One of the biggest, and most shocking, storylines of the week was JM Eagle CEO Walter Wang raising the purse by $1 million, which was first announced to everyone’s surprise in the Golf Channel booth on Saturday. According to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, he had called LPGA Tour commissioner Craig Kessler just moments before going live, just to make sure he could do it.
He made this generous and supportive decision even despite the tournament’s field being relatively weak once again. While the final leaderboard at the top was strong, with major champions Hannah Green and Sei Young Kim battling it out with young stars like Jin Hee Im, Melanie Green and Ina Yoon, it was hard to ignore the week-before-major feel this tournament had. Regardless, it had the largest payout of any standard LPGA Tour event with a purse of $4.75 million.
Only 15 of the top 25 players in the Rolex Rankings started the event, which for a tournament held in the United States, is low for LPGA Tour standards. Of those 15, three players, No. 3 Hyo Joo Kim, No. 6 Minjee Lee and No. 17 Hye Jin Choi had dropped out by the start of Friday’s round. Lee reportedly dropped out for food poisoning while Choi had some knee pain. No reason has been given for Kim.
It is hard to ignore in this context that the first major championship of the year, The Chevron Championship, is at a new course in Houston this week and the weather forecast doesn’t look promising. There will likely be very little practice and it will probably be a grueling, taxing week.
Saying all of this, it is hard to blame the players for taking time off. Players like Jeeno Thitikul, Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko and Charley Hull naturally value majors more than a standard LPGA Tour event. But this isn’t the first time this has happened to this event. Just two years ago, Nelly Korda, riding high after five consecutive wins, dropped out of the event just after winning her second major championship. That isn’t anything new on either the LPGA Tour or the PGA Tour and is actually very common. But the placement of what should be a premiere tournament for this Tour needs to get better.
This event provides “first-class accommodations” for every player in the field as well as transportation to and from the course. It is also one of the most charitable events, particularly concerning the Los Angeles fires from 2025. Aside from raising millions of dollars, all those impacted directly by the fires received free admission. First responders received free admission in a hospitality area.
This event, held in the second biggest city in the country, also has fantastic and unique venues, like the player-favorite Wilshire Country Club and the stunning El Caballero which has hosted the last couple of years. It is a hot bed for college golf as well with three strong women’s programs, USC, UCLA and Pepperdine, all in the area. Each of these schools have produced major champions like Lilia Vu, Danielle Kang, Patty Tavatanakit, Sophia Popov and Allisen Corpuz.
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on how the scheduling for the LPGA Tour season works, but Walter and his wife Shirley Wang deserve a prime position in 2027.
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