New LPGA tour schedule drops with historic purse increases

24/11/2023 18:40

After the step back that was the pandemic a few years ago now, the LPGA has gone from strength to strength.

Nowhere has this been reflected more than in the record purses announced alongside the 2024 schedule.

The LPGA announced a $116.5 million total purse in 2024, a $15.2 million raise from $101.3 million this season to give players a terrific dangling carrot.

The schedule also includes another Solheim Cup, contested for back-to-back years for the first time since 2002-03, and the Olympics tournament at Le Golf National in Guyancourt.

“The 2024 LPGA Tour schedule reflects our historic growth,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a statement. “With new events and improved geographic flow, enhancing the athlete experience, our global reach and competitiveness have never been stronger."

The season gets underway on 18 January at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and concludes at the CME Group Tour Championship on 24 November, a little more than 11 months later.

The number of non-major events on the LPGA schedule with purses above $3 million has increased from four to ten.

From this season to the next, the purses of four events—the Mizuho Americas Open ($2.75 million to $3 million), the Meijer LPGA Classic ($2.5 million to $3 million), the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship ($2.3 million to $3 million), and the Lotte Championship, which saw a $1 million rise ($2 million to $3 million)—rose to the $3 million mark.

The US Women’s Open will be played at Pebble Beach for the first time, and the Chevron will move to The Club at Carlton Woods, but all five majors in 2024 will return to well-known locations.

This year’s five majors were characterised by trips to new courses, but in 2024 we return to some grand former hosts.

The US Women’s Open will return to Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club, where it was held in 2015; the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will return to Sahalee Country Club outside of Seattle, which hosted the major in 2016; and the AIG Women’s Open will return to the Old Course at St Andrews, marking the third time the LPGA has played at the renowned venue. The Amundi Evian Championship and the Chevron will both be held at the same courses as last year.

The U.S. Women’s Open and the CME Group Tour Championship, which increased its prize by $4 million for 2024 this week, share the biggest purse of the season at $11 million. Although there has been development in non-major events, the majors and Tour Championship still account for a large portion of the LPGA purse. Just those six tournaments will account for 45.2% of the season purse in 2024, compared to 47% this year.

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