NAPLES, Fla. — The LPGA released its 2023 schedule on Friday at the CME Group Tour Championship, where 60 women are competing for a $2 million winner’s check, the largest in tour history. Next year’s schedule will include 33 tournaments and a record prize fund of $101.4 million. This year’s purses totaled $93.5 million.
“We feel very bullish on where we’re going,” said LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, “but we are not done yet. I think all this growth is really positive, but we still have work to do.”
The year will begin in Orlando, Florida, Jan. 19-22 at Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona, though there won’t be a Florida swing this year. After a full month off, the tour then moves to Asia for three events in Thailand, Singapore and China. The LPGA hasn’t competed in China in three years due to ongoing travel restrictions.
“I think we’re seeing good progress,” said Ally Ewing. “The majors are stepping up in a big way, and I think the push is to continue on and get our regular-season events at a better number. But overall, when you look at the progress through the years, and you reach this milestone it’s exciting.”
The first full-field event of the season, the LPGA Drive On Championship, will be held March 23-26 at Superstition Mountain G.C., in Gold Canyon, Arizona. The LPGA introduced tour-backed Drive On events during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 Drive On, won by Leona Maguire, was contested at Crown Colony Golf and Country Club in Fort Myers, Florida.
Superstition Mountain hosted the 2004-08 Safeway International and is home to a number of LPGA players.
With four limited-field events to start the season, the majority of players on the LPGA will have more than four months off between starts. While some wanted a longer offseason, many are concerned about the long break between events, particularly those who are further down the money list.
“I just had a month off and have this one (Pelican), and then I’m going to have four months off,” said Caroline Inglis, who finished the year 100th on the Race to CME Globe, at last week’s Pelican LPGA Championship.
Marcoux Samaan said the tour has taken a hard look at the money list at all positions, and while the money has improved from the top down in recent years, there’s still work to be done, particularly to ensure that the bottom half can earn a living.
“We need to make sure that that 100th best player can make a living out here on the tour,” she said. “Right now, the 100th best player made $167,000. It probably cost her $125,000 to $150,000 to be out here, and that’s really a tangible goal for us to say we really want the 100th best player to be able to make a good living commensurate with her talent out here on the LPGA.”
To that end, Marcoux Samaan called for more investment in women’s sports in general, noting that the infrastructure of the organization must grow.
“You hear people talk about in women’s sports all the time this idea that we need to be able to thrive rather than just survive, and I think that takes investment, and that takes infrastructure,” she said.
“So for us, that includes technology infrastructure. That includes personnel infrastructure, media infrastructure, and access. So that’s kind of like where we’re focused. I think we’re always going to be focused on the tournaments. We’re always going to be focused on the schedule, first and foremost. That’s the lifeblood of who the LPGA is.”
Six years ago, the PGA Tour and LPGA entered into a strategic alliance. Marcoux Samaan described the partnership as positive and strong.
“Obviously we work with them on our media rights,” she said. “People know that that we’ve had a relationship with them around our media rights, but right now, the biggest engagement is really around technology.”
The LPGA has never had a formal marketing department and Marcoux Samaan has placed an emphasis in building a team that will help drive more fans to events and the tour’s social media channels. The three most important words, she said, are “content, content, content.”
“All the ways that we can, in a modern world, have two-way communication with our fans,” she said, “know who our fans are, aggressively deliver content that they’re interested in, encourage them to come and be a part of our ecosystem.”
The majors and CME have largely been responsible for increasing prize money in significant ways. The dates of next year’s Chevron Championship have moved to April 20-23, after the Masters. The event will be contested for the first time at The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas.
A jam-packed summer includes four majors in the span of eight weeks, including the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, the KPMG Women’s PGA at Baltusrol and the AIG Women’s British Open at Walton Heath (Old Course) in Surrey, England. The U.S. Women’s Open and KPMG will be held back-to-back on opposite ends of the country with a week off in between.
Marcoux Samaan said that in an ideal world, the majors would be more spread out.
“We’re not sure where we’ll go in the future,” she said, “but I think part of it is because we are playing at some phenomenal golf courses, and a bit of those decisions were based on availability of the golf courses and availability to get in and play in these really important and iconic venues.”
New, previously announced events on the schedule include the Mizuho Americas Open at Liberty National and the return of the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown, an unofficial team event, at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.
