The Chevron Championship Has a New Celebratory Pool By the 18th Green and Not Everyone Loves It

The LPGA's first major of the season again moved courses but its longtime tradition will continue, thanks to some construction.

Nelly Korda jumped into Poppie's Pond after winning the Chevron Championship in 2024, a tradition for nearly 40 years. | Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

Perhaps no sport latches on to tradition more than golf. 

And one of golf’s longest-running rituals is the Chevron Championship winner jumping into Poppie’s Pond. Amy Alcott did it spontaneously in 1988 and nearly four decades later, that custom has continued despite the LPGA’s first major of the season moving courses and states. 

Now, some believe it’s time to retire the leap. 

“They’ve obviously done a good job trying to keep the tradition going,” Grace Kim told Golf Digest after her final round of last week’s JM Eagle LA Championship. “I was kind of hoping it would just end at Carlton Woods.”

The Chevron Championship, known for decades as the Dinah Shore, was played at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., for 50 years before moving to The Club at Carlton Woods outside Houston in 2023. The Poppie’s Pond jump remained, but Carlton Woods fell flat as a major championship venue, so the event moved to Memorial Park (home of the PGA Tour’s Houston Open) this year. 

With no water near the 18th hole, it appeared the tradition would cease to exist. But the LPGA decided that wouldn’t be the case. Tournament organizers built a temporary pool beside the 18th green, measuring 15 feet by 10 feet and 4 1/2 feet deep and costing roughly $100,000. (And if someone hits into the pool, they’ll get free relief.) 

That was news to Charley Hull, though. 

“I didn’t see a pond, so I didn’t assume there was one,” the Englishwoman said.

A first look at this week's temporary pool at the Chevron Championship 👀

It measures 4-1/2 feet deep and sits to the right of Memorial Park's 18th green. pic.twitter.com/9kvJy5dKiw

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) April 20, 2026

For those aware, the pool has generated mixed reactions, but Stacy Lewis believes Poppie’s Pond is an integral part of women’s golf. 

“If you go back on our history, we really don’t do a very good job with traditions at all, right?” the former world No. 1 said. “We’ve had three majors, we’ve had four, we’ve had five. The LPGA Championship became the PGA Championship. So we've really lost a lot of traditions over the years. 

“This is probably one the only ones we have, and people don’t understand when you say ‘Oh, we’ll just go there and make a new tradition.’”

When Chevron took over the event and moved it to Texas, the company put together a player advisory board with a mix of old and young players on tour, and asked what needs to come to Texas from California? 

“We all said the jump has to stay,” said Lewis, the 2011 champion. 

Nelly Korda is one of three players who made the plunge in Texas, claiming the victory in 2024. And she feels everyone wasn’t going to be happy regardless of what Chevron did with Poppie’s Pond. 

“When it comes to what people think about it, you’re always going to be in a lose-lose situation,” the world No. 2 said. “Once you kill a tradition, it’s killed forever. If you kind of look at it, maybe some people don’t like it that it’s at a different golf course, different venue. 

“I still give props to Chevron, to the LPGA for wanting to keep that tradition alive.”

In the upcoming years, it’ll likely be permanent. For 2027, Tom Doak, the course designer, will redesign the par-4 18th with water on the right side of the hole. 

Despite the detractors, that will keep the jump synonymous with the tournament. 

“I’ve told a lot of people that I don't remember getting the trophy,” Lewis said. “A lot of things I don’t remember about that ceremony. But I remember the jump and what that felt like and how cold that water was in California. It was the coolest thing in the world.”

And for the players who have dreamt about winning the major championship, joining names such as Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Dottie Pepper and Lorena Ochoa, it’s not even a question about whether or not to be part of the wet tradition. 

Heck, last year’s champion Mao Saigo did it—and she didn’t even know how to swim. 

“I know that there is a bigger plan for it to be a better jump into Poppie’s Pond,” Korda said. “But at the end of the day, if I’m hoisting the trophy, like I’m going to jump in.”