Record-breaking LPGA season tees off

The 2023 LPGA Tour season will hold 35 events, including five majors and the Solheim Cup, with a record-breaking purse of over $100 million. Here’s the full schedule and the big storylines.

The entire season will be played in the calendar year and players will be competing for a huge record total prize fund of $101.4 million, with 21 tournaments carrying purses of at least $2 million.

The 2023 global schedule will take the LPGA Tour to 11 states across the U.S. and 12 countries, including the UK, Thailand, Singapore, China, France, Spain and Canada.

Five major championships will be up for grabs: the Chevron Championship (formerly the ANA Inspiration) in April, the KPMG PGA Championship and U.S. Open in June, the Amundi Evian Championship in July, and the AIG Open in August.

The season-ending CME Group Tour Championship will take place in November and will have a $7 million purse, with $2 million for the winner – the largest single prize in the history of women’s golf.

Also on the packed schedule is the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown in May, an international 8-team match-play competition held at TPC Harding Park in San Fransisco, and the always exciting Solheim Cup in September in Spain.

The 2023 season started last week, when Canadian Brooke Henderson claimed her 13th LPGA title with a four-shot win at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Florida.

2023: Ko vs Korda

New Zealand’s Lydia Ko won three times in 2022, including the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, and had the lowest scoring average for a second straight season, cementing her place as the official world’s No. 1 ranked golfer for the first time in five years. But she didn’t win a major and hasn’t claimed one since 2016, so is overdue to win her third this season. But arguably the biggest star in women’s golf will be waiting for her. 

American Nelly Korda, the current world No. 2, holds that spot despite missing four months last season with a blood clot in her right arm. She returned in June and tied for eighth in the U.S. Open and won the Pelican Women’s Championship in November, regaining the No. 1 ranking for a couple of weeks.

In January she signed an equipment deal with TaylorMade Golf ahead of what promises to be a big year for her with new clubs in the bag as she tries to wrestle the top spot back from Ko. But world No. 3 Australian Minjee Lee, runner-up to Ko at the 2022 CME Group Tour Championship and defending U.S. Open champion, will also be eyeing the top spot and more majors.

Major changes

The first major of the season, the Chevron Championship, will take place in April at a brand new home, moving from Mission Hills in California to The Club at Carlton Woods, just outside Houston. So, while we won’t get to see the winner jump into Poppie’s Pond, the move allowed the championship to receive a big increase in prize money, with the purse leaping from $3.1 million to $5.1 million. The event has also moved to a later date (April 20-23), so it won’t have to share the spotlight with the men’s Masters (April 6-9).

The 2023 U.S. Open, meanwhile, will take women’s professional golf to the world famous Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time, and they will be competing for $10 million, the biggest purse of the season.

Solheim showdown

One of the most prestigious events in the golfing calendar, the Solheim Cup, is heading to Finca Cortesin in Spain for 2023, From 22 to 24 September, Team USA and Team Europe will battle it out with Stacy Lewis serving as captain for Team USA and Suzann Pettersen captain for Team Europe. The Americans will be desperate to take the trophy back from Europe who won in 2021 at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, their fourth win of the last five Solheim Cups.

Ones to watch

There were 11 first-time winners on the LPGA Tour in 2022, and there are many rising stars joining as rookies this year, including Hae Ran Ryu, Lucy Li, and Alexa Pano. But the player many will have an eye on is already a Tour veteran, aged just 19.

Thailand’s Thitikul Atthaya is the youngest golfer ever to win a professional tournament at 14 years, 4 months and 19 days after winning the Ladies European Thailand Championship as an amateur in 2017. The current world No. 4 won her first LPGA Tour title at the JTBC Classic in March 2022 and her second at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship in September – both aged just 19. 

She turns 20 in February and last season was named Rookie Of The Year, finished in the top 10 in three of the five majors, and achieved the No.1 ranking spot for a month in October before being ousted by Korda.

2023 LPGA Schedule

Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

January 19-22

Orlando, Florida

Winner: Brooke Henderson

Purse: $1.5M

Honda LPGA Thailand

February 23-26

Chonburi, Thailand

$1.7M

HSBC Women’s World Championship

March 2-5

Sentosa, Singapore

$1.8M

Blue Bay LPGA

March 9-12

Hainan, China

$2.1M

LPGA Drive On Championship

March 23-26

Superstition Mountain, Arizona

$1.75M

DIO Implant LA Open

March 30-April 2

Los Angeles, California

$1.75M

LOTTE Championship

April 12-15

Hoakalei, Hawaii

$2M

THE CHEVRON CHAMPIONSHIP

April 20-23

The Club, Texas

$5.1M

JM Eagle LA Championship

April 27-30

Wilshire, California

$3M

Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown

May 4-7

TPC Harding Park, California

$2M

Cognizant Founders Cup

May 11-14

Upper Montclair, New Jersey

$3M

Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play

May 24-28

Shadow Creek, Nevada

$1.5M

Mizuho Americas Cup

June 1-4

Liberty National, New Jersey

$2.75M

ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer

June 9-11

Seaview, New Jersey

$1.75M

Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give

June 15-18

Blythefield, Missouri

$2.5M

KPMG WOMEN’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

June 22-25

Baltusrol, New Jersey

$9M

US WOMEN’S OPEN

July 6-9

Pebble Beach, California

$10M

Greater Toledo LPGA Classic

July 13-16

Highland Meadows, Ohio

$1.75M

Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational

July 17-22

Midland, Missouri

$2.7M

THE AMUNDI EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

July 27-30

Evian Resort, France

$6.5M

Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open

August 3-6

Dundonald, Scotland

$2M

AIG WOMEN’S OPEN

August 10-13

Walton Heath, England

$7.3M

ISPS Handa World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf Management

August 17-20

Galgorme Castle, Northern Ireland

$1.5M

CP Women’s Open

August 24-27

Shaughnessy, British Columbia

$2.35M

Portland Classic

August 31-September 3

Columbia Edgewater, Oregon

$1.5M

Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G

September 7-10

Kenwood, Ohio

$1.75M

SOLHEIM CUP

September 22-24

Finca Cortesin, Spain

WalMart NW Arkansas Championship Presented by P&G

September 29-October 1

Pinnacle, Arkansas

$2.3M

The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America

October 5-8

Old American, Texas

$1.8M

Buick LPGA Shanghai

October 12-15

Shanghai, China

$2.1M

BMW Ladies Championship

October 19-22

TBC, South Korea

$2.2M

Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA

October 26-29

New Taipei City, Chinese Taipei

$2.2M

TOTO Japan Classic

November 2-5

Ibaraki, Japan

$2M

The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican

November 9-12

Pelican, Florida

$3.25M

CME Group Tour Championship

November 16-19

Tiburon, Florida

$7M