In a year of eye-popping financial numbers in golf, the LPGA Tour is adding a few of its own.
The women’s tour marked another milestone in its growth, announcing last week a 2024 schedule that will feature 33 tournaments worth a record $116 million-plus in official prize money.
Sure, the women’s tour still operates on a different level than the PGA Tour and its $20 million “signature events” and the super-sized contracts with LIV Golf, but the LPGA has made big strides in its quest for parity in the professional game.
“Our global reach and competitiveness have never been stronger,” commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said in a statement released during the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
Earlier in the week, the LPGA announced a two-year sponsorship extension with CME Group, which will boost next year’s purse in the CME Group Tour Championship to a record-tying $11 million, a $4 million increase. The winner will receive a tour-record $4 million, which tops the biggest prizes paid on the PGA Tour this year except for Scottie Scheffler’s $4.5 million at the Players and Viktor Hovland’s bonus-fueled $18 million bonanza at the Tour Championship and matches the LIV Golf winners’ checks. Plus, everyone in the 60-player field for the LPGA’s finale will be guaranteed at least $55,000 as the tour features 19 events with either travel stipends or minimum payouts. Only the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open ($11 million) paid as much.
Other highlights for the 2024 LPGA season:
● 16 tournaments offering purses of $3 million or more;
● Winter and fall series in Asia, with two events in China and tournaments in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand to accommodate a growing player base and business support in the region;
● Recognition for Se Ri Pak, who started the women’s golf boom in South Korea when she won two major titles in 1988, as the headliner for the Se Ri Pak LA Open in suburban Los Angeles, joining Annika Sörenstam and Michelle Wie West as tournament honorees;
● The Olympic Games on August 8-11 at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, France, which will precede two consecutive events in Scotland: the Women’s Scottish Open at a course to be determined and the AIG Women’s Open at the “home of golf,” the storied Old Course in St. Andrews;
● A second consecutive Solheim Cup, to be played September 13-15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, as the biennial match between the U.S. and Europe returns to even-numbered years after the scheduling shakeout from the COVID pandemic.
The tour also signed a two-year agreement with ESPN to stream coverage of featured groups at eight events on ESPN+ for the next two seasons.
Here is the schedule (note that the purses for the five major championships – Chevron Championship, U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA, Amundi Evian Championship and AIG Women’s Open – are 2023 totals and have yet to be confirmed for 2024; * indicates unofficial prize money):
Jan. 18-21
Lake Nona CC, Orlando, Florida
$1.5 million
Bradenton CC, Bradenton, Florida
$1.75 million
Siam CC Pattaya, Thailand
$1.7 million
Sentosa GC, Singapore
$1.8 million
Jian Lake Blue Bay GC, Hainan Island, China
$2.2 million
Palos Verdes GC Palos Verdes Estates, California
TBD Phoenix, Arizona
Shadow Creek GC, Las Vegas, Nevada
$2 million
Club at Carlton Woods, The Woodlands, Texas
$5.2 million
Wilshire CC, Los Angeles, California
$3 million
Upper Montclair CC, Clifton, New Jersey
Liberty National GC, Jersey City, New Jersey
Lancaster CC, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
$11 million
Seaview Bay Course, Galloway, New Jersey
Blythefield CC, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Sahalee CC, Sammamish, Washington
$10 million
Midland CC, Midland, Michigan
Evian Resort GC, Evian-les-Bains, France
$6.5 million
Highlands Meadows GC, Sylvania, Ohio
Earl Grey GC, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
$2.6 million
Columbia Edgewater CC, Portland, Oregon
Le Golf National, Guyancourt, France
TBD in Scotland
St. Andrews Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland
$9 million
TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
$3.5 million
Robert Trent Jones GC Gainesville, Virginia
TBD in Cincinnati, Ohio
Pinnacle CC, Rogers, Arkansas
Qizhong Garden GC, Shanghai, China
$2.1 million
TBD in South Korea
Kuala Lumpur CC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Seta GC, Otsu, Japan
Hoakalei CC, Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
Pelican GC, Belleair, Florida
$3.25 million
Tiburón GC, Naples, Florida
$2 million*
Steve Harmon