Latest news with #KPMGChampionship
Arab News
13 hours ago
- Sport
- Arab News
Amy Yang looks to repeat at Women's PGA in wide-open field
FRISCO, Texas: The LPGA has a new commissioner on the way, a new course to play and no shortage of parity as it marks the halfway point of the season at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, which begins Thursday in Frisco, Texas. It's an important time on the women's golf calendar for more reasons than one. Three of the next five events are major championships, and no one is running away with the season-long points competition, the Race to the CME Globe. Through 15 tournaments in 2025, 15 different players have claimed a title, none of them named Nelly Korda. The first two majors were won by first-timers with scant previous experience in the United States — Japan's Mao Saigo at the Chevron Championship, followed by Sweden's Maja Stark at the US Women's Open. Korda is World No. 1 and entered the week as the slight betting favorite to win what would be her third major. However, she revealed that she suffered a neck spasm on Monday from hitting a practice shot out of the rough. It was concerning, given she missed time last fall with a neck injury. 'But I have a great physio who takes care of me,' Korda went on to say. 'Trying to work through it, but I'll be ready by Thursday.' For Korda, it was far from a friendly welcome to PGA Frisco, the new resort that also serves as the PGA of America's headquarters. The Fields Ranch East course will host the Women's PGA again in 2031 as well as the men's PGA Championship in 2027 and 2034. This week, the course will be a par-72, 6,604-yard setup and serve as a test run for holding major championship golf in the Texas summer heat. 'To my knowledge, I think Gil Hanse and the team, they designed this course to host championships,' Lydia Ko of New Zealand said. 'It's designed with a purpose, and obviously the more frequently you go to these kind of sites, you kind of get more familiar with it.' Ko played a practice round alongside Craig Kessler, who will take over as commissioner of the LPGA next month. Kessler was previously COO of the PGA of America and will be tasked with increasing the LPGA's visibility and financial solvency. 'I'm sure he's busy with still wrapping things up with the PGA of America and transitioning into our role as well, but it's exciting,' Ko said. 'I think it's a great time for golf. It's great to have somebody like him that's enthusiastic and really wants to see where — like how far we can go.' Korean veteran Amy Yang is the defending champion following a three-stroke victory in 2024. 'I came very close to many major championships and never won before, so on Saturday night I was very nervous and I was questioning myself, 'Can I do it this time?'' Yang recalled. 'But I distracted myself calling my friends and family and just told myself, 'You know, go out tomorrow and just every hole, every shot, just embrace everything and see what's going to happen.' 'That experience taught me that I can do it. I can still do it.' The entire top 25 in the Rolex Rankings are in the field. World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand has one victory this season, but the promising 22-year-old has yet to win a major. 'Every major I just want to make the cut, to be honest,' Thitikul said. 'It would be really great to win it, and definitely I can tell that it would be like, everyone dreams to win a major. To me, what I have now under my belt, I'm pretty happy with all I've achieved.'
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Texas-Sized $12 Million Purse Ups Ante At The KPMG Women's PGA Championship
Hot on the heels of J.J. Spaun's gritty U.S. Open triumph where the San Diego State alum was the lone man under par—golf's major season stays in beast mode with no cooldown in sight. 156 of the top women in the game—including World No. 1 Nelly Korda and defending champ Amy Yang—are set to tee it up at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco from June 19-22 for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner and opened just two years ago, the track, one of two 18-hole layouts on the sprawling campus of the PGA of America's headquarters, is quickly earning a sterling reputation in Texas. It already hosted the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship and it's slated to stage the PGA Championship for the men in 2027 and 2034. The purse has leapt 15% from last year's tally to a tidy $12 million, tying the highest prize fund on the LPGA Tour. The sum is now on par with the prize money payout at the women's national championship. 'This year we'll be on the same level as the U.S. Women's Open Championship and we couldn't be prouder that the purse has risen to that level in really just a short period of time,' KPMG U.S. Chair and CEO Paul Knopp enthused. 'We at KPMG are trying to set the standard for excellence in Women's golf. That's been the vision since 2015 and in the eleven years that we have held this event,' he added, noting that the purse has climbed 430% since KPMG's first year as title sponsor when Inbee Park—now an LPGA Hall of Famer—topped the leaderboard at Westchester Country Club. Broadcast coverage is also ramping up, with nearly 100 hours of live and streaming content across NBC, Golf Channel, and Peacock. NBC's streamer will offer featured group coverage presented by KPMG and T-Mobile for Business for the first time—a viewing option that's proven a hit in men's majors. KPMG's commitment to the event goes beyond the purse premium and spotlighting top-class venues—past host sites include Aronimink, Atlanta Athletic Club, Congressional, and Sahalee. They've also used the event to highlight the KPMG Performance Insights platform, which this year adds new AI-powered features that crank up the detail on data-driven analysis, providing both competitors, fans and media in the booth with real-time shot metrics insight. 'Golf is a data-driven game, it probably has as much or more data involved than any sport,' Knopp said. 'We look at the game of women's golf much like a client opportunity: How can we help the client achieve more and perform better. We do that for corporations and we are doing it for the women on the LPGA Tour.' The platform's bolstered AI-powered features include daily recaps with hole-by-hole breakdowns and predictive scoring tools that estimate what players need to shoot to make the cut or move up the leaderboard—giving competitors and fans alike the insights to track momentum and actionable intel to tweak strategies. 'The predictive side is one of the most powerful aspects of AI,' Knopp said. 'It allows the women to see what they need to score on a particular hole to make the cut or be in the top ten. And it allows fans to see that, too.' For fans, KPMG Champcast presented by T-Mobile, uses the same ShotLink Pro tech as the PGA Tour. And it packs in all the accompanying whiz-bang: 3D imagery, radar data, shot trails, green views, and instant video highlights so fans can get as immersed as they want to while keeping tabs on the shot-by-shot drama unfolding. Performance Insights and Champcast weave together real-time and historical data, creating a richer tapestry for fans looking for deeper engagement. 'I've always had this view that you hear the clapping somewhere else on the course, but you don't know what's happening,' Knopp said. 'This technology helps fans follow their favorite players from anywhere—and gives the broadcast teams more tools to tell the full story.'
