The U.S. Women’s Open saw its total purse go from $5.5 million in 2021 to $10 in 2022.
In 2023, it’s getting another bump to $11 million.
And that means a whopping $2 million goes to the winner Sunday evening at Pebble Beach Golf Links, which is hosting the national championship for the first time.
Minjee Lee won $1.8 million a year ago for winning. Yuka Saso got $1 million for her win in 2021.
It’s a big week for big numbers for the USGA.
“I had a lot of records happening this week.” said USGA CEO Mike Whan during his news conference Wednesday. “Record entries: over 2,100 women tried to get into one of these 156 slots.
“Record purse. We’ll be playing for $11 million this week with $2 million going to the winner.”
The USGA is also accommodating everyone in the field financially.
“I pointed this out a couple weeks ago at LACC,” he said of the U.S. Open in Los Angeles. “I’m not sure why, but I find this pretty cool: $8,000 check to everybody who doesn’t make the cut.”
Whan was also asked if the goal of the USGA is to have the women’s purse match the men’s at some point?
“If I was being honest with you, we probably felt much stronger about that a couple of years ago when the men’s purse was at 12 and a half, when we announced we were going from 10 to 12,” he said.
“Yes, we’d like to get to that day. Is that day as close as we thought it was three years ago? Probably not.”
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