The LPGA's 2024 Schedule Features More Cash and an Olympic Return
NAPLES, Fla. – The LPGA Tour has announced its 2024 schedule and it’s good news all around.
Golfers will compete for a total prize fund of more than $118 million, the most in the Tour’s history. That’s up 69% from just three years ago.
“I think about the state of the LPGA, the momentum we're experiencing, the growth that we've seen, and really the direction we're headed. We've been a leader in women's sports for over 75 years,” said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
“We're really proud of our role in elevating women's sports, and obviously women's golf. I think right now we're experiencing a period of, I'll call it, ‘transformative transformational growth’ for women's golf and for women's sports generally. We're proud of where we are.”
MORE: Complete 2024 LPGA Tour schedule
Next year’s schedule will include 35 events (33 official) with three new tournaments: the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Fla. (January), the FM Global Championship near Boston (September) and the Arizona Championship presented by JTBC (March).
Nelly Korda will likely defend her Olympic gold medal next summer in Paris.
Bob Frid/USA TODAY Sports
Se Ri Pak has also joined fellow major champions Michelle Wie West (Mizuho Americas Open) and Annika Sorenstam (The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican) as an LPGA Tour event host for the newly named Se Ri Pak LA Open.
With more money up for grabs than ever before, here are four key takeaways from the 2024 schedule.
MONEY TALKS: Let’s start at the end.
In a big move Wednesday, CME Group and the LPGA Tour announced its season finale would boast an increased purse of $11 million starting in 2024, with a staggering $4 million given to the winner. On the PGA Tour, just one event offers a first-place prize of greater than $4 million (The Players Championship). Second place will also receive $1 million, while just making it into the field will net you $55,000.
Marcoux Samaan said the CME Group’s announcement earlier this week was “game changing.”
“We’re being a bit of a catalyst and I think we pushed the majors (to increase their purses) which is more important. I’m more happy I pushed the majors than the other events throughout the year,” said Terry Duffy, the CEO and chairman of CME Group. “If you look at all the major purses, they weren’t going up until I started to bump. They know I’m not going to stop, right? So, we just kept going. Now I think that’s good for the women.”
Since 2021, prize funds for the non-major and non-Tour Championship tournaments have grown 61%, with major-championship purses up 78% over that period.
While the purse increase has been significant, the major championships and season finale represent 47% of the season’s total purse. That number is not something commissioner Marcoux Samaan is worried about, however.
“I think we want all of it to grow. We want our majors to grow,” she said.
The schedule for 2024 also features 19 events with either travel stipends for athletes or guaranteed minimum payouts.
Ten events in total have announced elevated purses for 2024. It is expected that additional purse updates will come through the year.
BETTER FLOW: No, the LPGA Tour staff did not sit in a big room with a map and some pushpins to determine the best geographic flow for the 2024 schedule with the Olympics causing a bit of ruffle in the usual schedule cadence.
But they were able to come up with a logistical output that they feel is better for the players next year.
Marcoux Samaan said the crux of the scheduling effort through the summertime was focused on the Amundi Evian Championship, with such a quick turnaround for many of the game’s best to play a major championship and then return to France for the Olympics. Unlike in years past there is now a week off after the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational team event prior to the Evian.
“This year is a little different because the Olympics were right in the middle of the European swing, and every one of the tournaments has different needs, where they can play, when they can play,” Marcoux Samaan said.
“I think you have to every four years think about where the Olympics are going to be, and then next year we'll go back to more of one European swing together. We've worked with the R&A and Evian to have that sort of European flow next year.”
From France the Tour will head to Ohio, Canada and Oregon in a bit of a North American swing before jumping back across the pond for the Olympics, Women’s Scottish Open and AIG Women’s Open.
The Tour will head back to the East Coast for the inaugural FM Global Championship in Boston before a week off prior to the Solheim Cup.
There will be two Asia swings—at the beginning and the end of the season. The Lotte Championship in Hawaii will also move to the end of the year from its usual April spot and will serve as a halfway-point stop from the event in Japan to the back-to-back events in Florida to end the season.
There will also be back-to-back events in Florida to begin the year, too, with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions kicking things off in Orlando before the new LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton.
REPRESENTING YOUR TEAM AND COUNTRY: While the Olympics prompted a bit of a scheduling hurdle, it will also be a tremendous opportunity to shine a brighter light on women’s golf on a global stage.
Nelly Korda will likely return as the highest-ranked American in the game to attempt to successfully defend her gold medal from Tokyo.
The Olympics will take place at Le Golf National in Paris, where the 2018 Ryder Cup took place.
There will also be another Solheim Cup contested in 2024, as the event is held in back-to-back years to get away from competing with the Ryder Cup in odd-numbered years. The Solheim Cup will return to an even-year cadence starting in 2024.
Team Europe retained the cup after a 14-14 tie with Team USA this year in Spain. The Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va.,—the four-time host of the Presidents Cup—will play host.
MAJOR MOMENTS: There will be some familiar sites and some new places for the major championships next year.
The Chevron Championship (April 18-21) will return to The Club at Carlton Woods, while the Amundi Evian Championship (July 11-14) will be back at the Evian Resort Golf Club.
The U.S. Women’s Open (May 30-June 2) is set to return to Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. It last hosted that major in 2015, won by In-Gee Chun. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (June 20-23) will also return to a previous venue, Sahalee Country Club near Seattle. Brooke Henderson won her first major there in 2016.
Finally, the AIG Women’s Open (Aug. 22-25) is returning to the Old Course at St. Andrews. It will be the third time the LPGA Tour has played there, with Lorena Ochoa winning in 2007 and Stacy Lewis winning in 2013.
The majors remain a key part of the LPGA Tour’s schedule in terms of eyeballs, but another spot on the calendar that is returning in 2024 that may do even more to amplify the women’s game is the return of the Grant Thornton Invitational.
This year marks its debut as an LPGA Tour-PGA Tour co-sanctioned event, and it will be back next Dec. 11-15.
“I think this Grant Thornton invitational is going to be amazing. We're all really looking forward to it,” Marcoux Samaan said. “More opportunity to get exposure for our athletes, and people have been asking for this for a long time, and we're really excited for the partnership with the PGA Tour and Grant Thornton. You're going to see the best women in the world competing in a forum that you're not used to seeing.”