The 2023 edition of the LPGA Tour Championship just teed off, but the season-ending tournament already is making waves into 2024.

Next year’s first-place winner will receive a record $4 million, up from $2 million. The total purse will increase from $11 million, up from $7 million and tied with the U.S. Open as the largest purses in tour history.

On Wednesday, CME Group announced a two-year extension of their partnership with the LPGA, which included the increased purse size. In addition to $4 million for the winner, $1 million will go to the runner-up.

CME Group has sponsored the final major of the season since 2011. And the extension of the partnership signifies the “growth and strength of the LPGA,” according to LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan.

“CME Group has been pushing the LPGA forward at every step of our evolution since 2011, and with this extension they are once again helping take the LPGA, women’s golf and women’s sports to unprecedented heights,” she said in a statement.

Those looking to follow this year’s tournament can watch it on Peacock from Thursday through Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. ET. NBC and Peacock will present the final round beginning at 1 p.m. ET Sunday.

Angel Reese has been named to Time Magazine’s 100 Next list for 2023.

A standout for LSU basketball, she helped lead the Tigers to their first national title earlier this year while setting a record for double-doubles in a single season. And her star has continued to rise as she elevates her game and her profile.

WNBA star Candace Parker, who wrote Reese’s blurb for Time Magazine, noted that Reese brings “work, effort and energy,” all of which are required to excel in their game.

“She’s ripping the sport open and tearing back the layers,” Parker writes. “Her tenacity and confidence on the court make her such an exciting player to watch—it’s incredible to see her stand in her power and make such a big impact on women’s basketball, especially this early in her career.”

There is only “one time” that Parker doesn’t root for Reese, and it’s when LSU plays her own alma mater, the University of Tennessee.

The 100 Next list, which recognizes up-and-comers in industries across the world, also features a pair of World Cup stars in Spain forward Salma Paralluelo and USWNT and Portland Thorns forward Sophia Smith. Stanford golf phenom-turned-LPGA pro Rose Zhang also made the list.

Smith touched on her missed penalty kick at the World Cup in her blurb. The shot helped seal the USWNT’s penalty shootout loss to Sweden in the Round of 16.

“You don’t let those moments completely define who you are,” she said. “When something doesn’t go your way, you can let it take you down, or you learn and grow from that moment and be better from it. I’m choosing that route.”

Sometimes it feels like the celebration of a career might take just a little bit longer than 90 minutes.

Saying goodbye — Claire Watkins

01/

Megan Rapinoe’s final bow

Megan Rapinoe took her final bow on the international stage on Sunday, playing her last match for the USWNT in a 2-0 win over South Africa.

• “It has been such an honor to be able to wear this shirt, to play with all these amazing players and to live out my childhood dream,” she said after the game.

End of an era: Rapinoe leaves the U.S. as a two-time World Cup champion and an Olympic gold and bronze medalist.

• She also led the charge in the USWNT’s fight for equal pay and stood up for a number of social causes throughout her career.

“We have fought so hard off the field to continue to create more space for ourselves to be who we are, but hopefully I’m turning it into more space for you guys to be who you are,” she said on Sunday.

• “I think it says a lot about us that everything on field kind of pales in comparison to what we’ve achieved off the field and where we’ve chosen to throw our weight.”
• Read more: Top moments from Megan Rapinoe’s last USWNT match

02/

A’ja Wilson leads Vegas to semifinal win

The No. 1 seed Aces are off to a strong start, taking down No. 4 Dallas 97-83 in Game 1 of their WNBA semifinal series on Sunday.

• Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson scored 34 points to lead all scorers, followed by 25 points by teammate Kelsey Plum.

Controlling the game: “I like offense. I like to get on offense, so the only way I can do that is getting the basketball on defense,” Wilson said after the third quarter.

• Wilson had four total blocks and outscored the Wings by herself in the third quarter, with 14 of the Aces’ 26 points to extend the lead.

The Wings’ chances hinged on points in the paint, an area the Aces focused on limiting in the second half.

• “She loves the moment. That’s just something she’s born with,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said of Wilson after the game.

