The winner of this week’s CME Group Tour Championship will go home with the biggest first-place prize in women’s golf history.

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The winner of this week’s CME Group Tour Championship will go home with the biggest first-place prize in women’s golf history.

The post Massive payday at this week’s LPGA event dwarfs most PGA Tour prizes appeared first on Golf.

There is much on the line at the LPGA’s season finale — the CME Group Tour Championship — this week: one of the biggest titles of the year, Player of the Year honors and, oh yeah, the $2 million that the winner will take home.

That’s right: two million bucks.

That’s not just a lot of dough for a women’s golf event, it’s a lot of dough for any golf event.

The CME’s $7 million total purse is roughly in line with what the five women’s majors paid out in 2022 (see below). But the CME has separated itself with its first-prize share, which is $200,000 more than what the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open champion pocketed and $1.25 million more than what the season’s first major, the Chevron Championship, paid its winner.

The CME’s winner’s share is not only the largest prize in the history of women’s golf but also more money than most run-of-the-mill PGA Tour events award their champions, most of which pay out in the $1.4 million to $1.6 million range.

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The 28.6% cut of the purse the winner will receive in Naples, Fla., is far more than the typical 18% cut for a regular PGA Tour event (or the typical LPGA share of 15%). The only PGA Tour events that paid its winner more than $2 million were the three invitationals (Genesis, Arnold Palmer, Memorial), the WGC Match Play, the Players, the three FedEx Cup Playoff events and the four majors.

“Yeah, it’s good for us,” defending CME champion and world No. 4 Jin Young Ko said this week when asked about the payout. “So I hope the other tournaments, the prize getting higher, too. Fingers crossed.”

Added world No. 4 Atthaya Thitikul, when asked how she might spend $2 million: “I think I’ll buy a house. I didn’t have my own house in the States yet. I have planned to buy some, but yeah, if I win, it’s going to be right now.”

The downside of the hefty winner and runner-up’s share: players near the bottom of the leaderboard will collect less compared to some of the LPGA majors. The last-place finisher this week, for example, will get $17,273 while a two-way tie for 60th at the Women’s PGA earned the players $22,583.

Before we get into a breakdown of the money for this week, let’s compare this week’s first-place and second-place (which is a 15% cut) money to what was given out at the five LPGA majors this year.

CME Group Championship (Purse: $7 million)

1: $2,000,000

2: $687,000

Chevron Championship (Purse: $5 million)

1: $750,000

2: $461,757

U.S. Women’s Open ($10 million)

1: $1,800,000

2: $1,080,000

KPMG Women’s PGA ($9 million)

1: $1,350,000

2: $718,827

Amundi Evian Championship ($6.5 million)

1: $1,000,000

2: $586,262

AIG Women’s Open ($7.3 million)

1: $1,095,000

2: $673,743

Now here’s the entire breakdown of the field payout for this week at Tiburon Golf Club:

CME Group Tour Championship payout info, winner’s share:

1. $2,000,000

2. $687,000

3. $444,950

4. $324,080

5. $251,774

6. $203,575

7. $167,422

8. $140,911

9. $124,041

10. $111,990

11. $102,348

12. $95,116

13. $89,090

14. $83,788

15. $78,970

16. $74,630

17. $70,774

18. $67,402

19. $64,509

20. $62,100

21. $60,170

22. $58,244

23. $56,314

24. $54,389

25. $52,458

26. $50,772

27. $49,086

28. $47,395

29. $45,709

30. $44,024

31. $42,577

32. $41,130

33. $39,684

34. $38,237

35. $36,791

36. $35,589

37. $34,382

38. $33,179

39. $31,972

40. $30,765

41. $29,803

42. $28,840

43. $27,877

44. $26,910

45. $25,947

46. $25,224

47. $24,500

48. $23,777

49. $23,054

50. $22,331

51. $21,607

52. $21,128

53. $20,645

54. $20,161

55. $19,682

56. $19,198

57. $18,714

58. $18,235

59. $17,752

60. $17,273

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