With an overall purse of $12 million, $1 million more than a year ago, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Open has the biggest prize money payout of an women’s tournament in golf history. As you let that impressive fact settle in, what makes it even more remarkable is that just three years ago, the purse in the same championship was just $5.5 million.

The exponential increase is a testament to the powers that be involved in women’s golf recognizing the need to better reward the game’s best players on the game’s biggest stages. The total amount of prize money being played for on the LPGA Tour in 2024 is up to nearly $124 million, compared to $88.9 million in 2022. And the purses in the other four women’s majors have also seen similar growth in recent years. Take a look:

KPMG Women’s PGA Championship: $10 million in 2024, $4.5 million in 2021 AIG Women’s Open: $9 million in 2023; $4.5 million in 2020 Chevron Championship: $7.9 million in 2024; $3.1 million in 2021Evian Championship: $6.5 million in 2023; $4.5 million in 2021

As for the winner’s payday in the U.S. Women’s Open, the champion on Sunday at Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Country Club will earn a record $2.4 million. Interestingly, the USGA decided to increase the winner’s payday in relation to the rest of the field, giving the champ 20 percent of the overall payout compared to 18 percent in previous years and the typical 15 percent on the LPGA Tour. Even if you don’t make the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open, you’re still walking away with a nice return: $10,000, a doubling of the “stipend” given to pros leaving after 36 holes compared to a year ago.

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We’ve charted the growth in the U.S. Women’s Open before, but it’s worth showing again if only to remind everyone that that the overall purse for the U.S. Women’s Open didn’t pass $10,000 until 1965, the 20th year of the championship. And a winner of the major didn’t make $10,000 until 1977.

Here’s a historic look at the prize money payouts in the championship for context about this year’s historic payday:

YEAR: WINNER, OVERALL PURSE, WINNER’S SHARE 1947: Betty Jameson, $7,500, $1,2001966: Sandra Spuzich, $20,000 $4,000 1975: Sandra Palmer, $55,000, $8,0441977: Hollis Stacy, $75,000, $11,0401978: Hollis Stacy, $100,000, $15,0001990: Betsy King, $500,000, $85,000 1995: Annika Sorenstam, $1 million, $175,000 2000: Karrie Webb, $2.75 million, $500,0002014: Michelle Wie, $4 million, $720,000 2017: Sung-Hyun Park, $5 million, $900,000 2019: Jeuong Lee6, $5.5 million, $1 million 2022: Minjee Lee, $10 million, $1.8 million2023: Allisen Corpuz, $11 million, $2 million

The full prize money payout breakdown for this year’s championship won’t be released until the cut is make. Here is last year’s payouts. We’ll update this list when this year’s is announced and then update things again after the the finish of the championship on Sunday and we’ll update with individual names and official totals.

Private Lancaster Country Club: Meadow Creek/Dogwood Lancaster, PA 4.5 111 Panelists

Originally a small nine-hole course founded in 1901, William Flynn designed the layout we see today in 1920. The course is constructed on rolling terrain with a river flowing through the heart of the property and water comes into play on the vast majority of holes. While the course really shines from holes two to eight, all in a river valley that provides the golfer with exciting yet testing shots. The bunkering on the course stands out, and like with all Flynn courses, they are placed in a way that forces golfers to take an extra consideration. The par 3s too are very good with great variety and intrigue. The course is the host of the 2015 and 2024 U.S. Women’s Open. View Course

Win: $2,000,000

2: $1,188,000

3: $750,462

4: $526,090

5: $438,182

6: $388,530

7: $350,275

8: $313,713

9: $283,921

10: $260,788

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11: $237,993

12: $220,050

13: $205,042

14: $189,243

15: $175,702

16: $164,417

17: $155,389

18: $146,361

19: $137,334

20: $128,306

21: $120,520

22: $112,733

23: $105,172

24: $98,176

25: $92,082

26: $86,891

27: $82,942

28: $79,443

29: $76,058

30: $72,673

31: $69,287

32: $65,902

33: $62,516

34: $59,470

35: $56,987

36: $54,504

37: $52,135

38: $49,878

39: $47,621

40: $45,364

41: $43,107

42: $40,850

43: $38,593

44: $36,336

45: $34,079

46: $32,048

47: $30,017

48: $28,098

49: $26,970

50: $25,841

51: $25,164

52: $24,600

53: $24,149

54: $23,923

55: $23,697

56: $23,472

57: $23,246

58: $23,020

59: $22,794

60: $22,569

61: $22,343

62: $22,117

63: $21,892

64: $21,666

65: $21,440

66: $21,215

67: $20,989

68: $20,763

69: $20,538

70: $20,312

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com