LA Championship purse rises to $3.75 million

Over the course of its practically 75-year historical past, the LPGA has had a handful of enterprise titans champion the group in extraordinary methods.

Whereas it’s early days for Walter Wang and his spouse Shirley, who solely bought into the enterprise of sponsoring an LPGA occasion two years in the past, the influence and the fervour are already important.

Final 12 months, the JM Eagle LA Championship purse doubled from $1.5 million to $3 million. This 12 months, the Wangs upped it once more to $3.75 million, making it the very best purse on tour outdoors the majors and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. Walter, who’s CEO of, JM Eagle signed on for a five-year dedication as title sponsor. Shirley Wang is CEO of Plastpro, which serves because the occasion’s presenting sponsor.

There at the moment are 11 non-major tournaments with purses of $3 million or extra in 2024, up from 5 final 12 months. Complete LPGA prize cash is now greater than $120 million this season.

“I believed, these women deserve extra,” mentioned Wang, when he realized the extent of the hole between PGA Tour and LPGA purses. “I spoke to my spouse and mentioned, ‘Let’s do that. And if we’re going to do that, let’s do it proper.’ ”

Hannah Inexperienced poses with the trophy after profitable the 2023 JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Nation Membership in Los Angeles. (Picture: Harry How/Getty Photos)

Along with the purse, the event, scheduled for April 25-28, will even cowl lodging prices for the 144 gamers within the discipline and supply complimentary shuttle entry to Wilshire Nation Membership all through event week. Early commitments embrace the highest 4 gamers on the earth: Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Celine Boutier and Ruoning Yin.

Lizette Salas, a California native and 12-year veteran of the LPGA, is aware of the type of assertion the Wangs are making in L.A.

“Yeah, it’s an unimaginable feeling simply to witness the expansion of the sport, ” mentioned Salas, “the involvement of the sponsors who actually – simply actually worth how arduous we work and the way a lot we love this sport and actually simply need to – they take note of particulars like Shirley and Walter actually simply attempt to take some stress off of our plate for the week.”

Wang’s JM Eagle is the world’s largest producer of plastic pipe, and when requested what supporting the LPGA does for his enterprise, he very bluntly mentioned “nothing.”

“I’m a plastic pipe producer,” he defined. “There’s virtually no worth to placing our identify on the market or promoting the model identify. That’s not us. We’re a really commodity-driven enterprise.”

On the coronary heart of Wang’s sponsorship is giving again to the neighborhood, which he considers the duty of all corporations.

Wang’s father, Yung-ching Wang, a Taiwanese billionaire, expanded his plastics firm to the U.S. in 1982. Walter began working for JM in 1990, rising the enterprise 5 instances over since then organically. What was a $200-plus million enterprise grew to over $1 billion in 10 years.

Wang’s love of golf began in his early 20s again in Taiwan. He appreciates the life classes the sport supplies and needs to introduce the game to extra younger individuals, notably in after-school applications for at-risk youth.

A religious Christian, Wang mentioned a battle with a uncommon most cancers that took him to Hong Kong for therapy practically 20 years in the past tremendously shapes how he views life and his objective.

“It was like a sabbatical with God,” he mentioned.

Whereas presidents and CEOs select to become involved in sponsoring the tour for myriad causes, Wang mentioned reaping the long-term rewards is what’s really valuable.

“Inside your coronary heart, it feels nice,” mentioned Wang. “You’re feeling plenty of pleasure supporting the LPGA. You simply do.”