HOUSTON – For the first time in 2026, the LPGA takes center stage, and the first major of the year comes with massive action.
Under the direction of new commissioner Craig Kessler, the LPGA has big plans to achieve. This includes a new TV broadcast deal, schedule changes, purse increases and a plan to build a stable of global stars. All of this serves Kessler’s main focus: Finding a way to get attention and keep it — to better satisfy existing fans who desperately want to see women’s golf elevated while gathering a new group of supporters.
Making that climb is easier said than done.
Perhaps no tournament better underscores the challenges facing the LPGA and women’s golf than this week’s Chevron Championship. It is the first degree of the year, but it lacked a significant identity. It was elevated to major status in 1983, but has gone through numerous name changes and moved from Mission Hills to The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, in 2023. The only things that have remained the same are the iconic dance at Poppie’s Pond and the winning mantle, and this too had to be carried in shoes since the move.
The move to Texas didn’t help with this unique crisis, as the course at Carlton Woods and the broadcast event failed to make it feel like the major billed. As the LPGA has seen it grow and expand, the Chevron Championship has found itself at a crossroads. It has a rich history and Chevron has invested in the event, but it hasn’t quite cemented a major championship identity that the LPGA needs the first major tournament of the season. The Masters signals the start of the men’s premier season and serves as a starting point for the rest of the pro golf year. Women’s golf needs the Chevron Championship, or another tournament, to be anything like it.
That’s why this week looks like a massive test for the Chevron Championship and the LPGA.
After three crushing years at Carlton Woods, LPGA and Chevron made the decision to move the tournament from the suburbs of Houston to Memorial Parka town hall in the heart of the city that also hosts the PGA Tour’s Houston Open. The move to Memorial Park was universally praised. Moving the event to the city should make it easier to increase attendance, giving it a bigger feel, and Memorial Park is a much more interesting course, with tricky greens that demand precision and a memorable finishing stretch.
But the move to Memorial Park also further underscores the ongoing identity crisis. What makes the US Women’s Open, the AIG Women’s Open and the KPMG Women’s PGA so exciting is the rotation of the majors. It’s hard for a non-iconic course to take root as a major stand-alone venue. On the men’s side, the only constant is Augusta National. If a major is going to return to the same place every year, the course must be a central figure in the story. It should be something that fans are familiar with and want to come back to every year.
For the Memorial Park move to pay dividends, it will need the help of one of Kessler’s first big swings as commissioner: extended transmission.
Thanks to a deal with FM, Golf Channel and Trackman, LPGA broadcasts will have a 50 percent increase in cameras, three times as many microphones, four times the number of shot tracking capabilities, more slow-motion cameras and drones. The LPGA introduced the improved broadcast features at Sharon Heights earlier this year, and its debut was a clear win. There were kinks to work out and improvements to make, but the changes were noticeable and welcome.
This week is the real test of those improvements and broadcast partner NBC’s willingness to give the event the big splash. It’s the show’s job to use all the bells and whistles for the bigger story, to highlight the intricacies of Tom Doak’s course and build great tension. It is not enough to say it is a major; you have to make the viewer feel it.
All of this leads to the one thing that is out of the LPGA’s control this week, but it’s the most important one to give this major the juice it needs: the stars have to show up.
In November, Kessler said there is no “silver bullet” to building stars. While that may be true, if you want to generate traction and build an audience, pins need to be front and center in your biggest weeks.
This starts and maybe ends with Nelly Korda.
Just as men’s golf has become dominated by Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, the LPGA needs Korda to do the same. After winning seven times in 2024, Korda went winless in what she called a “weird” 2025. She changed her program and preparation this year and has gone 1-2-2-T2 in four starts. The World No. 2 arrived in Houston after a week off and seems to be feeling free and easy with the first big arrival. Many signs point to this being a Korda week, and that would be a welcome sight as the LPGA takes center stage and the major season begins.
Outside of Korda in 2024, the Chevron Championship has seen some major first-time winners in recent years. Building a base of great champions is good for league depth, but if you’re looking to build a bigger fan base, the best route is to have your stars — Korda, Charley Hull, Jeeno Thitikul, Lydia Ko — in the mix going into the weekend, have them bring the eyeballs, and then let them and the improved broadcast be the entry point for the rest of the stretch.
This is the formula for success for the LPGA and Chevron Championship. We’ll see if they find it this week.
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