03/

Liberty play ‘worst game of season’ in loss

The WNBA’s other semifinal matchup resulted in an upset, as No. 3 Connecticut took Game 1 off the No. 2 Liberty in New York 78-63.

• DeWanna Bonner led all scorers in the low-scoring affair with 20 points.

Battling through: Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello called it the “worst game of the season” for her team, which shot just 34% from the field.

• WNBA MVP candidate Breanna Stewart was 7-for-25 from the field and 0-for-8 from the 3-point line.

The Sun have now guaranteed themselves two semifinal games at home in Games 3 and 4.

• On the other side, Sun head coach Stephanie White called the performance “probably the most consistent 40 minutes that we’ve played all year.”
• Next up on Tuesday: CON vs. NYL, 8 pm ET / DAL vs. LVA, 10 pm ET (ESPN)

04/

Mia Fishel’s long-awaited USWNT debut

The USWNT both closed a chapter and had an exciting debut this weekend.

• New Chelsea signing Mia Fishel made her first appearance with the senior team, subbing into the 2-0 win in the 65th minute.

Long time coming: Fishel was a standout with Tigres in Liga MX Femenil, but was not called into pre-World Cup camps by then-USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski.

• “It was all positive vibes,” Fishel said. “Twila [Kilgore] was amazing. I feel like this new group has new energy after the World Cup and we’re ready to go.”

The 22-year-old forward replaced Alex Morgan against South Africa on Sunday, slotting into a central attacking role.

• “The final instructions [were to] just have fun, go out there, I know how to play,” she said. “There’s a reason why I’m out there.”
• Read more: Who is Mia Fishel? Meet the uncapped Chelsea signee

05/

Europe’s furious Solheim Cup comeback

Team Europe retained their Solheim Cup crown on Sunday, roaring back from a deficit to tie Team USA 14-14 and earn enough points to hold onto their title.

• The tie was the first in the history of the biennial event, held 18 times.

The event came to an awkward ending after Team Europe reached the 14-point threshold before the final pairing finished, prompting early celebrations.

• Team USA golfer Lexi Thompson rebounded on Sunday after a slip-up Friday that led to a contentious press conference.

06/

U.S. Soccer ‘happy’ with USWNT coach search

U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker gave an update on the USWNT’s coaching search this weekend.

• “I am really happy with where we are with search,” he told select media in Chicago before Megan Rapinoe’s final USWNT match.

They plan to have the new coach in place by the team’s December friendlies.

• “There was definitely a sense of — this is no disrespect to the history — but the players want, going forward, a coach that can build, develop, and source outstanding relationships,” he said of player feedback.

07/

WNBA players push back on awards voting

The release of the 2023 WNBA All-Defensive Teams selection set off a chain reaction of comments from players and coaches this week.

• “Yeah they should let players and coaches vote on these awards,” Courtney Williams wrote on social media. “It’s just different having to scout and play against it night in and night out.”

“Stats are how people largely vote on/explain these awards, and that means steals, blocks, and rebounds. Two of those three immediately skew towards bigs,” wrote Mystics coach Eric Thibault.

• “Voting for this league is a joke,” Natasha Cloud wrote in a now-deleted post.

08/

Debinha joins the Golden Boot race

The Kansas City Current are still in the hunt for a playoff spot, and Debinha is quietly making an NWSL Golden Boot case.

• The Brazilian midfielder has seven goals on the season, tied with Morgan Weaver and Lynn Williams for third.

When NWSL games resume next week, time will tell if anyone can catch Sophia Smith’s tally of 11 goals.

• The fewest goals needed to win the Golden Boot in NWSL history is 10, by Ashley Hatch in 2021.

09/

Number of the Day

8 — A’ja Wilson is the eighth player in history to win WNBA Defensive Player of the Year more than once, after earning the honor for the second straight year this week.

10/

Quote of the Day

“That’s why I have such peace about moving on, is I look at players like Soph Smith, Naomi, Trin. The squad is in very, very good hands if those are the ones that are holding it moving forward.”

