At the KPMG Women's PGA, women's golf is promoted in tangible ways

As one of the longest serving players in the women's game, Stacy Lewis has played a major role. The 39-year-old former World No. 1 has won 13 times in his career, including two majors, and will captain the US Solheim Cup team for the second time this year.

Lewis has been around long enough to have an important perspective on the growth of women's golf. And as a longtime KPMG ambassador, she was an integral part of plans to expand the LPGA Championship into what is now the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, celebrating its 10th edition at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., this week.

“KPMG has picked my brain over the years about how we can be better and what we need to do to improve the title,” Lewis said on Tuesday. “Everything I said they did and they continue to do. So it's been a great partnership for me personally and a great partnership for the Tour.”

Of course. The participation of KPMG raised the championship in many ways: holding the competition in high-quality areas, increasing the sizes of the bags and introducing new technologies. The KPMG Performance Insights technology platform launched in 2021, allowing players to access full field, shot rate data, advanced statistics, and statistics such as strokes gained, fielding average, and performance index.

This year, KPMG not only increased the championship purse to $10.4 million (an increase of $400,000), but also launched Champcast, presented by T-Mobile, which will include 3D images, radar data, tunnels of shots, raw views and individual video highlights, enhancing the fan experience by accessing this real-time data.

For Lewis, there is satisfaction in seeing the evolution of the women's game, where tournaments like the KPMG Women's PGA Championship are becoming more the norm than the exception.

“It's fun. It's amazing to watch,” Lewis said. “The players have been on the tour for maybe seven or eight years, they expect this in major tournaments. They expect to come out and see the big marquees and see the golf course complete. 15 years ago, that wasn't the case. We were going into places that we hoped would want them.” and they probably didn't close the golf course early and there were divots all over the place. So I think you feel important when you're going through the area, and that's what those of us who have been out here for a while had to worry about.”

Women's golf is in a good place right now, and the LPGA has attracted investment from several big-name sponsors in recent years.

“You have Ally, Chevron, AIG, KPMG, Ford. He's got the best, even top companies sponsoring us that we didn't have ten years ago,” said Lewis. “I think those companies just see the importance of working with us and want to bring their customers and their business partners to have this wine and dine experience and make it a good experience for them. That's what we're trying to do here in the end.”

It goes without saying that the life of the LPGA is about the players themselves – something Lewis is determined to ignore.

“The standard of golf is very good now. I mean, it's great. Just like talent from top to bottom. It is more difficult than before to win,” he said. “That's what makes Nelly's run so fun, how good everyone is now. You can go this distance and the batting is off the charts.”

Given all the progress of the past decade, what's next for the LPGA? Lewis said it's getting harder and harder to come out ahead of the annual good news.

“Every time there's an announcement, it's like in my head I'm like, okay, what are they going to do next year to move on to this?” Lewis said. “We have made many contributions in the ten years since the start of this title. I'm excited to see where we're going.”

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia's first varsity golf class, Jessica knows how to outrun everyone on the golf course. He can pass them through the office, too, where he is primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF's first Style Issue, which began in February 2018. His first interview series, “A Round With,” released in November 2015, and appeared in both magazine and video form on GOLF.com.