NAPLES, Fla. – Terry Duffy and CME and have once again raised the bar for women’s golf. Beginning in 2024, the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Tour Championship will offer an $11 million purse and record $4 million winner’s check, the tour has announced.
The runner-up of next year’s event will receive $1 million. Every competitor in the 60-player field will be awarded at least $55,000.
In addition, CME Group has extended its sponsorship of the Tour Championship and Race to the CME Globe through 2025.
“As a long-standing supporter of women in business and sports, CME Group is pleased to continue our partnership with the LPGA to further elevate women’s golf,” CME Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy said in a release.
“Beginning next year, the CME Group Tour Championship’s $11 million purse will be the highest on the LPGA Tour, and the $4 million first-place prize will be the largest single prize in women’s sports. Both of these developments will make our event even more exciting for the players and spectators, while bringing more parity to the game.”
This week marks the 10th playing of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. The inaugural Race to the CME Globe points race was in 2014. From 2011-2013, the season-ending event was known as the CME Group Titleholders.
When CME first became a title sponsor in 2011, the purse was $1.5 million. It moved up incrementally until 2019 when it doubled from $2.5 million to $5 million, with the winner earning $1.5 million.
Duffy said back then that he wanted to be a leader. His efforts pushed the LPGA majors – the U.S. Women’s Open in particular – to a higher standard.
This year’s CME purse of $7 million – of which $2 million goes to the winner – is already larger than two LPGA majors: Amundi Evian ($6.5 million) and Chevron Championship ($5.1 million). Next year’s purse of $11 million matches that of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open. The KPMG Women’s PGA recently upped its purse to $10 million and the AIG Women’s British checked in this year at $9 million, 23 percent higher than last year.
U.S. Women’s Open winner Allisen Corpuz earned $2 million for her victory at Pebble Beach, the same amount the winner will receive this week in Naples.
“CME Group has been pushing the LPGA forward at every step of our evolution since 2011,” said LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, “and with this extension they are once again helping take the LPGA, women’s golf and women’s sports to unprecedented heights.”
