LPGA major champion's splash tradition will continue, even if she only wades into a 'kiddie pool'

HOUSTON — The LPGA Tour is hoping to make a big splash with its new water feature at the Chevron Championship this week. Because the champoin's traditional run and jump into the water has been into an actual pond, it’s going to be a little splash if the winner indeed goes into the water this time. There will be no deep dive or heavy cannonball.

The tour’s first major is at the municipal Memorial Park Golf Course for the first time, having moved from The Club at Carlton Woods, and a late-build of the new feature looks more like a kiddie pool. It’s just on the other side of the right greenside bunker on the 18th hole and has dimensions of 15 feet by 25 feet, while being 4½ feet deep. There’s a patio area for fans to sit and watch, and if they’re wearing their Sunday best, there’s no chance they’d get splashed.

It’s more likely the winner and their entourage will go wading into the pool via stairs. Players have the option to jump in or not, but it’s certainly something that fans and viewers have come to expect from the winner since Amy Alcott spontaneously first took the plunge into Poppie's Pond at the 1988 Nabisco Dinah Shore in the California desert. Other champions picked up the tradition at Rancho Mirage and carried it on for decades until the tournament was controversially moved to Chevron’s home base of Houston in 2023.

The organizers then built a small platform from which the winners could jump into a lake on Carlton Woods’ 18th hole. “I did see pictures,” Australian Grace Kim, speaking about the new pool, said Sunday after her final round at the JM Eagle LA Championship. “They’ve obviously done a good job trying to keep the tradition going.