— Megan Rapinoe on the future of the USWNT

Follow Claire Watkins on Twitter and read more of her work for Just Women’s Sports.

Lilia Vu captured her second major of 2023 at the Women’s British Open on Sunday.

The victory caps off a big season for Vu, which featured her first LPGA Tour win and two major championships. And soon she’ll be ranked No. 1 in the world.

“It sounds almost unreal,” Vu said.

The 25-year-old American won her first event in February in Thailand before taking the Chevron Championship in a playoff two months later. She’s missed the cut in four of six stroke-play events since then as she has tried to adjust to the expectations of a major champion.

“Honestly I just wanted to win golf tournaments out here on the LPGA,” Vu told reporters in England. “It’s just been a crazy year for me, just doing pretty well at the beginning of the season and just hit a lull in the middle, just struggling. I thought at the U.S. Open after I played so bad, I didn’t know if I could ever win again.”

She finished at 14 under par, six strokes ahead of Charley Hull, her co-leader at the start of the day.

On Sunday, she felt a bit of relief, she said. She became the first female player to win two majors in the same year since Jin Young Ko did it in 2019. And she’s the first American woman to do it since Juli Inkster in 1999.

“How I felt afterward, honestly I was thinking those two wins were a fluke,” she said. “It just comes down to not thinking about winning, just playing one shot at a time. This golf course forces you to do that. It really tests you. That was my only goal. To drive the ball well and give myself chances for birdie.”

The LPGA Tour is closing out the final major of the 2023 season with a bang.

The AIG Women’s Open, which teed off Thursday at the Walton Heath Old Course in Surrey, England, increased its purse for 2023 to $9 million — a 23% increase from 2022. In doing so, the LPGA Tour’s total prize fund for 2023 reached a record $108 million — a 15% increase from 2022.

The other four women’s golf majors have seen similar increases to their prize money in the last several years:

• Chevron Championship
  • 2021: $3 million
  • 2022: $5 million
  • 2023: $5.1 million
• KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
  • 2021: $4.5 million
  • 2022: $9 million
  • 2023: $10 million
• U.S. Women’s Open
  • 2021: $5.5 million
  • 2022: $10 million
  • 2023: $11 million
• Amundi Evian Championship
  • 2021: $4.5 million
  • 2022: $6.5 million
  • 2023: $6.5 million
• AIG Women’s Open
  • 2021: $5.8 million
  • 2022: $7.3 million
  • 2023: $9 million

Viewership numbers also have set records in 2023, with July bringing the highest average monthly viewership ever for the LPGA Tour at more than 600,000. More than one million viewers tuned in for the third and final rounds of the U.S. Women’s Open, plus the final round of the Dana Open.

In the AIG Women’s Open, Ally Ewing, a 30-year-old from the United States, leads the field at 10-under par in the second round.

AIG Women’s Open: How to watch

• Saturday, Aug. 12: Third round
  • 7 a.m.-2 p.m. ET — USA Network
• Sunday, Aug. 13: Final round 
  • 7 a.m.-12 p.m. ET — USA Network
  • 12-2 p.m. ET — NBC and Peacock

Céline Boutier dominated the Evian Championship, winning by six strokes Sunday to capture the first major title of her LPGA career.

She’s also the first French golfer to win the major in her home country and just the third to win any LPGA major after becoming the winningest French player in March. The Evian Championship is held in Evian-les-Bains, France.

“Honestly, it has been my biggest dream ever since I started watching golf,” Boutier said. “This tournament has always been very special to me, just even watching as a teenager. To be able to hold this trophy is pretty unbelievable.”

During her impressive weekend, she was the only player to shoot all four rounds under 70, including a final round score of 68. She finished at a dominant 14-under for an overall score of 270.

Boutier’s six-stroke win is tied for the largest since the tournament became a major in 2013. She joins the company of Lydia Ko, who won the Evian Championship in 2015.

Brooke Henderson finished in second at 8-under, while a number of players finished at 7-under. Newly-minted pro Rose Zhang finished tied for ninth, her third straight top-ten finish at a major since turning pro in May.

And for Boutier, the win cements this year as one to remember, no matter what follows.

