Check out the best photos of the first pond jump in Texas.
The jump into Poppie’s Pond at Mission Hills was a special tradition for the first women’s major championship of the year dating back to 1988.
Now named the Chevron Championship, the event moved from the course in Rancho Mirage, California, to The Club at Carlton Woods in the Woodlands, Texas, outside Houston, and with the change of venue came the natural question: will the winner jump? With snakes and gators present in the area, it wasn’t an easy question to answer.
Vu and her caddie walked by the 18th green during the practice round and discussed if she would make the leap.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, I would jump. If I won here, of course I would jump,'” said Vu after the win. “(Saturday) or the day before we saw a snake on 17 pond, so I was kind of thinking about that today, but I think the emotions were high and just adrenaline, got to jump into that pond.”
And jump she did.
Check out the best photos of the traditional pond jump, the championship’s first in Texas.
View photos of 2023 Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu throughout her career from top college player to major champion.
It’s been quite the ride for 2023 Chevron Championship winner Lilia Vu.
As an amateur, Vu was a premiere player, ranked No. 1 in the world for 31 weeks and representing the United States a handful of times before and during her stint at UCLA.
As a Bruin, Vu earned numerous awards including 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and 2018 WGCA Player of the Year and three first-team All-American nods.
Vu earned her LPGA card straight out of college via Q-School, but lost her status after being unable to secure a high enough spot on the money list.
Winning three times during the 2021 Epson Tour season, Vu earned Player of the Year honors and secured full status for the 2022 LPGA season.
It didn’t take long for Vu to get back to her winning ways as she took home the Honda LPGA Thailand in February of 2023. The win helped propel her inside the top 20 in the world.
Now with a major championship under her belt, the Hawaii native should jump inside the top 10 and will likely be there to stay as major season continues to roll on.
Here are the prize money payouts for each LPGA player at 2023 Chevron Championship.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Lilia Vu made one cut in nine starts and earned $3,830 in her first season on the LPGA in 2019. Now, the Chevron Championship winner has more than $2 million in career earnings after claiming her second LPGA title of the season and a first-place prize of $765,000. The total prize fund this year was $5.1 million.
Angel Yin, who lost to Vu in a playoff, earned $479,680. Prior to this week, she’d made $3,256 in 2023.
This year, for the first time, players who missed the cut were given $5,000 in unofficial money to help cover expenses at the Chevron. Additionally, the cut was reduced to top 65 and ties this year, down from 70 and ties.
Here are the prize money payouts for each LPGA player at 2023 Chevron Championship.
A change in outlook freed up Vu to unlock her potential.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Lilia Vu felt an unusual amount of anger bubbling up inside this week over little things. Upset by the way she handled that anger, there were times during the final round of the 2023 Chevron Championship that Vu thought about her grandpa, Dinh Du, and how disappointed he’d be if she didn’t get her act together.
Standing at the podium soaked in champagne and cloaked in a white robe and slippers, the shiny Dinah Shore trophy by her side, Vu told the story of how her grandfather built a boat to help his family escape a war-torn Vietnam. How he’d go off in the countryside for months at a time, trying to literally build a better life for their family with his bare hands.
Vu’s mom, Yvonne, and her siblings ran through the forest the day in 1982 her father told them it was time to go. The boat was meant to hold no more than 54 people, but as others swam out to meet them, the number swelled to 82.
“He took them all,” said Yvonne.
After two days, the boat sprang a leak. They shot off a flare and were. soon rescued by the USS Brewton, a Naval ship that was decommissioned in 1992.
“My grandpa is the reason why I’m here,” said Vu, who birdied the last two holes on the Nicklaus Course at the Club at Carlton Woods to make her way into a playoff against fellow American Angel Yin.
After finishing the tournament knotted at 10 under, the pair headed down the par-5 18th once again, where Vu hit a drive so long she had 7-iron in on a hole she hit hybrid not long before in regulation.
After Yin’s approach found the water, Vu’s second shot went long over the green. Vu opted to putt through the long grass for her eagle attempt and left it 14 feet short of the hole.
Vu didn’t lose her turn, and after she stoically converted the birdie putt broke down in a heap of sobs as friends showered her with champagne.
For the win! 🏆
Lilia Vu birdies the first playoff hole to win the 2023 Chevron Championship! pic.twitter.com/bn0iPR0VLe
“One of the things I noticed early on when I started caddying for her was that she rises to the occasion pretty well,” said Cole Pensanti, who also looped for Danielle Kang when she won the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA.
Yin, who has yet to win on the LPGA, was emotional after the round not because she lost, but because she wondered if she’d ever have a chance to contend like this again after battling injuries.
