LPGA’s first major of 2026 comes with big questions and massive stakes

HOUSTON — For the first time in 2026, the LPGA is center stage, and the year’s first major comes with massive stakes.

Under the direction of new commissioner Craig Kessler, the LPGA has big plans to break through. That includes a new broadcast television deal, schedule changes, purse increases and a plan to create a stable of global stars. All this serves Kessler’s main focus: Finding a way to grab attention and hold on to it — to better satisfy the current fans who desperately want to see women’s golf elevated while harvesting 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’s the year’s first major, but one that has 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 stayed the same are the iconic jump into Poppie’s Pond and the winning robe, and even that has had to be shoehorned in since the move.

The move to Texas didn’t help with this unique crisis, as the course at Carlton Woods and the event’s broadcast failed to make it feel like the major it’s billed as. As the LPGA has looked to 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 fully cemented a major championship identity that the LPGA needs for the first big tournament of the season. The Masters signals the start of men’s major season and serves as a launching pad for the rest of the pro golf year. Women’s golf needs the Chevron Championship, or a different tournament, to be something similar.

That’s why this week looms as a massive test for the Chevron Championship and the LPGA.

After three underwhelming years at Carlton Woods, the LPGA and Chevron made the decision to move the tournament from the Houston suburbs to Memorial Park, a muni 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 into the city should make it easier to boost attendance, giving it a bigger feel, and Memorial Park is a far 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 U.S. Women’s Open, AIG Women’s Open and KPMG Women’s PGA exciting is the rotation of venues those majors run through. It’s hard for a non-iconic course to take root as a standalone major venue. On the men’s side, the only constant is Augusta National. If a major is going to come back to the same place every year, the course has to be a central figure in the story. It has to be something fans are familiar with and want to return to every year. 

In order for the Memorial Park move to pay dividends, it’s going to need the help of one of Kessler’s first big swings as commissioner: the enhanced broadcast. 

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, quadruple the number of shot-tracing capabilities, more slow-motion cameras and drones. The LPGA rolled out the enhanced 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 for those enhancements and broadcast partner NBC’s willingness to give this event the major shine. It’s incumbent on the broadcast to use all of the bells and whistles for greater storytelling, to highlight the intricacies of the Tom Doak course and create major tension. It’s not enough to say it’s a major; you have to make the viewer feel it.

All of that leads to the one thing that’s out of the LPGA’s control this week, but that is most vital in giving this major the juice it needs: the stars have to show up. 

Back in November, Kessler said there’s “no silver bullet” to building stars. While that may be true, if you want to create inroads and build the audience, the needles have to be front and center on your biggest weeks.

That 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 schedule and preparation this year and has gone 1-2-2-T2 in four starts. The World No. 2 arrived in Houston after taking a week off and seems to be feeling free and easy as the first major arrives. Plenty of signs point to this being a Korda week, and that would be a welcome sight as the LPGA goes under the spotlight and the major season begins.

Outside of Korda in 2024, the Chevron Championship has seen several first-time major winners in recent years. Building a base of major champions is good for the depth of the league, but if you’re looking to create a bigger fan base, the best path is to have your stars — Korda, Charley Hull, Jeeno Thitikul, Lydia Ko — in the mix entering the weekend, have them bring the eyeballs and then let them and the enhanced broadcast be the entry point to the rest of the tour.

That’s the formula for success for the LPGA and Chevron Championship. We’re about to see if they find it this week.