Big purse, big trophy, big week for LPGA pros at the JM Eagle LA Championship
By Jeff Babineau
Some might say the subject of money and golf is growing somewhat weary in some corners of the game, but on the LPGA, increased purses have become a story of triumph, and progress, and tremendous momentum. And certainly it is a story telling, and worth touting.
Take this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro, for example. When the husband/wife team of Walter and Shirley Wang, two successful CEOs in the business world, got involved in the event two years ago mostly to support women’s golf, the total purse for the tournament, one easily lost inside the crowded L.A. sports landscape, was $1.5 million. So the Wangs, a couple with a great appreciation for the immense talent and work ethic at the top of the women’s game, decided to instantly double the stakes, to $3 million. This week’s event was given yet another bump, and now sits at $3.75 million, with the champion scheduled to take home $562,500.
It's generous. It’s significant. And other events in other cities have taken notice, too, stepping up and following suit. Top women’s players are happy to play for history and trophies, but they want to make a proper living at their craft, too. Taking the lead at JM Eagle, staged at Wilshire Country Club, Walter and Shirley Wang are doing all the little things to provide a better experience – and better payday – for the competitors.
This week, the field of 144 players competing inside the boundaries of what can be a very expensive city will have their hotel expenses covered by the Wangs, for example. Such gestures do not go underappreciated. The pro-am party, where players take part in a raffle, offered gift cards for travel experiences and shopping.
“It’s an incredible feeling just to witness the growth of the game, the involvement of the sponsors, who really ... just really value how hard we work and how much we love this game,” said Lizette Salas, a California native coming off injury this week and playing in her 13th LPGA season. “They pay attention to details, like Shirley and Walter here, and really just try to take some stress off of our plate for the week.”
The JM Eagle was hoping to have golf’s hottest superstar, Nelly Korda, competing for her sixth consecutive victory this week, which would be an LPGA record. But having won at the season’s first major (Chevron Championship) in Texas on Sunday, Korda, who originally was committed to play in L.A., decided it would be best to get rest this week with four majors and the Olympics in Paris still ahead of her on the 2024 slate.
In an Instagram post released on Monday, Korda said she will be cheering from afar this week, and expressed thanks to Walter and Shirley Wang for the example they have set. Wrote Korda, “your support is so greatly appreciated and you have helped elevate our tour in numerous ways.” She tied for sixth at last year’s event.
Korda is taking the week off and World No. 2 Lilia Vu, last year’s Rolex Player of the Year and a former standout down the road at UCLA, is sidelined by injury, but Thursday’s starting field in the JM Eagle still is stacked. It includes 2023 major champions Ruoning Yin (KPMG Women’s PGA), Allisen Corpuz (U.S. Women’s Open) and Celine Boutier (Evian), as well as last year’s rookie sensation, Rose Zhang, who not only won her debut as a professional (Mizuho Americas) but even made the U.S. Solheim Cup team.
The field also includes Hannah Green, who may be more than 8,000 miles from her home in Australia, but certainly feels right at home in Los Angeles, where already she has built an impressive record. She tied for third at Wilshire Country Club three years ago, was a runner-up (to Nasa Hataoka) in 2022, and last year took home victory, prevailing in a three-way playoff with Aditi Ashok and Xiyu “Janet” Lin.
Green says a weakness in her game can be driving, but at Wilshire, she has done a great job keeping the driver in play, and it has led her to scoring opportunities that she has capitalized upon. She has a host family that’s been great to her and loves everything about the event. There’s even an Aussie diner (Great White) across the street from the club where, if she has a late tee time, she likes to sneak in breakfast.
“I just feel really comfortable there, it’s a really good course,” Green said. “A little bit quirky, greens can be somewhat tricky if you have a downhill putt. ... It’s just a really good atmosphere, and obviously when we get to play really good courses and play for good money, It also kind of incentivizes you to play well.”
It probably comes as no surprise that the trophy Green captured at the JM Eagle is the biggest one that she has won, and she has won some nice ones (including the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major). The giant trophy pretty much falls nicely in line behind all the Wangs have done to elevate this event to be the biggest and best that it can be.
“Besides the base, I have the top,” Green said of the trophy, which she keeps at home in Australia, “so it’s actually the biggest trophy I have won. It’s a very cool mantelpiece.”
It pretty much sums of the way that the LPGA competitors feel about the JM Eagle event as a whole.
Very cool.