“I think I’ve just come a long way,” said Yin. “I’m just really happy with who I am, where I am, and what I’m doing right now. Just a lot to appreciate.”
During her first year on the LPGA in 2019, Vu made one cut in nine starts and earned $3,830. The winningest player in UCLA history, with eight titles, considered hanging it up and going to law school.
Vu’s mom, however, convinced her to stay the course.
As Vu prepared to head down to Florida for an Epson Tour event during the 2020 pandemic, her grandfather was in the hospital battling a heart condition.
Lilia Vu jumps in the lake after winning the 2023 Chevron Championship. (Photo: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
“The last thing he told me was to play my best,” said Vu. “He’s in the hospital, thinking of me and my tournament.”
It wasn’t long after they returned to California that her grandfather died.
It was then Vu began to realize that she’d been treating every shot like it was life or death, comparing her success to that of the peers she’d grown up competing against.
A change in outlook freed up Vu to unlock her potential and, in 2021, she finished first on the Epson Tour money list to earn back her LPGA card.
After finishing in the top 3 on three different occasions last year and not hoisting a trophy, a frustrated Vu once again changed her mental approach. She decided she’d been putting too much pressure on herself. Vu determined that she was bound to win one day and needed to just let it happen.
Vu won in her second start of the season at the Honda LPGA Thailand and has yet to finish outside the top 15 in 2023. A $765,000 winner’s check at the Chevron gives her $2,036,647 in career earnings.
Team Vu! Lilia with her parents. Dad taught her the game. Mom convinced her not to quit. pic.twitter.com/KzlAYKe77j
At this time last year, Vu was ranked 127th in the world. She came into the Chevron ranked 12th, and while Nelly Korda is projected to rise to No. 1 once again after her third-place finish in Texas, Vu is undoubtedly the hottest American player in the world right now.
Sunday at the Chevron was a windy, chilly and, early on, rainy affair. There certainly were no guarantees that this year’s winner would have any interest in stepping foot on the shiny new dock next to the 18th green. Even Vu wasn’t sure if she’d leap into the murky water after spotting a snake near the pond on the 17th earlier in the week.
But the emotions were running high as the crowd chanted “Jump! Jump!” and, well, this is the major the kid from southern California was most familiar with – and this was her chance.
Vu took off her shoes and socks, grabbed the hand of her trainer and as her caddie belly-flopped off to the left, Vu carried on the most storied tradition in women’s golf.
What would her grandfather think?
“I think he’d say that all my struggles were worth it,” she said.
“Imagine Lydia (Ko) and Rory (McIlroy) walking down the 18th hole together. How cool would that be?”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Something unusual happened early this week at the Chevron Championship. Golf’s most important leaders gathered on LPGA soil to brainstorm how to drive the women’s game forward. Attendees of the inaugural Commission at The Chevron Championship in Houston included PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh and U.S. Golf Association CEO Mike Whan.
“We convene at the (men’s) majors and the industry comes together in various forms,” said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan. “We just felt like it was really important to bring people to an LPGA event.”
The commission was hosted jointly by Marcoux Samaan and Chevron Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth. Other attendees included executive vice president of content and executive producer for NBC Universal and Golf Channel Molly Solomon, LPGA board chair and former KPMG chair John Veihmayer and LPGA major champion and television broadcaster Dottie Pepper.
Guest panelists included Olympic gold medalist Angela Ruggiero, co-founder and CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation and Angel City Football Club CRO Jess Smith.
“Mostly our goal was to educate them,” said Marcoux Samaan. “Level-set on where we are, where we’ve been, where we’re going, where women’s sports is more broadly. And then to really think about innovative ways to think about women’s golf and the LPGA.”
Marcoux Samaan said one of the most eye-opening topics to many in the room was the impact of the LPGA’s travel schedule. Organizers shared a social media post from Golf.com’s Claire Rogers that illustrated the way players bounce around the country and the globe in head-spinning fashion.
“We don’t have as much of an ability to control our destiny as much as they do,” said Marcoux Samaan of the LPGA’s schedule compared to that of men’s leagues.
“When we build the demand and build the understanding of how good our women are, we can help dictate the schedule a little bit more.”
Marcoux Samaan believes that shared resources with the PGA Tour around technology could make an immediate impact on the women’s game, such as ShotLink for scoring and data management.
The event served as a great conversation starter for many topics, Marcoux Samaan said.
After the morning session, attendees were invited to play in the Chevron Championship Pro-Am, where Marcoux Samaan and Monahan teed it up together with Nelly Korda on the front nine at The Club at Carlton Woods.
