Following yet another historic year for the world’s longest-running women’s sports organization, the LPGA Tour announced today that the 2024 schedule will include 35 events (33 official events) with the world’s best golfers competing for a total prize fund of more than $118 million, with $116.55 million in official money. The 2024 total prize fund represents the highest ever in Tour history, up from approximately $70 million in 2021, a 69% increase.
“The 2024 LPGA Tour schedule reflects our historic growth,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “With new events and improved geographic flow, enhancing the athlete experience, our global reach and competitiveness have never been stronger. As we embark on this season, we celebrate the remarkable journey of women’s golf, anticipating thrilling competition and unforgettable moments for fans worldwide.”
The global schedule will take the LPGA Tour to 15 states in the United States and 10 countries, including two multi-event swings in Asia between February and March and again in October. The year will feature three new events – the previously announced LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Fla., in January and the FM Global Championship in Norton, Mass., in September along with the Arizona Championship presented by JTBC next March. Also, Seri Pak joins major champions Michelle Wie West (Mizuho Americas Open) and Annika Sorenstam (The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican) as an LPGA Tour event host, adding her moniker to the Seri Pak LA Open to be played at Palos Verdes Golf Club in California.
The schedule features a record 16 tournaments with purses of at least $3 million, including 10 non-major and non-Tour Championship events (an increase from four in 2023 and only one in 2021). To date, the four tournaments to elevate their purse size to $3 million in 2024 are the Mizuho Americas Open ($2.75M to $3M), the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give ($2.5M to $3M), the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G ($2.3M to $3M) and the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei ($2M to $3M), which will be contested in November for the first time. The CME Group Tour Championship’s purse saw the biggest increase, from $7M to $11M, which was announced earlier this week.
So far, a total of 10 events have announced elevated purses for next year, including the Seri Pak LA Open ($1.75M to $2M), the LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek ($1.5M to $2M), the Portland Classic ($1.5M to $1.75M), and the CPKC Women’s Open ($2.5M to $2.6M).
Additional purse increases are expected to be announced throughout the season, building on the historic growth the Tour has seen over recent years. Since 2021, prize funds for the non-major and non-Tour Championship tournaments have grown 61%, with major championship purses up 78% over that period. The schedule also features 19 events with either travel stipends for athletes or guaranteed minimum payouts.
The LPGA Tour major championship season kicks off this April in The Woodlands, Texas, at The Club at Carlton Woods for The Chevron Championship, followed by the U.S. Women’s Open in May at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania, where In Gee Chun first broke onto the scene with her 2015 victory. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will take place outside Seattle at Sahalee Country Club in June, the site of Brooke Henderson’s maiden major win in 2016. The Amundi Evian Championship at Evian Resort Golf Club in France, where countrywoman Celine Boutier raised her first major trophy in 2023, is back in July, and the Tour returns to the famed Old Course at St Andrews – the home of golf – for the AIG Women’s Open, the third time the iconic course has hosted the championship.
LPGA Tour athletes will have the opportunity to compete for their home countries between the Portland Classic and Women’s Scottish Open at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will feature a women’s golf competition for the third-straight Games at Le Golf National from Aug. 8-11, three years removed from Nelly Korda’s gold-medal performance in Tokyo. Qualifying for the 60-player field ends following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (June 24, 2024), with the top-15 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings automatically qualifying for the Games (no more than four players per country), and the remaining sports awarded to the highest-ranked players from countries that do not already have two qualified players.
A year after a dramatic showdown between the United States and Europe that led to the first tie in its history, the Solheim Cup marks its return to the United States at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. next September as the U.S. Team looks to win back the Cup on home soil for the first time since 2017. The Grant Thornton Invitational, where LPGA and PGA TOUR players will team up and compete for a combined $4 million purse, will round out the year in December in Naples, Fla.
There will also be increased network television broadcast opportunities, up from 10 in 2023. ESPN+ will also add featured group coverage to four events, which includes the 2024 CME Group Tour Championship. The other three tournaments will be announced next year. The newly inked deal with ESPN+ will also extend through 2025.
Source: LPGA.com
