The Epson Tour, the LPGA's developmental circuit, has seen corporate support surge in the last decade, and purses have gone up with it. Now the Epson Tour is celebrating another payday milestone with a new tournament that will have the largest prize fund in the tour's four-decade history.
The new Black Desert Resort Championship will be played Sept. 7-9 at Soldier Hollow Golf Club in Salt Lake City, Utah. At that event, the field will be playing for a purse of $375,000, with the winner earning $56,250. That purse is $40,000 more than other tournaments on the 2023 schedule.
The French Lick Charity Classic in Indiana held the previous record at $335,000, with the event being played Aug. 3-6.
“Closing the pay gap between the men’s and women’s professional game is one of our highest priorities and we are thrilled that Black Desert Resort has stepped up to offer the highest purse in the history of the Epson Tour,” said Jody Brothers, the Epson Tour’s Chief Business and Operating Officer.
The largest purse of the season will be decided just five events before the top 10 players on the money list earn LPGA Tour cards for 2024.
“Our event is positioned in a great way, as the battle for an LPGA Tour card starts to heat up at the end of the season,” said Championship Director David Viveiros. “There is a shared vision with ownership from the beginning to have the largest purse on the LPGA Epson Tour. Black Desert Resort’s message is that we want to offer the best resort to our patrons, while at the same time supporting women’s professional golf in an unprecedented way in the state of Utah."
The Epson Tour will now play for a season total of more than $5 million, with an average purse size of just over $227,000. The Black Desert Resort Championship alone increased the average purse by $4,000.