Stacy Lewis only had two holes with Monahan on the back nine before he had to head back to Florida for family reasons. Lewis was impressed by how prepared and engaged Monahan was during their short time together.
“I think he realizes that they need to do more,” said Lewis on Wednesday. “He said that to me multiple times yesterday. … it’s just now whether we can push it forward and actually do something about it.”
Lewis put forth her desire to see the LPGA and PGA Tour come together for an event that features the top men and women playing together in full-field events with separate leaderboards and separate purses across two courses on one site.
“Imagine Lydia (Ko) and Rory (McIlroy) walking down the 18th hole together,” she said. “How cool would that be?”
Korda hinted at the same to Monahan, though she noted that the unofficial Grant Thornton Invitational later this year that features LPGA and PGA Tour players partnered together is a good step.
“They have such a big platform,” said Korda. “I feel like the best way to grow the game at the end of the day is to combine the two.
“Girls golf is growing at an incredible rate, and they see that too.”
“I think there might be snakes in the water here, so might be a little interesting.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Will the winner jump?
With the LPGA’s first major of the season moving from the California desert to Texas, many have wondered if one of the few traditions in the women’s game would carry on at The Club at Carlton Woods. The pond that’s next to the 18th green at the Nicklaus Course is anything but pool water. It’s murky and natural, a stark contrast to the pristine waters at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
Nelly Korda said she’d jump if she wins. Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho, however, wasn’t so sure, although she didn’t have a chance to decide as she failed to make the cut.
“I think there might be snakes in the water here,” said Kupcho, “so might be a little interesting.”
Stephen Salzman, the club’s general manager and chief operating officer, said the pond is now safe for players. He said the club’s engineering team and director of agronomy went through a number of possible scenarios in the months leading up to the championship. The club originally intended to dredge the entire area to deepen the pond. The Nicklaus design team, however, was afraid the green could potentially slough, so they changed course.
“We ended up building a dock,” said Salzman. “We ended up dredging from the end of the dock to about the rock wall border there. At the end of the dock, it’s 5 feet and progresses down to close to 10 feet.”
They sent divers down to check for rocks and concrete blocks beneath the surface. And for peace of mind, they installed a gator net to protect the area.
When asked if the net kept out snakes, Salzman said, no, but that snakes aren’t super prevalent in this pond. Neither are gators, but one can’t be too safe.
World No. 1 Lydia Ko, who won what was then known as the ANA Inspiration in 2016, didn’t realize that the dock on the 18th was for jumping.
“Are you meant to jump?” Ko asked during her pre-tournament press conference. “I’ve seen people hit shots on to the green, so I wasn’t sure if it was like a hitting bay or you’re a little bored to jump. I thought it was a little deck to jump, but my caddie Dave and my mom was like, surely not, because it’s too small to fit everyone. But if that happens, it’s definitely a good worry to see if you all can fit on the deck.”
Here’s what it looks like on 18 at the Nicklaus Course for @Chevron_Golf. There’s a dock if someone wants to jump. Won’t be staged but a robe will be available. pic.twitter.com/zERHbLUg3v
Ko, who also didn’t make the cut, went on to say that she appreciates that Chevron has given players the opportunity to carry on the tradition. The champion’s leap won’t be organized, but there will be a robe and slippers on standby. It’s best to jump straight out from the dock, however, and not from the sides. Perhaps one person at a time, too.
The build-out around the 18th seats roughly 1,000 fans, Salzman said. His best-guest estimate for spectator turnout on Sunday is 5,000-7,000.
“Houston is a sports town, and The Woodlands is a golf-centric community,” he said, “and I really think they’re going to support this event.”
There are eight 18-hole golf courses in The Woodlands and The Club at Carlton Woods has 768 memberships.
On May 1, the Nicklaus Course will undergo a full restoration and modernization, including greens, bunkers and tee boxes. A new irrigation system will be put in and there will be a lake bank restoration. The cost will be just north of $10 million, Salzman said, and it’s scheduled to be finished in late October.
Georgia Hall said she thinks the Nicklaus Course is a better golf course than the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.
“I think just the way it makes you think,” said Hall, when pressed for more.
“You have to think a little bit more around this golf course. You can’t really relax on any hole because there’s always something about a hole that’s very different, just mostly on the greens. In Palm Springs I thought it was quite simple to read the greens, no grain at all, but now we have the grain. I heard it’s going to be a little bit windy, as well, and a lot of factors come into play.”
The new dock that’s in place at the Chevron Championship for a potential Sunday jump. (Golfweek photo)
Hall, who also isn’t sure if the winner will jump, said the 525-yard par-5 18th won’t be reachable by most from the back tee unless its downwind. Salzman said he heard the plan is to move the tee up for the weekend to bring in the risk/reward element.
