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The LPGA Tour will play for $127.5 million in official prize money in 2025, another record for the circuit that has worked independently of the PGA Tour for 75 years.
The schedule announced Wednesday at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, has a few moving parts that include new tournaments in Utah and Mexico, the end of a 40-year run in Ohio and its Founders Cup merging into a previous tournament.
The official prize money does not include the $2 million International Crown, held every two years as the only team event in golf where countries compete against each other; and the $2 million Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed team event with the PGA Tour.
The LPGA Tour is playing for $123.75 million in official prize money in 2024.
The tour also announced that Chicago-based CME Group has extended its sponsorship of the Race to CME Globe for two years through 2027.
The CME Group Tour Championship has more than doubled its purse to $11 million, with $4 million going to the winner this week. The only bigger payoff in women's sport is the WTA Finals. Coco Gauff won $4.8 million earlier this month.
The Players Championship ($4.5 million) and U.S. Open ($4.3 million) are the only golf tournaments that paid more than what the CME Group Tour Championship winner will get.
“The metrics and the numbers are eye-popping in terms of the growth that we’ve had over the last several years,” LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said Wednesday.
“We're really proud that other women’s sports are starting to get the financial investment that women’s golf has enjoyed, and we’re proud of the role that we’ve played in elevating women’s sports in general,” she said. “The best women in the world need to make a living that matches their level of excellence, and we’re fighting every day to achieve that goal.”
The prize money has increased nearly 90% in four years, led by the majors and CME Group boosting purses at the biggest events.
Marcoux Samaan said the LPGA tried to improve the geographic flow of the schedule and it avoided playing the same week as five of the six biggest events in men's golf next year. It plays only the same week as the U.S. Open (Meijer LPGA Classic).
The LPGA will be off during The Players Championship, Masters, PGA Championship, British Open and Ryder Cup.
The Chevron Championship, the first major, was moved back one week so it doesn't start just four days after the Masters.
Marcoux Samaan also said the LPGA will have fully subsidized health insurance for its players next year. Previously, they had an $1,800 stipend in 2021 that grew to $4,000 this year. Full coverage is “something we’ve been working on in this organization for a really long time, and we’re really proud of that,” she said.
Among the tweaks to the 2025 schedule was starting two weeks later for a slightly longer offseason. The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida starts Jan. 30.
Cognizant no longer sponsors the $3 million Founders Cup in New Jersey. Instead, the Founders Cup replaces the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida, with a $2 million purse.
New to the schedule is a return to Mexico for the Riviera Maya Open in Cancun, and the Black Desert Championship in Utah, which hosted a PGA Tour event on the same course this fall.
The LPGA also put the Hawaii stop on the front end of the fall Asia swing, instead of behind it as players made their way back to the mainland.
Ten of the tournaments had slight increases in prize money. All but two tournaments, the Honda LPGA Thailand and the ShopRite LPGA Classic, have at least $2 million purses. Ten tournaments have prize money of $3 million or more, with the new FM Championship at the TPC Boston raising its purse to $4.1 million.
That doesn't include the majors or the CME Group Tour Championship. The U.S. Women's Open, run by the USGA, again has the highest purse at $12 million. It will be played next year at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, where Brooks Koepka won his first major in the 2017 U.S. Open.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf