The winner of the AIG Women’s Open on Sunday will make history by being the first woman to win a major title at Muirfield, which until less than six years ago prohibited women from becoming members.
Also cashing a sizable check will be that player.
The purse for this week’s Women’s Open in Gullane, Scotland, has grown to $7.3 million, up 26% from the $5.8 million total from last year, the R&A announced on Wednesday. In fact, the entire prize pool has increased by 125 percent since 2018, the year before the R&A took over this competition, rising from just $3.25 million.
According to R&A CEO Martin Slumbers, “Progress in prize funds needs to be commercially sustainable.” “We are happy to see that many of our [men’s Open] fans now also support the AIG Women’s Open, but we need to find new fans to ensure that women’s golf is commercially successful. The R&A’s dedication to women’s golf is on display this week, but it extends much deeper than that. It permeates all we do.
The winner’s check this year is also a championship record of $1.095 million, coming in third behind the CME Group Tour Championship ($2 million) and the U.S. Women’s Open ($1.8 million). Sixteen positions will be paid out in excess of $100,000, with second place receiving $720,028, third $521,498, fourth $402,734, fifth $323,565, and so forth.
According to Peter Zaffino, chairman and CEO of AIG, “We became the title sponsor of the AIG Women’s Open in 2019 because of our commitment to assist women in business, golf, and society at large.” “We were aware that this sponsorship would be a journey when we started it. The difficulties that would arise, like the epidemic over the world, were beyond our comprehension. We are quite happy that the AIG Women’s Open has been held continuously for the past three years. There were no spectators in 2020. We made a partial comeback in 2021. And it appears that we are once again experiencing a typical championship week in 2022.
Additionally, thanks to the R&A’s incredible support over the past four years, we have made use of our platforms to acknowledge, promote, and celebrate the accomplishments of the top female athletes who participate in this competition. Since 2019, we have more than quadrupled the prize money for the AIG Women’s Open, and today’s announcement of a further increase in prize money marks another step forward in our endeavor.