Three tournaments dropped off the schedule, including the LPGA Mediheal Championship, JTBC Classic and the Gainbridge stop in Fort Myers, which was combined with the Pelican to form one event: The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
In September, the Solheim Cup will be staged in Spain for the first time, one week ahead of the Ryder Cup in Rome.
The fall Asian swing includes four stops, including Shanghai and Taiwan, which have both been canceled the past three years due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
When asked specifically about getting back into China to play next season, the commissioner said they’re still waiting to hear.
“We told the players that we’ll keep them posted,” she said, “but we have a contract, and it’s on the schedule. We’ll let them know as that evolves, but we’re hopeful that we can get in and play on all the events that are on our schedule.”
2023 LPGA schedule
| Date | Tournament | Host | Location |
| Jan. 19-22 | Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions | Lake Nona G. and C.C. | Orlando |
| Feb. 23-26 | Honda LPGA Thailand | Siam C.C. (Old Course) | Pattaya, Chonburi, Thailand |
| March 2-5 | HSBC Women’s World Championship | Sentosa G.C. | Singapore |
| March 9-12 | Blue Bay LPGA | Jian Lake Blue Bay G.C. | Hainan Island, China |
| March 23-26 | LPGA Drive On Championship | Superstition Mountain G.C. | Gold Canyon, Arizona |
| March 30-April 2 | DIO Implant LA Open | Palos Verdes G.C | Palos Verdes Estates, California |
| April 12-15 | LOTTE Championship | Hoakalei C.C. | Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii |
| April 20-23 | The Chevron Championship | The Club at Carlton Woods | The Woodlands, Texas |
| April 27-30 | JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro | Wilshire G.C. | Los Angeles |
| May 4-7 | Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown | TPC Harding Park | San Francisco |
| May 11-14 | Cognizant Founders Cup | Upper Montclair C.C. | Clifton, New Jersey |
| May 24-28 | Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play | Shadow Creek | Las Vegas |
| June 1-4 | Mizuho Americas Open | Liberty National G.C. | Jersey City, New Jersey |
| June 9-11 | ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer Seaview | A Dolce Hotel (Bay Course) | Galloway, New Jersey |
| June 15-18 | Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give | Blythefield C.C. | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| June 22-25 | KPMG Women’s PGA Championship | Baltusrol G.C. (Lower Course) | Springfield, New Jersey |
| July 6-9 | U.S. Women’s Open presented by ProMedica | Pebble Beach G.L. | Pebble Beach, California |
| July 13-16 | Greater Toledo LPGA Classic | Highland Meadows G.C. | Sylvania, Ohio |
| July 19-22 | Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational | Midland C.C | Midland, Michigan |
| July 27-30 | Amundi Evian Championship | Evian Resort G.C. | Evian-les-Bains, France |
| Aug. 3-6 | Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open | Dundonald Links | Ayrshire, Scotland |
| Aug. 10-13 | AIG Women’s Open | Walton Heath (Old Course) | Surrey, England |
| Aug. 17-20 | ISPS Handa World Invitational | Galgorme Castle G.C. and Massereene G.C. | Antrim, Northern Ireland |
| Aug. 24-27 | CP Women’s Open | Shaughnessy G. and C.C | British Columbia, Canada |
| Aug. 31-Sept. 3 | Portland Classic | Columbia Edgewater C.C. | Portland, Oregon |
| Sept. 7-10 | Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G | Kenwood C.C. | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Sept. 22-24 | Solheim Cup | Finca Cortesin | Andalucia, Spain |
| Sept. 29-Oct. 1 | Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G | Pinnacle C.C. | Rogers, Arkansas |
| Oct. 5-8 | The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America | Old American G.C. | The Colony, Texas |
| Oct. 12-15 | Buick LPGA Shanghai | Qizhong Garden G.C. | Shanghai, People’s Republic of China |
| Oct. 19-22 | BMW Ladies Championship | Korean location to be announced | |
| Oct. 26-29 | Taiwan Swinging Skirts LPGA | Miramar G.C | New Taipei City, Taiwan |
| Nov. 2-5 | Toto Japan Classic | Taiheiyo Club Minori Course | Omitama, Ibaraki, Japan |
| Nov. 9-12 | The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican | Pelican G.C. | Belleair, Florida |
| Nov. 16-19 | CME Group Tour Championship | Tiburon G.C. | Naples, Florida |
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