US financial firm CME Group has extended and expanded its title sponsorship deal with US women’s golf’s LPGA, covering the end-of-season Tour Championship.
Under a two-year extension running through the 2025 tournament, the total purse available during the Tour Championship has increased in size to $11 million, including a record $4 million on offer to the first-placed finisher and $1 million going to the runner-up.
CME Group claims the $4 million figure represents the largest single prize across all of women’s sports.
The tournament will continue to be called the CME Group Tour Championship through the 2025 edition, while the season-long Race to the CME Globe will also retain the association.
The partnership extension has been unveiled ahead of this year’s edition of the event beginning today (November 16) in Naples, Florida, and running through November 19.
The two parties first partnered in 2011, with the latest renewal having come in November 2017.
Mollie Marcoux Samaan, commissioner of the LPGA, said: “This partnership extension with CME Group is extremely important and underscores the growth and strength of the LPGA. CME Group has been pushing the LPGA forward at every step of our evolution since 2011 and with this extension, they are once again helping take the LPGA, women’s golf, and women’s sports to unprecedented heights.”
Terry Duffy, chair and chief executive at CME Group, added: “Beginning next year, the CME Group Tour Championship’s $11 million purse will be the highest on the LPGA Tour, and the $4 million first-place prize will be the largest single prize in women’s sports. Both of these developments will make our event even more exciting for the players and spectators while bringing more parity to the game.”
In late October, the LPGA announced the launch of a new event in Boston, US, which will join its ranks in 2024 and will be title-sponsored by commercial insurance heavyweight FM Global through a five-year deal.
Between August 29 and September 1 next year, the FM Global Championship will feature 144 players competing for a prize purse of $3.5 million - the largest such purse on the LPGA Tour outside the various majors and the Tour Championship.
This marks FM Global’s inaugural sponsorship deal covering a significant sports property, and the deal was secured with the help of Boston-based Fenway Sports Management (FSM), which struck a commercial alliance with the LPGA in August this year.
Of the LPGA’s current list of commercial partners, heavyweight brands present include Acer, BetMGM, John Deere, KPMG, NEC, Rolex, Titleist, and Whoop.