“I love a par-5 finishing hole,” said Ko. “I think it can really put everybody that’s only like a couple shots away coming down the stretch, put them all in play.”
Amy Alcott was the first player to jump into the lake at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course in 1988, a celebration she calls an “unplanned” and “organic,” which is the opposite of what it developed into in recent years.
“When I jumped in there I had no idea what was in there,” said Alcott of that first leap at the Dinah. “There was a lot of duck doo and wiring. I could’ve really hurt myself and broke my leg.”
But the LPGA Hall of Famer came through unscathed and kickstarted a decades-long tradition.
The pond at the Nicklaus Course doesn’t have a name. Alcott said she still gets 15 to 20 letters a year from fans asking who Poppie is and why didn’t they name the pond after her. (“Poppie” is longtime tournament director Terry Wilcox, and that’s what his grandkids call him.)
Perhaps the pond on the 18th at the Nicklaus Course will one day be named after Alcott, regardless of whether or not the jump lives on.
Salzman said there’s a 10-year contract in place to keep the Chevron here with a five-year clause designed to make sure everyone is still happy. Defending champions this week were given a Bentley to drive. Salzman and his team want this to be every player’s favorite stop on tour.
“I’d like to think they’re here for the next 51 years,” he said.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Angel Yin remembers vividly a practice round she had with Cristie Kerr several years ago at an LPGA Drive On event in Georgia.
“She was walking after she hit a tee shot off a practice round, and she was like, ‘I’m four days away from people knowing I’m back,'” said Yin.
“That’s the confidence. Every day I tell myself that: ‘Just channel your Cristie Kerr.'”
Yin hasn’t yet won on the LPGA and co-leads the 2023 Chevron Championship with Allisen Corpuz, another American player looking for her first LPGA victory at the year’s first major. The third-round leaderboard at the Club at Carlton Woods is littered with players looking for a break-through week – whether that’s a first-time LPGA victory or a maiden major win.
Only a trio in a share of sixth know what it’s like to win a major – Nelly Korda, Hyo Joo Kim and A Lim Kim, who won her first major down the road in Houston at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open at Champion Golf Club.
Players returned at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to wrap up play, with 68 players making the cut, which fell at 1 over.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — World No. 1 Lydia Ko came out early to the Chevron Championship and said she nearly ran out of balls in that first loop around the Nicklaus Course at the Club at Carlton Woods.
“To be honest, I struggled the first few times I played around this course,” Ko said earlier in the week, “and I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to do this.”
Turns out it didn’t get much better for Ko, who shot 76 with a birdie on the last hole in Round 2, finishing at 3 over for the tournament and missing the cut in a major for the first time since the 2019 AIG Women’s British Open.
Play was suspended on Friday evening due to darkness with 31 players still left to finish. They returned at 7 a.m. Saturday morning to wrap up play, with 68 players making the cut, which fell at 1 over.
While the field this week was larger than in past years (135) due to daylight savings, the cut was smaller at top 65 and ties. For the first time in tournament history, those who missed the cut received a $5,000 stipend of unofficial money.
The World No. 1 wasn’t the only big name to bow out early. Here’s a list at the other notables who missed the cut:
This marks Avery’s third start on the LPGA and her first time making the cut.
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — By the time Amari Avery got to her hotel room in The Woodlands, Texas, Wednesday night, it was close to midnight. Fresh off a team victory at the Pac-12 Championships, the USC sophomore felt her eyes start to shut around 1 a.m. Later that afternoon, she teed off in the first round of the Chevron Championship without having ever seen the golf course.
“To be honest,” said Avery, “I didn’t really have that much nerves coming in just because I came straight off the plane from playing the final round at Pac-12s. I was kind of like, ‘Oh, just more golf.’ Hopefully four more rounds, and I think we’ve secured it.”
Avery has done more than secure a spot on the weekend. A second-round 69 puts her at 2 under for the tournament and in a share of 26th at the water-logged Nicklaus Course at the Club at Carlton Woods.
It didn’t always look this rosy, however, for the California teen who burst onto the scene in the Netflix documentary, “The Short Game.” Avery found herself four over through five holes on Thursday when the horn blew to suspend play. She returned to action just over an hour later and drained a birdie putt on the sixth hole. Since that first delay, Avery has played her last 31 holes in 6 under par. She trails leader Lilia Vu by five strokes.
Former LPGA player and USC assistant coach Tiffany Joh said while most attention is paid to Avery’s ball-striking – marked by power and a high ball-flight – not enough people talk about her touch around the greens.
