Jon Rahm's Sentry TOC check almost double the total prize pool of the first LPGA Tour 2023 event 02:24, 11/01/2023

The 2023 LPGA season will kick off with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions taking place in late January at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando. According to a source from Golfweek, among the 30 participating golfers are former world No. 1 Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko - who suffered a serious wrist injury late last year.

However, the tournament will also be missing some big names, including Lydia Ko. It is known that the number 1 female golfer in the world is on her honeymoon with her newlywed husband Chung Jun. The couple just held a wedding ceremony on December 30, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea.

The pair of many successful golfers in 2022, Minjee Lee and In Gee Chun, will also WD from this inaugural tournament. In fact, six of the top 10 golfers in the world in the Rolex Ranking will not be in Orlando later this month.

Atthaya Thitifkul, Louise Suggs 2022 Rookie of the Year, did not in the field. No. 9 Hyo Joo Kim too. Lexi Thompson, currently ranked 6th, also not qualify for the event as she hasn't had any LPGA titles since 2019.

The Hilton Grand Vacations TOC has a $1.5 million prize pool, the lowest on the LPGA 2023 event schedule. Compared to the Sentry TOC, the opening event of the PGA Tour 2023 took place over the weekend, the check is 2.7. Jon Rahm's $million winner is nearly double the total prize pool for next week's LPGA inaugural event.

LPGA Tour 2023 will be the first season with a total bonus fund exceeding 100 million USD (101.4 million USD) since the opening year of 1950. Meanwhile, the prize fund of PGA Tour 2023 is 460 million USD.