the first two major championships and unique storytelling of the game’s current and rising stars, all kicking off Thursday in Arizona with the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup. Golf Channel’s live coverage of the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup will take place Thursday-Friday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET, followed by live weekend coverage from 4-7 p.m. ET. The tournament coverage will include features on the LPGA’s Founding Members and Pioneers, Hall-of-Fame players and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf Program. Headlining the 2012 broadcast schedule will be live coverage of the Kraft Nabisco Championship (March 29-April 1), golf’s first major championship of the season. Golf Channel will broadcast 20 hours of live coverage throughout the tournament, including six hours of live coverage on Thursday and Friday. The season’s second major of the year, Wegmans LPGA Championship, will air on Golf Channel June 7-10, when World No. 1 Yani Tseng will look to defend her 2011 title. In total, Golf Channel will broadcast 23 LPGA Tour events – the majority produced in high definition – in 2012. Golf Channel also will expand its LPGA broadcast team in 2012. Rich Lerner will join Terry Gannon and Tom Abbott as play-by-play hosts, with Kelly Tilghman joining the team as show host for the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the Wegmans LPGA Championship and the CME Group Titleholders. Scottsdale resident Brandel Chamblee will serve as lead analyst this week for the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup, and Matt Gogel and Curt Byrum will make guest appearances throughout the year as tower reporters. Hall-of-Famer Judy Rankin, Jane Crafter, Kay Cockerill, Val Skinner, Jerry Foltz and Phil Parkin all return to Golf Channel’s LPGA broadcast team in 2012.