Last month, the Women’s PGA Championship paid $1.5-million to the winner as part of a $10-million total event purse, furthering the trend of ballooning tournament prize winnings on the LPGA Tour.
“I just got to say as someone who has spent a lot of his life on the women’s side of the game, to be sitting at Pebble Beach talking about going to Pine Valley, talking about 12 hours of network TV and playing for $11-million, some things are better than what you dream of,” USGA CEO Mike Whan said on Wednesday. “When you go back 10 or 15 years ago, those are pretty big moments, and I hope that all of us aren’t both so calloused and in a hurry and iPhone driven that we’ve missed that kind of breakthrough moment.”
The USGA received a record number of event entries – 2,107, a record by 250 – for the US Women’s Open. The winner claimed a prize of $1.8-million last year and a total of $10-million in winnings was distributed.
“It doesn’t matter what town you live in, the clothes on your back, or the clubs that you play with,” USGA’s senior director of Women’s Open championships Shannon Rouillard said. “If you can get the ball in the hole, you have an opportunity to play in the US Women’s Open.”
Pebble Beach will host the US Women’s Open again in 2035, USGA president Fred Perpall said in a rundown announcing the upcoming host sites.
“As a girl dad, I can’t wait to see one of these impressive ladies sink the putt on 18 to win a US Open,” Perpall said. “I know that all the little girls out there also now get to dream their dream about sinking that putt on 18, and what a special gift that is, not just for the little ladies, but for the entire game of golf.”
The future US Women’s Open sites include Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Country Club next year, Erin Hills in Wisconsin in 2025, followed by Riviera Country Club (2026), Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio in 2027, Oakmont Country Club in 2028 and Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in 2029.
The 2029 event will be played weeks after the men’s event is held in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
(By Field Level Media.)
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