$3.6 Billion Worth LPGA Sponsor Drops Prize Money Bombshell During Live Broadcast as Players React
April 18, 2026
Four years ago, the $3.6 billion sponsor Walter Wang wrote a $3 million check that changed how LPGA sponsors thought about prize money. On Saturday, with cameras rolling on Golf Channel, he made clear he was not done yet with the JM Eagle LA Championship.
“Our purse, you said earlier, this year is $3.75 million. So I’d like to increase the purse by a million dollars. So this tournament, the purse will be $4.75 million,” said Walter Wang.
Wang and his wife, Shirley, have been building the JM Eagle LA Championship into one of the LPGA’s most significant stops since taking over the title sponsorship in 2023. That year, they doubled the prize fund from $1.5M to $3M, then raised it again to $3.75 million. Eleven other tournaments followed, crossing the $3 million threshold, and the LPGA’s average purse rose by roughly 70 percent during that period, per Wang.