Austin, TX
The PGA has left Austin, but the city could be an attractive future host for the LPGA
![The PGA has left Austin, but the city could be an attractive future host for the LPGA The PGA has left Austin, but the city could be an attractive future host for the LPGA](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2023/03/23/NAAS/6c9b9f16-422d-4402-a986-447ed5f088a0-Dellmatch3.jpg?auto=webp&crop=8585,4830,x0,y0&format=pjpg&width=1200)
Texas has long played a major role in the golf world, but in recent years the Lone Star State’s impact on the sport has grown exponentially, from the PGA of America relocating its headquarters from Florida to Frisco to a number of professional players settling down throughout the state due to its friendly tax structure.
And the women’s professional game has seen a proportional uptick as an LPGA major (now the Chevron Championship) moved from California to Houston in 2023, the American Solheim Cup captain (Stacy Lewis) hailed from the state, and players like In Gee Chun, Celine Boutier, Minjee Lee and Yealimi Noh have all moved into the Dallas area, giving the region a deep pool of women’s golf talent.
Unfortunately, one piece is slipping: the schedule.
With the news that the Volunteers of America event outside Dallas will be shuttered in 2024, the Chevron tournament is the only official LPGA date in Texas. With the circuit unveiling its schedule later this week in advance of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Fla., major metros like Austin, San Antonio and now Dallas are all devoid of an LPGA event.
Could it change? Absolutely. Since Austin lost the World Golf Championships match-play event, the schedule is wide open and the region would certainly be an attractive one. With a young, vibrant population, Austin would likely offer tremendous support to the tour, much like it’s quickly become one of Major League Soccer’s prized markets.
While only a handful of players live or hail from the capital city (local product Kristen Gillman jumped back from the Epson Tour to the LPGA for 2024), the proximity to Dallas and Houston and potential fan base (not to mention the lack of a PGA Tour event) could make this a marketable destination in the future.
Of course, money talks. Beginning in 2024, the CME will offer an $11 million purse and record $4 million winner’s check, the tour recently announced. The runner-up of next year’s event will receive $1 million. Every competitor in the 60-player field will be awarded at least $55,000.
This week marks the 10th playing of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. The inaugural Race to the CME Globe points race was in 2014. From 2011-13, the season-ending event was known as the CME Group Titleholders. When CME first became a title sponsor in 2011, the purse was $1.5 million. It moved up incrementally until 2019 when it doubled from $2.5 million to $5 million, with the winner earning $1.5 million.
This year’s CME purse of $7 million — of which $2 million goes to the winner — is already larger than two LPGA majors: Amundi Evian ($6.5 million) and Chevron Championship ($5.1 million). Next year’s purse of $11 million matches that of the 2023 U.S. Women’s Open. The KPMG Women’s PGA recently upped its purse to $10 million and the AIG Women’s British checked in this year at $9 million, 23% higher than last year.
U.S. Women’s Open winner Allisen Corpuz earned $2 million for her victory at Pebble Beach, the same amount the winner will receive this week in Naples.
Vu, Texan Boutier battling for POY
One player who has seen success in Texas is Lilia Vu, who won the inaugural Chevron in Houston and won again last week at the Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla.
Just before Vu left for CME last season, the windshield wipers blew off her car. Her caddie had urged her to buy a new car during the offseason. Vu told herself that she’d buy her dream car, a Mercedes Benz G550, after she won her first event. She jumped the gun, however, and bought it before that first triumph came at the Honda LPGA Thailand in February. Three more victories have since followed, including two majors.
“I was like, ‘Oh, it’s because I knew I was going to win,’” Vu said with a smile.
Vu enters the final event of the 2023 season with a 27-point lead over Boutier in the Rolex player of the year race. Boutier, who became the first Frenchwoman to win the Amundi Evian over the summer, will need to win the CME to have a chance of upsetting Vu. A victory is worth 30 points.
Boutier would be the first Frenchwoman to win the award. No American has won it since Stacy Lewis in 2014.
