Texas-Sized $12 Million Purse Ups Ante At The KPMG Women's PGA Championship

Forbes

17-06-2025

Hot on the heels of J.J. Spaun's gritty U.S. Open triumph where the San Diego State alum was the lone man under par—golf's major season stays in beast mode with no cooldown in sight.
156 of the top women in the game—including World No. 1 Nelly Korda and defending champ Amy Yang—are set to tee it up at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco from June 19-22 for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.
Designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner and opened just two years ago, the track, one of two 18-hole layouts on the sprawling campus of the PGA of America's headquarters, is quickly earning a sterling reputation in Texas. It already hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and it's slated to stage the PGA Championship for the men in 2027 and 2034.
The purse has leapt 15% from last year's tally to a tidy $12 million, tying the highest prize fund on the LPGA Tour. The sum is now on par with the prize money payout at the women's national championship.
'This year we'll be on the same level as the U.S. Women's Open Championship and we couldn't be prouder that the purse has risen to that level in really just a short period of time,' KPMG U.S. Chair and CEO Paul Knopp enthused.
'We at KPMG are trying to set the standard for excellence in Women's golf. That's been the vision since 2015 and in the eleven years that we have held this event,' he added, noting that the purse has climbed 430% since KPMG's first year as title sponsor when Inbee Park—now an LPGA Hall of Famer—topped the leaderboard at Westchester Country Club.
Broadcast coverage is also ramping up, with nearly 100 hours of live and streaming content across NBC, Golf Channel, and Peacock. NBC's streamer will offer featured group coverage presented by KPMG and T-Mobile for Business for the first time—a viewing option that's proven a hit in men's majors.
KPMG's commitment to the event goes beyond the purse premium and spotlighting top-class venues—past host sites include Aronimink, Atlanta Athletic Club, Congressional, and Sahalee. They've also used the event to highlight the KPMG Performance Insights platform, which this year adds new AI-powered features that crank up the detail on data-driven analysis, providing both competitors, fans and media in the booth with real-time shot metrics insight.
'Golf is a data-driven game, it probably has as much or more data involved than any sport,' Knopp said. 'We look at the game of women's golf much like a client opportunity: How can we help the client achieve more and perform better. We do that for corporations and we are doing it for the women on the LPGA Tour.'
The platform's bolstered AI-powered features include daily recaps with hole-by-hole breakdowns and predictive scoring tools that estimate what players need to shoot to make the cut or move up the leaderboard—giving competitors and fans alike the insights to track momentum and actionable intel to tweak strategies.
'The predictive side is one of the most powerful aspects of AI,' Knopp said. 'It allows the women to see what they need to score on a particular hole to make the cut or be in the top ten. And it allows fans to see that, too.'
For fans, KPMG Champcast presented by T-Mobile, uses the same ShotLink Pro tech as the PGA Tour. And it packs in all the accompanying whiz-bang: 3D imagery, radar data, shot trails, green views, and instant video highlights so fans can get as immersed as they want to while keeping tabs on the shot-by-shot drama unfolding. Performance Insights and Champcast weave together real-time and historical data, creating a richer tapestry for fans looking for deeper engagement.
'I've always had this view that you hear the clapping somewhere else on the course, but you don't know what's happening,' Knopp said. 'This technology helps fans follow their favorite players from anywhere—and gives the broadcast teams more tools to tell the full story.'