The LPGA Tour will play with $127.5 million in official prize money in 2025; This is another record for the circuit, which has operated independently of the PGA Tour for 75 years.

Program announced on Wednesday The season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida, has several moving parts, including new tournaments in Utah and Mexico, the end of a 40-year run in Ohio and the merger of the Founders Cup with a previous tournament.

The official prize money does not include the $2 million International Crown, held every two years as golf’s only team event in which countries compete against each other; and the $2 million Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed team event in conjunction with the PGA Tour.

The LPGA Tour is playing with $123.75 million in official prize money in 2024.

The tour also announced that Chicago-based CME Group has extended its Race sponsorship of CME Globe for two years through 2027.

The CME Group Tour Championship’s budget has more than doubled to $11 million, with $4 million going to the winner this week. The biggest win in women’s sports is the WTA Finals. Coco Gauff earned $4.8 million earlier this month.

The Players Championship ($4.5 million) and the U.S. Open ($4.3 million) are the only golf tournaments that pay out more than the winner of the CME Group Tour Championship.

“The metrics and numbers are eye-popping in terms of the growth we have had over the last few years,” LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said Wednesday.

“We’re really proud that other women’s sports are starting to receive the financial investment that women’s golf has provided, and we’re proud of the role we’ve played in developing women’s sport in general,” she said. “The best women in the world need to live lives that match their level of excellence, and we strive every day to achieve that goal.”

Prize money has increased by almost 90% in four years, led by the growing purses of the majors and CME Group at the biggest events.

Marcoux Samaan said the LPGA is trying to improve the geographic flow of the schedule and avoid playing in the same week as five of the six biggest events in men’s golf next year. It is only played in the same week as the US Open (Meijer LPGA Classic).

The LPGA will be closed during the Players Championship, Masters, PGA Championship, British Open and Ryder Cup.

The first major tournament, the Chevron Championship, has been pushed back a week, so it won’t start just four days after the Masters.

Marcoux Samaan also said the LPGA will have fully subsidized health insurance for its players next year. Previously, they had salaries of $1,800 in 2021, which increased to $4,000 this year. Tam said the news “is something we’ve been working on for a really long time in this organization and we’re really proud of it.”

Among the changes to the 2025 schedule was that it would start two weeks later, making for a slightly longer offseason. The Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions in Florida begins January 30.

Cognizant is no longer sponsoring the $3 million Founders Cup in New Jersey. Instead, the Founders Cup replaces the LPGA Drive On Championship in Bradenton, Florida, with a purse of $2 million.

New on the schedule is a return to Mexico for the Riviera Maya Open in Cancun and the Black Desert Championship in Utah, which hosts a PGA Tour event on the same course this fall.

The LPGA also put the Hawaii stop at the front end, rather than the back, of the fall Asian swing as players head back to the mainland.

There were slight increases in prize money in ten of the tournaments. All but two tournaments, the Honda LPGA Thailand and the ShopRite LPGA Classic, have purses of at least $2 million. Ten tournaments have prize money of $3 million or more, with the new FM Championship at TPC Boston bringing the money to $4.1 million.

This does not include majors or the CME Group Tour Championship. The US Women’s Open, managed by the USGA, again has the highest budget at $12 million. Next year it will be played at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, where Brooks Koepka won his first major title at the 2017 U.S. Open.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf