[Photo: Peter Van der Klooster]
The LPGA has unveiled a new tournament for its 2026 schedule and, more notably, a ground-breaking new partner: Golf Saudi.
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The Aramco Championship will be held March 30-April 5, 2026 at Shadow Creek Golf Club in Las Vegas, formerly home to the LPGA’s match-play event. It will be co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour and be part of the LET’s five-event PIF Global Series. The 72-hole stroke-play event will have a 120-player field with a purse of $US4 million ($A6.1 million), which would rank the third-highest non-major prize money payout among the LPGA’s 2025 events.
While the LET for several years has worked with Golf Saudi—some suggest the tour would not have survived the COVID pandemic without its sponsorship dollars—this is the first time an official LPGA event has been sponsored by the group. The potential for an LPGA partnering with Golf Saudi/PIF has been discussed for several years and under various LPGA commissioners, particularly after the launch of the PIF-backed LIV Golf Circuit in men’s golf. But it had been considered a controversial avenue to pursue, given the numerous accusations of human-rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, many toward women.
However, many top LPGA players, among them Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko, Charley Hull and Alison Lee, have competed in PIF series events previously, and new LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler, who started on the job in July, contends that the partnership will be beneficial to the women’s game in the long run.
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“The Aramco Championship, part of the PIF Global Series, at Shadow Creek reflects exactly where we’re headed in building the global schedule for our tour,” Kessler said in a press release. “We often talk about routing, courses and purses—and this event checks every box: a spectacular West Coast setting, an iconic course and a purse that continues our momentum in raising the bar for our athletes. We also recognise that partnerships like this—built on the LET’s longstanding collaboration with Golf Saudi and PIF—can help strengthen the women’s game on a global scale and elevate opportunities for our athletes.”
Craig Kessler, who took over as LPGA commissioner in July, says partnering with Golf Saudi and PIF will “help strengthen the women’s game on a global scale and elevate opportunities for our athletes.” Sam Hodde
PIF Global Series events have previously been played in the US, but sanctioned solely by the LET. Lexi Thompson won an event in 2022 in New York. This year an event was held in Houston, won by Nuria Iturrioz with Hull and Carlota Ciganda finishing runner-up.
The other four PIF Global Series events for 2026 will be played in Saudi Arabia, London, Seoul and China. Purses for the five combined events will be $US15 million.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, chairman of the board of Golf Saudi and Governor of the PIF, said in a statement: “Women’s golf continues to go from strength-to-strength and PIF has a strong track record of backing that growth and investing in the future of the women’s game. Today’s announcement marks another significant milestone as we work closely with great partners at the LPGA and LET to introduce a co-sanctioned event as part of next year’s PIF Global Series. The future of women’s golf has never been brighter, on and off the course.”
Notably, the Shadow Creek event will be played the same weekend as the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, a week prior to the Masters.