While Avery played the Nicklaus Course blind on Thursday, she did have quite a few pointers from younger sister Alona, 16, who competed on the same course last Saturday at the Mack Champ Invitational. Alona has committed to UC Irvine for collegiate golf. Their father, Andre, is on the bag this week for Avery and scouted the course much as he could in the days leading up to Amari’s arrival.
“Got a lot of help from friends of mine who are caddies are out here,” he said.
Avery, one of seven amateurs in the field, isn’t just balancing two big events in the course of one week. The communications major is also doing about an hour’s worth of homework every day.
“Unfortunately, my adviser and my coaches have been kind of staying on me a little bit,” said Avery with a smile. “I’ve been falling behind in school. I’m trying to do something every day just to make sure I stay on track.”
This marks Avery’s third start on the LPGA and her first time making the cut.
“Someone asked me if it is more pressure, and I don’t think so.”
THE WOODLANDS, Texas — Gene Knight was headed to the range one day at The Woodlands Country Club when his wife said, “You’re not leaving here without a kid.” After Jayna handed him daughter Cheyenne, Gene set her up with a cut-down hybrid and the promise of $1 for every ball she hit past the 100-yard marker. Gene lost $10 pretty quick that day.
He couldn’t have known then that 26-year-old Cheyenne would grow up to not only win her first LPGA title in Texas, but contend in her first major championship back home in The Woodlands, where the Chevron Championship is being staged at The Club at Carlton Woods for the first time.
Knight’s 3-under 69 on a muddy day in Texas puts her 4 under for the tournament and three shots back of leader Lilia Vu. Tournament officials gave Knight 10 tickets for the week, and she asked friends for about 15 more. After such a strong start, a request for more might be in order as she’s poised to contend in a major for the first time.
“Someone asked me if it is more pressure, and I don’t think so,” she said of playing in her former hometown.
“They’re going to love and support me no matter what. I think it’s just being comfortable just seeing familiar faces and trying to give them some water on the golf course, so they don’t pass out.”
Boyfriend Easton Stick, a back-up quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers will be in the gallery supporting. Knight met Stick at the Palos Verdes Championship last year when he played in the pro-am.
Knight grew up about 2 miles down the road from the Nicklaus Course on the second hole of the Palmer Course. She played the Nicklaus Course with family friends a time or two but was too young to remember much about it.
“I would play from the red tees,” she said, “and we would be here for snacks or running in the bunkers.”
Cheyenne Knight plays her second shot on the first hole during the second round of the 2023 Chevron Championship at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Stacy Lewis was the local legend when Knight was a kid. Lewis graduated from the local high school and went on to become the No. 1 player in the world.
In 2003, Lewis’ high school team had 30 girls on it. It was the same for Knight, who said there were A and B teams for the girls as well as a JV team her freshman year. The boys B team at the Woodlands, in fact, was so good when Knight was a freshman that they won the state title.
“I actually have a signed flag from when (Lewis) won in Mobile,” said Knight.
This week, Lewis, a 13-time LPGA winner, including two majors, is staying at her childhood home about three and a half miles from the Nicklaus Course. The 2023 and 2024 U.S. Solheim Cup captain opened with a 73 and is hovering around the cut line.
“It’s something that definitely growing up here I thought would never happen,” said Lewis, “to bring a championship like this to The Woodlands. But it’s been awesome. There’s so many people walking around, so many people that I know.”
After her freshman year, the Knights moved to Aledo, Texas, just west of Fort Worth. That’s where her golf career really blossomed with a golf scholarship to Alabama. In 2019, at age 22, Knight won her first LPGA title at the Volunteers of America Classic, 65 miles from Aledo.
With her parents now building a house back in The Woodlands area, Knight will be forced to move out, and recently bought a townhome in Fort Worth about a mile and a half from where she practices at Shady Oaks.
“It’s an off-week thing,” said Knight as she signed electronic mortgage documents after Tuesday’s pro-am round, “just buying a house because there’s no time to do it.”
Cheyenne Knight poses with the trophy after winning the Volunteers of America Classic golf tournament at the Old American Golf Club on October 6, 2019 in The Colony, Texas. (Photo by Chuck Burton/Getty Images)
Knight never had the chance to attend an LPGA event until she qualified for one her freshman year of college. She marvels at what a women’s major in a golf-centric place like the Woodlands might do for juniors.
Knight’s tournament career started with three-hole competitions from the middle of the fairway. Gene said first instructor, Donnie Massengale, nicknamed her “one more” because she always wanted to hit one more shot.
