The Women's PGA Championship will offer $13M in total prize money for 2025, a $1M increase from last year that makes it the richest purse in women's golf. The U.S. Women's Open, historically the LPGA's largest payday, sits at $12M for 2025—unchanged from 2024. The winner at Sahalee Country Club in June collects $2.08M.

The move is surgical. The PGA of America, which runs the event alongside the LPGA, is not bound by the federation politics that slow USGA purse growth. It can write the check. The USGA operates five championships across men's and women's golf; the PGA of America operates two, and both are now above $12M. Title sponsor KPMG, in year eleven of its deal, has never let the number stagnate for more than two consecutive years. That pattern holds.

The second-order effect is sponsor positioning. Brands paying seven figures for LPGA tournament titles now have a new benchmark. Chevron, which sponsors the first major of the season at $7.9M, and Amundi, which backs the Evian Championship at $8M, are suddenly $5M behind the leader. That gap creates board-level questions. If KPMG can justify $13M to reach the same demographic, what is Chevron's CFO being told about incremental reach per million? The LPGA's media rights deal with NBC and Golf Channel runs through 2025; renewal talks are already underway, and every purse increase is a data point in that negotiation.

For players, the math is straightforward. The top 10 finishers at the Women's PGA will collect a combined $5.2M, roughly $400K more than last year's top 10. That spreads the wealth past the winner—critical in a tour where the 50th-ranked player earned $384K in 2024, enough to cover expenses but not enough to fund a team. Mid-tier players who finish top 15 at a major can now afford a full-time coach for the year. That changes preparation cycles and, eventually, leaderboard depth.

The USGA has not announced 2026 purse figures for the U.S. Women's Open. Its 2024 annual report showed $458M in total revenue, with $52M allocated to championships and grants. The organization has historically moved purses in $1M increments every two to three years. If that pace holds, it will not reclaim the lead until 2027 at earliest. The PGA of America, meanwhile, has no structural reason to stop. KPMG's partnership was extended in 2023 through 2030 with no disclosed spending cap. The only governor is whether the business case holds—and the renewal signals it does.

The Women's PGA Championship runs June 19-22 at Sahalee Country Club outside Seattle. The U.S. Women's Open follows two weeks later at Erin Hills in Wisconsin. By then, agents will have updated their major-wins-projected-earnings models, and CMOs will have new comp sheets for their June board decks.