Neither Vu nor Boutier had ever won an LPGA event prior to this season, making their rise in 2023 all the more intriguing.
Boutier didn’t start thinking about her chances for player of the year until after she won an epic nine-hole playoff in Malaysia for her fourth title. She knew it would take something special to overtake Vu’s two major victories. While the PGA Tour uses a player vote to determine its POY, Boutier appreciates the LPGA’s points format.
“You just can’t fight against points,” she said.
Last season, Boutier ranked third on the LPGA in top-10 finishes with 12 in 24 starts. While she can’t really point to one aspect of her game that’s drastically different to last year, she does believe that putting herself in the mix so many times in 2022 gave her the confidence to enjoy a breakout season.
Vu, who returned to No. 1 in the world after her victory last week at The Annika, currently tops the money list with $3,252,303. Sponsor-less to begin the season, logos now adorn her clothing.
With a $2 million first-place check on the line in Naples, talk around the CME always comes back to money.
Money used to be a sore subject for Vu, who struggled her rookie year when she compared herself to others coming out of college who had sponsors. Vu had help financially from her parents, and while she was grateful for it, the self-inflicted pressure to pay them back hung over her head. The 2019 season was mostly miserable for the former Bruin.
“I think I kind of just like stopped letting money control me,” she said. “I don’t really think about it anymore. I just knew like, OK, I just want to start having fun playing golf again and then everything will follow along. That’s what happened.”
Tim Schmitt is the managing editor for Golfweek, golf coordinator for the USA Today Network and lives in Round Rock. Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols contributed reporting to this article.
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Austin, TX
Pedro Vite scores 1st goal of season as Whitecaps beat Austin 1-0
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Pedro Vite scored his first goal of the season and Vancouver didn’t concede a shot on goal Saturday night as the Whitecaps beat Austin FC 1-0.
Vite played a one-touch pass to Ryan Guald, who returned the favor to a darting Vite for a first-timer from the top of the penalty arc that gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead in the 70th minute.
Brad Stuver had four saves for Austin (9-10-7).
Vancouver (12-8-5) had a five-game unbeaten streak — including four wins — snapped by a 4-3 home loss to the Houston Dynamo last time out.
The Whitecaps are 5-1-2 all time against Austin.
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AP MLS: https://apnews.com/hub/major-league-soccer
Austin, TX
Ewers throws 3 TD passes to help No. 4 Texas roll over Colorado State 52-0 in opener
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Quinn Ewers passed for 260 yards and three touchdowns and No. 4 Texas rolled past Colorado State 52-0 on Saturday in the opener for both teams.
Ewers connected with Matthew Golden for a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter, and had another strike to Isaiah Bond as the Longhorns built a 31-0 lead by halftime.
A big question for Texas heading into this season was just how quickly Ewers and Texas would find their rhythm in a passing attack that lost the top five receivers from the 2023 Big 12 championship team. Texas joined the Southeastern Conference this year.
Golden transferred from Houston and Bond from Alabama, and Ewers and his rebuilt receiving corps easily carved up the Rams. After a slow start that included a stalled drive and an interception on Texas’ first three possessions, Texas scored 24 points in the second quarter.
Ewers spread passes around 10 different receiving and had 248 yards passing by halftime. He completed 20 of 27 passes before leaving the game for Arch Manning midway through the third quarter.
Manning’s first drive started with a 40-yard pass to Johntay Cook II. It ended with Manning’s first career TD pass, a scrambling 5-yard toss to Silas Bolden, another transfer from Oregon State, that made it 45-0.
The takeaway
Colorado State: The Rams have an elite receiver in Tory Horton, but he shut down by a smothering Texas defense. Horton had five catches for 31 yards and the only deep ball thrown his way was intercepted. Colorado State did not cross the Texas 49 until the final two minutes.
Texas: Coming off last season’s appearance in the College Football Playoff, Texas has its highest season-opening ranking since 2010 and Saturday was a breeze against the overmatched Rams. The lofty ranking and expectations will be put to the test next week at No. 9 Michigan, and later when the Longhorns eventually start their first Southeastern Conference schedule against Mississippi State on Sept. 28.
