Three years since moving to its new venue, the Chevron Championship, the LPGA’s first of five annual major championships, has a sample size.
After 50 years, the event moved in 2023 from Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif., to The Club at Carlton Woods in the Woodlands, Texas, just outside of Houston.
Leaving tradition is never easy. Sometimes, though, it’s warranted.
“I won’t tell you that everyone in a big circle of the LPGA wasn’t sad to leave Mission Hills,” World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin told Sports Illustrated after last week’s Chevron Championship. “But I would also tell you that sometimes, long-running events, and in this case, a championship, they kind of run their course.”
The tournament was founded in 1972 by entertainer Dinah Shore and Colgate-Palmolive chairman David Foster. Colgate was the title sponsor until 1981. Then, Nabisco held it through 2014, with All Nippon Airways taking over in 2015. Chevron swooped in after 2021 for a six-year deal and raised the purse to $5 million (a $3 million increase). It also gave the event a new home and date on the LPGA schedule, three weeks later than it was typically contested.
It’s hard to imagine the Masters ever ditching Augusta National Golf Club. So how could the LPGA leave a place with a half-century of history?
“The fan base isn’t what it was at one time,” says Rankin, who won the Colgate-Dinah Shore in 1976, six years before it became a major. “The volunteer situation, all those kinds of things, they just change, and I think after 50 years, it was a great run, and I think a great thing happened to the LPGA that Chevron got involved. A world-class corporation.”
But after three years in Texas, issues persist.
“I won’t say that the transition has not been somewhat difficult,” says Rankin, 80, who stopped playing full-time in 1983 and became one of the most heralded women's golf commentators with ESPN, ABC and Golf Channel. She retired from the booth in 2022.
The most obvious concern is attendance. Crowds were noticeably sparse, despite Houston being the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the country. The course is reportedly hard to navigate and isn’t spectator-friendly. It also didn’t help that there was an Ironman race in the Woodlands over the weekend and caused detours galore.
“I think the Houston fan base really needs to improve,” Rankin says. “... and I think all parties involved are so aware of that.”
Pretty quiet out there on the first tee as the last two groups went off. pic.twitter.com/9rnq5gB5WK
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) April 26, 2025
Following the LPGA’s inception 75 years ago, the tour’s founders took drastic measures to promote its events in small American cities. One time, Marilyn Smith attended a boxing match with Shirley Spork and they climbed into the ring between rounds to tell the crowd, ‘Come out and watch the LPGA.’”
Of course, Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko likely aren’t going to those extremes, but a bolder promotional strategy could be beneficial.
“Just getting the word out that the golf tournament is coming in town,” 2009 and ‘15 Chevron winner Brittany Lincicome told SI. “Free tickets for families, maybe something like that, just promoting it, whether you go into your grocery store or your CVS, Walgreens. Have flyers out promoting the event. Stuff on social media I think really helps, but I think it’s just gonna take a few more years to kind of grow.”
On-site energy was't the only thing to draw critics. The television product, too, lacked a big-event feel. Casual viewers who turned on NBC over the weekend might not have known that the Chevron was a major. The telecast lacked differentiation from a regular LPGA event; though, with a five-way playoff (the first in LPGA history) needed to decide the winner, NBC rightfully stuck with the broadcast for over an hour longer than the scheduled broadcast window.
And disappointment with the LPGA on television extends beyond the Chevron, even as the bootstrapped TV team drew high marks from Rankin.
“(The Chevron is) on NBC, which is a huge plus,” Rankin says. “But throughout women’s golf, throughout the LPGA golf that people watch on television, there needs to be more resources, more money needs to be spent if people are gonna be comparing it to the PGA Tour all the time, which is what they do.”
“Its producers on the LPGA Tour, whether it be Golf Channel, whether it be NBC, whomever, they are brilliant if you know what they do with very few resources.”
The Chevron’s final round averaged 811,000 viewers, its lowest since moving to Texas. Television ratings in both the men’s and women’s games have shown to be strong for events at historic courses. This past January, ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory McIlroy said: “I think really good venues are a big part of the storyline. When we go to major championships, especially a U.S. Open and an Open Championship, I always feel like the golf course is a big part of the storyline.”
The U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and AIG Women’s Open have all gone to St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, The Olympic Club, Baltusrol and Congressional Country Club in recent years.
Does Carlton Woods hold the same weight?
“I do think (Mission Hills) is harder,” says Lincicome, who missed the cut at this year’s Chevron. “If you missed the fairway, you kind of got to chip out sideways, but some of those pin positions that I saw on the weekend (at Carlton Woods) looked diabolical. They looked like they were super tucked behind ridges or hills and hard to get to. So I think you have to be a better putter at our new course.”
Lincicome added: “The U.S. Open, the KPMGs, they’ve taken us to some amazing golf courses of late. So to step up to that level, it’s challenging, but I think The Woodlands is still a fun little golf course to play and girls still seem to struggle with it, so I don’t think it’s a bad venue.”
It took a score of 7 under to get into the five-way playoff (Mao Saigo won with a birdie on the first bonus hole), which was the highest winning score at the Chevron since 2007.
And yet, Carlton Woods yielded that score with a controversial final hole. The grandstand on the par-5 18th was used as a backstop, meaning, players could bank their second shots off the bottom of the hospitality area, eliminating the possibility of going long. In some cases, players receive a free drop.
Scenes on the 72nd hole.
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 27, 2025
Ariya Jutanugarn struggles on her final hole and finishes with bogey to join the clubhouse leaders at 7-under.
Watch now on NBC. pic.twitter.com/AxJfabIyxl
“Hate to see a major end the way Chevron did today,” Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee wrote on X. “Why is there a grand stand so close to the back edge of a closing hole par 5 that players can hit in two?
“It allows players to bounce into the grandstands but also forces everyone all week to walk in the same area, no doubt chewing up the spot where players have to chip from.”
Granted, a similar instance occurred on Mission Hills’s closing par-5 with the Great Wall of Dinah. After Mirim Lee eagled her 72nd hole en route to victory in 2020, she said, “I definitely thought to utilize the back backboard.”
Tough to imagine Tiger Woods saying that after one of his 15 major wins. But in this case the grandstand has an additional purpose.
“The backstop on 18, I do think they moved it a little bit closer this year,” Lincicome says. “I do think they could step it back a little bit just to make it a little bit harder since it’s not an island green like (Mission Hills) was. But again, you have your spectators looking straight down on you watching. They get a closer view. So it’s kind of a catch-22, I guess.”
There’s no doubt the Chevron is still a work in progress. However, with the winner still jumping into Poppie’s Pond—albeit a different one—after securing the victory, at least one of the championship’s traditions has remained.
“I think they’re doing a great job of keeping the past with moving forward in the future and present,” says Lincicome, 39, who retired from playing full-time last season. “Obviously, we were in Palm Springs for so long, people there loved us, we loved going there. That golf course was incredible, but I think sometimes it’s time to move on and try something different.”
With time, maybe another half-century of history can be made at Carlton Woods.
“Sponsors like (Chevron) raise the bar,” Rankin says. “And just think that Chevron plus the LPGA Tour refuses for (the Chevron Championship) to fail.
“That is going to be a success, and it’s going to be a success in Houston, Texas. Maybe it takes a couple more years, and maybe it takes three more years, I don’t know. But I know that both sides are so terribly committed.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as LPGA's Chevron Championship Needs Improvement as Season's First Major, but Optimism Remains.
