Record purses this season on the LPGA

The first thing that CEOs Walter and Shirley Wang did at the helm of the J.M. Eagle L.A. Championship presented by Plastpro when they took the tournament’s lead in 2023 was to double the purse, making a $1.5 million event into a $3 million event. Certainly, that drew the attention of players.

It also drew the attention of other events, as well. Already, the major championships in women’s golf had begun to raise the bar to close the gap on the dollars that the men play for, really raising their games, but non-majors started looking at their own events and finding ways they might do better.

With several other tournaments deciding to follow the lead set forth by the JM Eagle LA Championship – which now plays for $3.75 million, most of any non-major outside of the CME Group Tour Championship, purses on the LPGA will exceed $120 million this season. Earlier this decade that number was closer to $80 million, so there has been a considerable increase.

In fact, the LPGA, coming off the Chevron Championship last week in Houston, is in the early stages of a run of 10 events (starting at Chevron), nine of which have bumped purses to $3 million and beyond.