KPMG announced it was upping the purse of the LPGA Tour major to $US13 million ($A18.6 million), the largest purse in women\u2019s golf history. KPMG is continuing to make a direct, eye-popping investment in women\u2019s golf, from funding to additional technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen this came across my desk with the option of what we wanted this to look like, it was such an easy decision to lean into a record-breaking purse,\u201d Tim Walsh, the KPMG US chair and chief executive, told Golf Digest. \u201cWe\u2019re so supportive if this event. We\u2019re so proud of our association with this event and all that comes from it. We\u2019ve been doing the sponsorship for 12 years. When we started, the purse was $2 million; now it is $13 million. That\u2019s almost a 500 percent increase in supporting that purse, which supports these incredible female athletes. I\u2019m so proud to do that in partnership with the PGA of America and the LPGA Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, the purse was $12 million, but in 2020 it was $4.3 million.<\/p>\n
A note was sent to players about the purse increase, and LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler said after the announcement, made live on Golf Channel on Monday, that his phone and those of Walsh and PGA of America chief executive Terry Clark were blowing up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a championship that we believe has consistently improved every year, and that\u2019s in partnership with KPMG and the LPGA Tour,\u201d Clark told Golf Digest. \u201cWe\u2019re excited about it because the women\u2019s game is so exciting and there\u2019s so much momentum there and that momentum is partly brought by partnerships in the game that really make a difference. This is one. We talked about the purse; it\u2019s not all about the purse. It\u2019s about a lot of factors that we\u2019ve got to support through KPMG.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the LPGA, since 2016, official prizemoney has more than doubled and major championship prizemoney has more than tripled. Ten years ago, prizemoney for the season was $63 million and for the five majors was $16.85 million. Fast forward and official prize money is $134.45 million for all events and $52.6 million for majors. That\u2019s a growth percentage of 113 percent for non-majors and 212 percent for majors.<\/p>\n
Regarding KPMG\u2019s return on investment, Walsh pointed to numerous avenues of exposure. \u201cThe actions we just took answer that question and speak volumes to our commitment,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, that commitment comes with elevating our brand. The elevation comes through media and broadcast coverage\u2026 to have clients at this event, I can\u2019t explain to you this amazing venue we have here and to be able to elevate that brand, side by side, with the clients we serve each and every day. Those are a few of the considerations I put into when deciding to invest in this purse.\u201d<\/p>\n
This week for the Women\u2019s PGA \u2013 previously played as the LPGA Championship through 2014 \u2013 there will be about 100 hours of broadcast coverage on television and digital platforms through NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock. The number of featured groups will double from a year ago. More caddies will be mic\u2019d up in addition to players.<\/p>\n
The KPMG event is lauded as the most tech-forward tournament as well. New this year will be AI-powered player reels and analytical data available to each player after their round. For viewers, there will be an AI-powered live outcome prediction engine that provides predictive analytics for broadcast and digital coverage.<\/p>\n
Will all of this translate into strong interest from fans? Women\u2019s golf is riding a current high with world No.1 Nelly Korda having won the season\u2019s first two majors in the Chevron Championship and US Women\u2019s Open. The latter, played earlier this month at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, drew the second-highest ratings for a women\u2019s event in the past decade, with an average of 1.3 million viewers for the final round.<\/p>\n
Now, Korda will be going for a third straight major win, the completion of the career Grand Slam and possibly securing her place in the LPGA Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
![\"2221549835\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/minee-lee-womens-pga.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1782173165577.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Minjee Lee reacts to winning the 2025 KPMG Women\u2019s PGA [Photo: Alex Slitz]<\/p>\n
Last year for the Women\u2019s PGA, first-time host PGA Frisco \u2013 built and owned by the PGA of America \u2013 was blasted by some players, including Korda and Charley Hull. They criticised pin placements, course setup and slow play. It was also unreasonably windy and hot. Viewership averaged a record-low 428,000 for the final round, with Minjee Lee as the winner \u2013 the 16th straight different champion to begin the 2025 season. The TV numbers were way down from the 867,000 viewers on Sunday in 2024, when Amy Yang won at Sahalee.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, last year was an interesting year,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cWe had more parity on our tour than ever before, and I think the LPGA did everything it could with its partners to make the most of that. This year is a totally different story. We\u2019ve had Nelly, who\u2019s unbelievably dominant, and the world is waiting to see whether she\u2019ll\u2026 win three consecutive majors. There\u2019s a lot of excitement for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of viewership, this year we have better coverage and more coverage than ever before, and the word is out. Fans are excited to tune in and see drone coverage, slow-mo cameras, AI-powered insights on the broadcast\u2026 and I think the combination of all those things gives me a lot of hope that viewership will be fantastic this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to playing at Hazeltine this year, next year\u2019s Women\u2019s PGA is at Congressional Country Club and the Bethpage Black Course in 2028. All three have been high-profile men\u2019s major and Ryder Cup courses in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an organisation [the USGA] that gets a lot of credit for taking the women to the best courses and the men to some of the best golf courses on planet Earth,\u201d Kessler said. \u201cI think the world needs to know that the PGA of America and KPMG have made that commitment\u2026 These are Ryder Cup-calibre golf courses that the women now get to play. I want the PGA and KPMG to get a lot of credit for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Matt Krohn] The KPMG Women\u2019s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., hasn\u2019t even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,755,361698,204891,146405,20776,21225,44,21396,70575,85,39133],"class_list":["post-755246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-hazeltine","tag-kpmg-womens-pga-championship","tag-lpga-tour","tag-minjee-lee","tag-nelly-korda","tag-news","tag-prize-money","tag-purse","tag-sports","tag-womens-golf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}