PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – The USGA announced on Wednesday that this year’s U.S. Women’s Open would have a purse of $11 million, a bump of $1 million from last year.
The winner will receive $2 million, compared to the $1.8 million that Minjee Lee took home as the ’22 champ.
The purse increase comes despite this championship no longer having a presenting sponsor. ProMedica, a mission-based, not-for-profit integrated healthcare organization, played that role last year, which helped boost the purse from $5.5 million in 2021 to $10 million.
USGA CEO Mike Whan said on Wednesday that the organization was in serious conversations with a future presenting sponsor and that it anticipated another million-dollar purse increase next year.
Full-field tee times from the U.S. Women’s Open
The USGA had a 10-year deal with ProMedica but released the company from the agreement because of economic concerns.
“When we parted ways with ProMedica, we decided to kind of sit tight for a year because we didn’t want to be in the midst of this running around and changing signage and that kind of stuff,” Whan said.
“And so we sort of said to ourselves, let’s wait a year, and in that wait … we actually had four or five partners kind of reach out to us, so we’ve been pretty deep in the dialogue with a couple of them.”
Three weeks ago, the men’s U.S. Open was contested with a $20 million purse, an increase of $7.5 million since 2021. While the women won’t reach equal footing in the very near future, progression, the USGA said, is the goal.
“Equality takes on a lot of different meanings to us, not just the purse,” said USGA president Fred Perpall. “But I think if we keep working on that process, eventually we get more eyeballs. We get more interest. We have the economics rise. And then it’s easier for the purse to right, too. Some of this is part of the process, and some of it is part of the journey and not only the destination.”
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