LPGA Major Championships Explained

Keeping track of the LPGA majors is no simple task. While the major championship events themselves haven’t changed since 2013, one of the five women’s golf majors got a name change in 2022 – the former ANA Inspiration is now the Chevron Championship – which is enough to cause confusion among the casual fan.

Throughout its history, the LPGA has counted eight different championships as majors since 1930. Today, the LPGA Tour has five major championships. Here's a look at each of the LPGA majors.

If you don’t instantly recognize the Chevron Championship as a women’s golf major, that’s OK, give it time. Throughout its tournament life, the event has also been known as the ANA Inspiration, Kraft Nabisco Championship, Nabisco Championship, Nabisco Dinah Shore, Nabisco Dinah Shore Invitational, Colgate-Dinah Shore, and the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle. In other words, name changes are part of the tournament’s tradition.

Another tradition, and change, for the tournament, is its home site. Through the 2022 tournament, the Chevron Championship was one of two LPGA majors to have only been contested at one site, as Mission Hills CC hosted the Chevron Championship from the first edition in 1972 until 2022.

However, as part of Chevron’s partnership, the championship moved to Houston beginning in 2023. That move, however, did not end the tradition of the champion’s obligatory leap into the water. Instead of leaping into Poppie’s Pond, Vu jumped into the greenside lake on the 18th hole. In anticipation of the tradition carrying over from Mission Hills to the Club at Carlton Woods, the lake was equipped with a dock and alligator netting.

The U.S. Women’s Open is the longest-standing women’s golf major. The championship has been contested every year since the inaugural match-play event at Spokane Country Club in 1946, which Patty Berg won 5&4 over Betty Jameson. In 1947 the championship pivoted to its current stroke play format, and the U.S. Women’s Open became recognized as a major in 1950.

In January of 2022, the USGA announced an increase in the U.S. Women’s Open purse from $5.5 million in 2021 to $10 million in 2022. The $5.5 million purse in 2021 was already the largest in women’s golf when Yuka Saso won the $1 million winner’s share, and the financial boost along with the tournament’s long-standing history and stops at America’s most prestigious courses makes the U.S. Women’s Open the most prominent of the five women’s golf majors, despite the fact that the PGA of America matched the U.S. Women's Open's $10,000,000 purse at the 2023 KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

The Women’s PGA Championship is the second-oldest of the five current women’s golf majors, dating back to 1955. It is also the only current women's golf major to have held "major" status since its inception. That's probably because the tournament was created by the LPGA, which also determines which events are majors.

From 1955 to 2014, the event’s official name included some form of “LPGA Championship” with various sponsors included in the title through the years. The event was owned and operated by the LPGA until 2015, when the PGA of America took it over. Since then, it has been known as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Like the U.S. Women’s Open, the inaugural Women’s PGA Championship was a match-play competition, but adjusted to become a stroke play championship in year two, and has remained that way ever since.

For much of the Women’s PGA Championship history, the tournament settled on long-term host sites. Between 1961 and 2013, only 10 venues hosted the Women’s PGA. However, since 2014, the championship has rotated sites each year. In that time, the championship purse more than quadrupled, from $2.25 million in 2014 to $10 million in 2023.

The Evian Championship is the youngest of the five LPGA majors, and became the fifth major on the LPGA in 2013, 19 years after the tournament began. With the Chevron Championship moving for 2023, the Evian is the only LPGA major to have only been contested at one course, the Evian Resort Golf Club.

The tournament was known as the Evian Masters from its inception in 1994 until it was elevated to LPGA major status in 2013, when it became the Evian Championship. The tournament began as a Ladies European Tour event and became co-sanctioned by the LPGA in 2000.

While Helen Alfredsson has won the tournament three times, no player has won multiple Evian Championships since the tournament has been counted among the majors. As a 16-year-old amateur, Lydia Ko finished runner-up to Suzann Pettersen in 2013, the first year the Evian was a major. At just 18 years old, Ko won the Evian two years later.

The AIG Women’s Open, often referred to as the Women’s British Open, has been played since 1976 (with the exception of the 1983 edition, which was canceled), but was only elevated to major status in 2001. Before the R&A merged with the Ladies Golf Union in 2017, the Women’s British Open was organized by the LGU.

Even though the event was created to mirror the Open Championship, the tournament struggled for much of its infancy. In fact, the Women’s British Open didn’t even become a regular LPGA Tour stop until 1994.

Starting in the late 1990’s, more courses on the British Open rota joined Royal Birkdale in hosting the Women’s Open, including Royal Lytham & St. Annes and Turnberry. As the prestige of the Women’s Open grew with its major championship status in the early 2000s, more Open rota courses hosted the Women’s Open as well.

In 2007, the Women’s Open was played at St. Andrews for the first time, and the women competed for the event’s first-ever $2 million purse. Since then, the Women’s Open has been contested almost exclusively on courses that also host the Open Championship, including Carnoustie, Royal Troon, Royal Birkdale and Turnberry. The Women's Open returns to St. Andrews in 2024.