LPGA offers record US$131 million in 2025 for 75th anniversary season
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The LPGA Tour events for 2025 will have nine tournaments with elevated purses from 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MIAMI – LPGA golfers will compete for a record US$131 million (S$175.9 million) in prize money over a 33-event season in 2025, the tour’s 75th anniversary campaign, LPGA officials announced on Nov 20.
On the eve of the season-ending Tour Championship at Naples, Florida, the schedule was unveiled, including two new tournaments and two unofficial events.
Total prize money will have surged US$62 million in four years, with next season’s payout jumping 90 per cent from the pandemic-hit 2021 campaign.
“The 2024 season was another year of historic growth for the LPGA Tour, and with this 2025 schedule, we will continue to improve on that growth,” LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said.
The LPGA’s global schedule will begin two weeks later than in 2024 and see competition in the United States and 11 other nations.
The season-opening Tournament of Champions in Orlando from Jan 30 to Feb 2 will be followed the next week by the Founders Cup at Bradenton, before the tour heads for Asia in February and March for events in Thailand, Singapore and China.
The LPGA Match Play will be contested from April 2 to 6 in Las Vegas ahead of the year’s first women’s Major, the Chevron Championship at The Woodlands, Texas.
May will feature two new LPGA events, the Black Desert Championship in Ivins, Utah from May 1 to 4 and the first LPGA event in Mexico since 2017, the Riviera Maya Open in Cancun from May 22 to 25.
The second Major, the US Women’s Open, will be contested from May 29 to June 1 at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, followed by the Women’s PGA Championship from June 19 to 22 at PGA Frisco in Frisco, Texas.
The year’s final Majors will be the Evian Championship in France from July 10 to 13 and the Women’s British Open from July 31 to Aug 3 at Royal Porthcawl in Wales.
The LPGA returns to North America until a late-season Asia swing with events in October in Shanghai, South Korea and Malaysia and a November stop in Japan before two final events, the Annika from Nov 13 to 16 and the 2025 season-ending Tour Championship in Naples from Nov 20 to 23.
The Aug 28-31 FM Championship in Boston will have a US$4.1 million purse, the first event to crack US$4 million in prize money, outside of the Majors and Tour Championship. In all, nine tournaments will have elevated purses from 2024.
Meanwhile, Nelly Korda captured the top two honours on Nov 20 at the Rolex LPGA Awards in Naples.
The American, 26, received the Rolex Player of the Year Award and the Rolex Annika Major Award, which goes to the Major winner who had the best overall results in the season’s big five events.
Korda won seven events in 2024, including the Chevron Championship, her second career Major. AFP, REUTERS