“I think nothing else matters now that I have this trophy,” she said. “So I’m really good for the rest of the year.”

The newest major champion!@celineboutier gets it done in her home country 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/6W1kufuDSc

— LPGA (@LPGA) July 30, 2023

Michelle Wie West is ready for her curtain call.

The 33-year-old golfer is playing the final tournament of her professional career this week at the U.S. Women’s Open. And while the five-time winner on the LPGA Tour does have her share of “what-ifs,” she is looking beyond them to her future outside the game.

“I feel very — confident that I had the career that I wanted to,” she told the New York Times. “Obviously, I wish I could have done more as well. I think anyone and everyone thinks that.”

But “the what-ifs and the regrets and the ‘I wish I could have done this better’ can drive you truly insane,” she said. And at the end of the day she’s done what she set out to do: earn a degree from Stanford and win a U.S. Open — the 2014 tournament at Pinehurst.

Still, she admitted that it is “hard to know” the right time to walk away. While she always planned to retire after having children, giving birth to her daughter Makenna in 2020 spurred a desire to continue playing. She has done so, playing a few tournaments over the last few years, though she has not played a full LPGA Tour schedule since 2018.

Ultimately, her body has told her that now is the time to step away.

“I really, really wanted to play longer. I really wanted to — especially after having Makenna and her being a girl, I really wanted to play longer,” Wie West told ESPN. “In an ideal world I wish I was still out on tour and playing. Unfortunately it’s just I had to make a hard decision with my body. It is hard. It is hard to be a mom out here. You have to make a lot of sacrifices. I just had to make a hard medical decision and also a personal decision.”

She played a practice round Tuesday with Rose Zhang, a fellow Stanford alum who is just at the start of her career, and Wie West admits that it already has been “an emotional week.”

“I just realized everything I’m doing, I’m doing for the last time,” she said. “The putting drills that I’m doing, you’d best believe I’m not going to do another putting drill for the rest of my life if I don’t need to. So all that stuff I’m doing for the last time, the last practice rounds, getting the line, writing in my yardage book.

“I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting, and incredibly blessed for the journey that I have and the family that I’ve built. It’s just a really cool week to be here.”

As for what’s next, Wie West hopes to remain close to the sport.

“I continue to want to help the tour grow, female sports in general, and do everything in my power to keep empowering the women, closing the pay gap, whether it’s in sports and out of sports,” she said. “I think we have to lead by example, and I hope I can be a part of that.”

The U.S. Open tees off Thursday at Pebble Beach. The tournament will run through Sunday. The broadcast schedule is below, and the full tournament will be available to stream on Peacock.

• Thursday, July 6: 6-11 p.m. ET — USA Network
• Friday, July 7: 6-11 p.m. ET — USA Network
• Saturday, July 8: 3-9 p.m. ET — NBC
• Sunday, July 9: 3-9 p.m. ET — NBC

Rose Zhang’s star continues to rise in the LPGA, as she followed up her winning professional debut with a top-10 finish at her first pro major at the Women’s PGA Championship.

The 20-year-old American finished tied for eighth place behind a final-round charge at Baltusrol Golf Club in New Jersey. She shot a 67 on Sunday to finish at five under par, three shots back of the lead.

“I would say I’m content with the result. I’m not content with how I played,” Zhang said. “From the beginning of the week, I feel like there’s always room to work on things, and I’m really satisfied with my overall performance, but there’s little mistakes that I made that you just can’t really afford to make.

“I felt really confident with my putter the whole day, and the last couple days I feel like that really saved me this entire week. But the last couple holes, putts fell a little short, they lipped out a little bit.”

Ruoning Yin won the title at eight under par, becoming just the second woman from China to win a major championship. She beat Japan’s Yuka Saso by one stroke, birdying the final hole to join Shanshan Feng in Chinese golf history. Feng won 10 times on the LPGA Tour, though her only major win came at the PGA Championship in 2012.

“I would say she’s definitely the goal that I’m chasing,” Yin said of Feng. “But I think she is the person who inspired me the most.”

