LPGA releases 2024 schedule with $118 million in prize money payouts

On the heels of the CME Group’s blockbuster announcement of an $11 million purse for next year’s Tour Championship, coupled with a record $4 million winner’s prize, the LPGA has released its 2024 schedule, and the money keeps flowing.

There will be 33 official events with a record total prize fund of $118 million, with $116.55 million in official money. LPGA prize funds have increased 69 percent since $70 million in 2021, with the bulk of that leap coming at the majors and CME.

Perhaps the most important increase is in the number of regular-season events that now have purses of $3 million or higher. That number increases to 10 in 2024, up from four in 2023 and only one in 2021.

There are three new venues on the 2024 schedule including the previously announced LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida, as well as the FM Global Championship in Norton, Massachusetts and the Arizona Championship presented by JTBC next March at a course to be announced at a later date.

South Korean legend Se Ri Pak will now have her own namesake event on U.S. soil at the renamed Se Ri Pak L.A. Open at Palos Verdes. She joins Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie West as tournament hosts.

The flow of the 2024 schedule will be easier on players with less criss-crossing the country. The LPGA Match Play at Shadow Creek moves up to April ahead of the Chevron Championship. The U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club moves back to late May and the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews moves later in August to accommodate the Olympics.

Qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics will end after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship June 24 at Sahalee. The top 15 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings automatically qualify for the Games (no more than four players per country) and the remaining spots awarded to the highest-ranked players from countries that do not already have two qualified players.

The Solheim Cup also returns in September at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, where Team USA will look to end its drought.

Hawaii’s Lotte Championship moves to the fall for the first time on the heels of a four-tournament Asian swing. The purse for the Lotte also jumps significantly from $2 million to $3 million.

Notably absent from the schedule is the Volunteers of America tournament in Texas.

Additional purse increases are expected to be announced in the coming months. Major championship purses have increased 78 percent since 2021, with…