The LPGA’s first major championship of the year appears to be moving again.
According to Golfweek, the Chevron Championship is remaining in the Houston area, but will relocate from the Club at Carlton Woods to Memorial Park.
The shift can be labeled as innovative on the LPGA’s part, with issues plaguing the major in its first three years at Carlton Woods since moving from Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after 50 years.
The LPGA, however, hasn’t confirmed the report yet, with the tour’s chief tour business and operations office, Ricki Lasky, telling Golfweek, “We’re in active discussions finalizing next season’s schedule and are excited about what’s ahead. There are still some moving parts, but we feel really good about the progress we've made. We look forward to sharing the 2026 schedule next week.”
Chevron took over the title sponsorship in 2022 and moved the tournament to Texas in 2023, raising the purse to $5 million (a $3 million increase). With hopes of elevating the tournament, it felt flat at times.
“I won’t say that the transition [the Club at Carlton Woods] has not been somewhat difficult,” Judy Rankin, 80, a Hall of Famer who won the event in 1976 and is one of women’s golf’s most heralded broadcasters, told Sports Illustrated in May.
Despite being played in the country’s fifth-largest metropolitan area, crowd sizes were notably sparse and the course is apparently difficult to navigate as a spectator.
“I think the Houston fan base really needs to improve,” Rankin says. “... and I think all parties involved are so aware of that.”
The course yielded a major championship test, with last year’s champion, Mao Saigo, posting a 7 under score in regulation (she won in a five-way playoff), tied for the second-highest winning score on tour this season.
A historic Sunday for Mao Saigo 🏆✨@Chevron_Golf pic.twitter.com/ylb2kGxlP9
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 28, 2025
But even the course’s setup this past year was controversial. The grandstand on the par-5 18th was used as a backstop. Therefore, 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.
Despite the dramatic finish, NBC’s television broadcast in the final round averaged 811,000 viewers, the fewest since moving to Houston.
Along with the location change, IMG is reportedly no longer the major’s event operator and promoter, which was a long-term deal under the former LPGA leadership. A replacement has not been revealed.
The LPGA is under a first-year commissioner, Craig Kessler, who has said he is utilizing four pillars to elevate the women’s game: building trust, increasing visibility, generating fans and providing a healthy financial future.
This move is perhaps a way to achieve that.
Memorial Park, which a few years ago underwent a hefty renovation spearheaded by Astros owner Jim Crane, hosts the PGA Tour’s Houston Open in late March. With the Chevron being contested roughly a month later, the grandstand infrastructure will likely still be in place, and the Houston Open can serve as a good way to raise awareness that the women will compete on the same layout a few weeks later.
One tradition might end, though. At both Mission Hills and the Carlton Woods, the champion has leaped into Poppie’s Pond since Amy Alcott first did it in 1988. Memorial Park, however, doesn’t have water adjacent to the 18th green.
If the Chevron ends up being better off with the move, it’ll be a trade-off well worth it.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as LPGA’s Reported Chevron Championship Move Is Much-Needed Innovation to Major Schedule.
