Women’s PGA doubles prize money to $9M

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is doubling the size of its purse to $9 million, another boost to the women’s game that brings prize money for the five majors to nearly triple the amount from a decade ago.

The increase in prize money for the LPGA Tour’s secondoldest major is a 300 percent increase from 2014, the year before KPMG and the PGA of America partnered with the LPGA Tour to raise the prize money and the profile by taking it to fabled courses.

The Women’s PGA Champion starts Thursday at Congressional Country Club, which has hosted the U.S. Open three times. The winner will get $1.35 million.

The USGA signed up a presenting sponsor (ProMedica) in nearly doubling the purse of what already was the largest of the LPGA majors, $10 million that paid $1.8 million to Minjee Lee when she won at Pine Needles.

The Amundia Evian Championship in France already announced a $2 million increase to $6.8 million, while the AIG Women’s British Open has seen steady increases with a new title sponsor and now is up to $6.8 million. The Chevron Championship had a $5 million purse, nearly $2 million more than the previous year.

That brings prize money for the five majors to $37.3 million. In 2012, the same tournaments had combined prize money of $13.75 million. All but the U.S. Women’s Open have corporate sponsors as part of the title.

“We are accelerating the advancement, development and empowerment of women both on and off the golf course,” said Paul Knopp, the U.S. chairman and CEO of KPMG. “The signif