Making that climb is easier said than done. <\/p>\n
Perhaps no tournament better underscores the challenges facing the LPGA and women\u2019s golf than this week\u2019s Chevron Championship. It\u2019s the year\u2019s first major, but one that has lacked a significant identity. It was elevated to major status in 1983 but has gone through numerous name changes and moved from Mission Hills to the Club at Carlton Woods <\/a>in The Woodlands, Texas, in 2023. The only things that have stayed the same are the iconic jump into Poppie\u2019s Pond and the winning robe, and even that has had to be shoehorned in<\/a> since the move.<\/p>\n The move to Texas didn\u2019t help with this unique crisis, as the course at Carlton Woods and the event\u2019s broadcast failed to make it feel like the major it\u2019s billed as. As the LPGA has looked to grow and expand, the Chevron Championship has found itself at a crossroads. It has a rich history, and Chevron has invested in the event, but it hasn\u2019t fully cemented a major championship identity that the LPGA needs for the first big tournament of the season. The Masters signals the start of men\u2019s major season and serves as a launching pad for the rest of the pro golf year. Women\u2019s golf needs the Chevron Championship, or a different tournament, to be something similar.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why this week looms as a massive test for the Chevron Championship and the LPGA.<\/p>\n After three underwhelming years at Carlton Woods, the LPGA and Chevron made the decision to move the tournament<\/a> from the Houston suburbs to Memorial Park<\/a>, a muni in the heart of the city that also hosts the PGA Tour\u2019s Houston Open. The move to Memorial Park was universally praised. Moving the event into the city should make it easier to boost attendance, giving it a bigger feel, and Memorial Park is a far more interesting course, with tricky greens that demand precision and a memorable finishing stretch.<\/p>\n But the move to Memorial Park also further underscores the ongoing identity crisis. What makes the U.S. Women\u2019s Open, AIG Women\u2019s Open and KPMG Women\u2019s PGA exciting is the rotation of venues those majors run through. It\u2019s hard for a non-iconic course to take root as a standalone major venue. On the men\u2019s side, the only constant is Augusta National. If a major is going to come back to the same place every year, the course has to be a central figure in the story. It has to be something fans are familiar with and want to return to every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Chevron, World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul faces \u2018challenge of her career\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n By:<\/p>\n In order for the Memorial Park move to pay dividends, it\u2019s going to need the help of one of Kessler\u2019s first big swings as commissioner: the enhanced broadcast<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Thanks to a deal with FM, Golf Channel and Trackman, LPGA broadcasts will have a 50 percent increase in cameras, three times as many microphones, quadruple the number of shot-tracing capabilities, more slow-motion cameras and drones. The LPGA rolled out the enhanced broadcast features at Sharon Heights earlier this year, and its debut was a clear win. There were kinks to work out and improvements to make, but the changes were noticeable and welcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week is the real test for those enhancements and broadcast partner NBC\u2019s willingness to give this event the major shine. It\u2019s incumbent on the broadcast to use all of the bells and whistles for greater storytelling, to highlight the intricacies of the Tom Doak course and create major tension. It\u2019s not enough to say it\u2019s a major; you have to make the viewer feel it.<\/p>\n All of that leads to the one thing that\u2019s out of the LPGA\u2019s control this week, but that is most vital in giving this major the juice it needs: the stars have to show up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Jeeno](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/jeeno-thitikul-aramco.jpg\")
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\n Josh Schrock <\/a><\/p>\n