NAPLES, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 19: Nelly Korda walks down the third hole during round two … [+]
Getty Images
With the season end of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club, the LPGA has published its schedule for 2022. With the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Orlando, the first event on a 34-stop tour that runs through 12 states and ends up in nine countries outside of the United States, the golf action at its highest level begins at the end of January with never been higher a record $ 86 million price to be spent.
“The stage will be one of the most exciting years in LPGA Tour history for 2022, with new events, the biggest grand prize ever, over 500 hours of televised coverage, and a shared commitment to be the leading women’s professional sports property in the world “Said Mollie Marcoux Samaan, Commissioner of the LPGA, in a statement.
“We have never had such a strong team of partners from around the world who see both the commercial value of investing in the LPGA and the opportunity to leverage the partnerships to have a positive impact on their communities and the world. As the home of the best women golfers in the world, we will continue to focus on offering a dynamic schedule that will enable players to reach their peak performance in golf and in life, and that will provide the platform to meet young girls and women around the world to inspire. dream big, ”she added.
Nine tournaments have already announced that they will increase the prize money. The Chevron Championship, the first major of the year, will hand out $ 5 million, up $ 1.9 million from last year’s payout. Meanwhile, the AIG Women’s Open will increase their wallet to $ 6.8 million, an increase of $ 1.3 million from the 2021 level. The CME Group Tour Championship, the curtain of the season, is set to spend a cool $ 7 million, that’s $ 2 million more than the 2021 prize pool.
More wallet increase announcements are expected in the coming weeks as we near the start of the new season. Tour dates have not yet been set for the LPGA Drive On Championship, the closing event of the Florida swing, which is still looking for a title sponsor and a venue. The venue for the Lotte Championship in Hawaii (April 13-16) has not yet been determined, and the courses for the Cognizant Founders Cup in May, the Portland Classic in September and the BMW Ladies Championship in October have not yet been determined.
As for the majors calendar, after getting up to speed with the Chevron Championship in early April, the US Women’s Open will return to North Carolina’s Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in June. The venue last hosted the event in 2007, when Cristie Kerr topped the leaderboard. Next, the Congressional Country Club’s famous Blue Course, which hosted five men’s majors, will welcome the women as the venue for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The Amundi Evian Championships will take place in France in July, followed by the AIG Women’s Open in August at the Muirfield golf course in Scotland, just five years after the 277-year-old club changed its men’s policy.