The PGA has left Austin, but the city could be an attractive future host for the LPGA

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.