Up next
Colorado State: Hosts Northern Colorado on Sept. 7
Texas: At No. 9 Michigan on Sept. 7 in the first matchup between the two historic powerhouse programs since the 2004 Rose Bowl.
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Austin, TX
Residents in Austin neighborhood concerned about crime as police department struggles with understaffing
![Residents in Austin neighborhood concerned about crime as police department struggles with understaffing Residents in Austin neighborhood concerned about crime as police department struggles with understaffing](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/monrose-austin.jpg)
Understaffing in the Austin Police Department in Texas has left residents concerned about crime in the city.
Residents in the Montopolis neighborhood in Austin’s southeast told KVUE-TV crime in their area is getting worse.
Delwin Goss told the station he woke up to gunshots in the neighborhood overnight Thursday, which he said has become shockingly common.
“It’s making the hair on my arms stand up. To hear eight, nine, 10 shots. Just bam, bam, bam. Where are those bullets going?” he said.
ALL CRIMINAL TRESPASSING CHARGES DROPPED AGAINST ANTI-ISRAEL UT AUSTIN PROTESTERS
Residents in the Montopolis neighborhood in Austin’s southeast are concerned crime in their area is getting worse. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He said his neighbor told him she hears gunshots from her home between two to three times a week.
“I don’t want to be shot sleeping in my bed,” he added.
And although Austin Police told him when he called they were already investigating, he blames the department’s understaffing problem.
Austin Police Association President Mike Bullock addressed the officer shortage Thursday, writing on X, “500 officers short has a real impact on businesses and Austinites who expect to be able to safely run a business and live in Austin. We’re so close to having a contract that can make significant progress towards ending the staffing crisis. Question now is if the city will actually prioritize making it happen.”
AUSTIN POLICE ARREST 6 PEOPLE AFTER ‘UNUSUALLY DEADLY’ SURGE OF OPIOID OVERDOSES
Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly addressed the police understaffing problem this week while speaking on the Austin Police Association’s podcast, attributing it to funding cuts in 2020.
“Our staffing currently at the police department is a direct result of the failed policy that was passed in 2020 to remove funding for the police department,” she told Bullock.
![Austin police officer on a motorcycle](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/08/1200/675/austin-police.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
The Austin Police Department has faced a shortage of officers since being defunded in 2020. (Dave Creaney/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“We want a fully staffed department that takes care of our city employees that are loving the work that they do cause then they’re going to do a better job of taking care of the community.”
Kelly told KVUE that council members are working to get more officers on the job so residents can feel safe in their neighborhoods.
“He feels as if his part of the district, part of town, is neglected, and I firmly believe that everyone, despite what district they are in, deserves the opportunity to feel safe in their own homes,” Kelly told the station.
While the city has brought down the homicide rate since a record of 89 in 2021, it still remains high.
“I think the bottom line is that, over the last three years, we’ve seen the highest homicide rates we have seen ever in the city,” Bullock told FOX 7 earlier this year. “So, either way, no matter which way we look at it, we’re not on a good trend. We’re headed in the wrong direction.”
The city reported 71 homicides in 2022, 73 in 2023 and 42 this year as of Monday, according to KXAN-TV.
In February, the department said the city was experiencing roughly one murder a week, FOX 7 reported.
Austin’s 89 murders in 2021 came after the Austin City Council defunded the police in 2020, which caused massive staffing shortages that prevented police from responding to non-emergency calls. The previous record was 59 in 1984, long before Austin standardized its ambulance services and had the two level one trauma centers it has now.
“I’ve watched it for the last five, six, seven years, and it just gets a little worse,” Goss said. “I see more open drug use in this neighborhood, more drug dealing.
“They’re not out here protecting me or my 85-year-old heart transplant neighbor or the widow that’s in her 70s next door,” he added.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the Austin Police Department and Kelly for comment.
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