For Zhang, who just made the jump from college (where she won back-to-back national titles), the difficulty of the court stood out as the main difference from her past competitions.

“I feel like it’s still golf, so I still felt the same energy as any other event except this is major week, and the golf course is a lot harder,” she said. “It’s playing a lot more difficult. You have to be on your toes at all times. Losing a little bit of focus causes you to have errors, and that’s just something you can’t afford at a major championship.

“But I think that was the different part, was just making sure that you’re still in the moment and you’re still hitting it shot by shot, regardless of what the result is.”

Zhang climbed to within one shot of the lead Sunday before a few mistakes on the back nine sunk her shot at victory. But she still recorded her best-ever finish at a major (she played in several as an amateur), which she called “pretty special.”

“It’s definitely a different dynamic when you’re a professional versus an amateur,” she said. “And when you’re playing your game, you really have to be precise with your numbers, really understand what your swing is doing, and there is no room for error. Therefore, I’m excited to keep working on my game.”

The 2023 KMPG Women’s PGA Championship is here, teeing off Thursday and running through Sunday with $9 million in purse money up for grabs.

The tournament, which is being played at the Baltusrol Lower Course in Springfield, New Jersey, features the second-highest purse of the year, with only the U.S. Women’s Open offering more at $10 million.

Women’s PGA Championship:
Schedule and how to watch

Thurs., June 22:

• 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. — Golf Channel and Peacock
• 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. — Peacock

Friday, June 23:

• 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. — Golf Channel and Peacock
• 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. — Peacock

Saturday, June 24:

• 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. — Peacock
• 3 p.m. – 6 p.m. — NBC

Sunday, June 25:

• 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. — Peacock
• 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. — NBC

Players to watch

Rose Zhang

All eyes are on newly-minted pro Rose Zhang, who announced following the 2023 NCAA season that she would be leaving Stanford for the LPGA. She won her professional debut at the Mizuho Americas Open in early June, beating Jennifer Kupcho in a playoff. Now she’ll make her major debut as a professional.

“This year, we’ve had a lot of really good golfers,” LPGA star and world No. 2 Nelly Korda said during a pre-tournament news conference. “Rose is one-for-one, so she’s pretty good.

“… It’s amazing to see that she won her first week out as a professional. I think it’s going to be really good for women’s golf. Hopefully, we have some great battles coming down the stretch over the years.”

The No. 1-ranked amateur in the world for 141 weeks (the most of any player ever), Zhang has had a big year, winning her second individual NCAA title and the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur title. And the Women’s PGA Championship is the only major in which she has yet to compete, making it fitting that this will be her first major as a professional. But even as an amateur, she’s never finished below 60th at a major. Her career-high finish in a major came at the 2020 Chevron Championship, in which she tied for 11th place.

Nelly Korda

The No. 2 ranked player in the world, Korda has found her way back after missing significant time last season with an injury and beginning this season with a lower back injury. But that’s not a problem this week.

“I honestly wouldn’t be playing if I wasn’t 100%,” Korda said Tuesday.

She’s consistently been among the world’s best in recent years, but has won just one major: the 2021 PGA Championship. She finished last season on a high, tying for eighth at the Evian Championship, her highest-ever finish at that major. And the time away, she said, has left her “a little bit more hungry.”

Ashleigh Buhai

Buhai enters the major as one of the best players of late. She won the ShopRite tournament, placed third at the Founders Cup and tied for seventh at the Mizuho Americas Open. At last week’s Meijer Classic, she finished tied for 13th, but she has been successful in New Jersey. While she’s not been as successful at the PGA Championship, look for Buhai to capitalize on recent success.

Leona Maguire

Maguire is fresh off a win at the Meijer Classic and has put together three top-10 finishes to begin the 2023 season. If she were to win, she’d become Ireland’s first female major champion, joining the likes of Rory McIlroy and Padraig Harrington.

“Obviously to get my second win is obviously very nice, and I’ll try and give myself as best a chance as possible in the remaining majors this year,” she said. “I didn’t put any pressure on myself this week, so not going to do that for the rest of the season and just enjoy my golf as much as I can.”