[Photo: Matt Krohn]
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., hasn’t even teed off this week and already a record was broken on Monday.
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KPMG announced it was upping the purse of the LPGA Tour major to $US13 million ($A18.6 million), the largest purse in women’s golf history. KPMG is continuing to make a direct, eye-popping investment in women’s golf, from funding to additional technology.
“When 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,” Tim Walsh, the KPMG US chair and chief executive, told Golf Digest. “We’re so supportive if this event. We’re so proud of our association with this event and all that comes from it. We’ve been doing the sponsorship for 12 years. When we started, the purse was $2 million; now it is $13 million. That’s almost a 500 percent increase in supporting that purse, which supports these incredible female athletes. I’m so proud to do that in partnership with the PGA of America and the LPGA Tour.”
Last year, the purse was $12 million, but in 2020 it was $4.3 million.
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.
“This is a championship that we believe has consistently improved every year, and that’s in partnership with KPMG and the LPGA Tour,” Clark told Golf Digest. “We’re excited about it because the women’s game is so exciting and there’s 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’s not all about the purse. It’s about a lot of factors that we’ve got to support through KPMG.”
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’s a growth percentage of 113 percent for non-majors and 212 percent for majors.
Regarding KPMG’s return on investment, Walsh pointed to numerous avenues of exposure. “The actions we just took answer that question and speak volumes to our commitment,” he said. “Of course, that commitment comes with elevating our brand. The elevation comes through media and broadcast coverage… to have clients at this event, I can’t 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.”
This week for the Women’s PGA – previously played as the LPGA Championship through 2014 – 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’d up in addition to players.
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.
Will all of this translate into strong interest from fans? Women’s golf is riding a current high with world No.1 Nelly Korda having won the season’s first two majors in the Chevron Championship and US Women’s Open. The latter, played earlier this month at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, drew the second-highest ratings for a women’s event in the past decade, with an average of 1.3 million viewers for the final round.
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.
Minjee Lee reacts to winning the 2025 KPMG Women’s PGA [Photo: Alex Slitz]
Last year for the Women’s PGA, first-time host PGA Frisco – built and owned by the PGA of America – 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 – 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.
“Look, last year was an interesting year,” Kessler said. “We 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’ve had Nelly, who’s unbelievably dominant, and the world is waiting to see whether she’ll… win three consecutive majors. There’s a lot of excitement for that.
“In 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… and I think the combination of all those things gives me a lot of hope that viewership will be fantastic this year.”
In addition to playing at Hazeltine this year, next year’s Women’s PGA is at Congressional Country Club and the Bethpage Black Course in 2028. All three have been high-profile men’s major and Ryder Cup courses in the past.
“There’s 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,” Kessler said. “I think the world needs to know that the PGA of America and KPMG have made that commitment… 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.”
