The Co Kildare venue was confirmed today as the venue for the second year running, with the tournament set to be played from 3-6 July, the week before The Amundi Evian Championship, which could help attract star players heading to the season’s fourth major.
Sport Ireland, which has a €500,000 four-year commitment to the tournament running until 2025, will match extra funding found by ForeFront, which means an extra €50,000 in the kitty for an event that already costs €2 million to stage.
While modest, the increase in the purse will please star attraction Leona Maguire, who pointed out at Carton House this year that getting a stronger field to Ireland is difficult when the Women’s Irish Open is played opposite a big LPGA Tour event.
“It might sound harsh, but we’re only playing for a fraction of what the guys are playing for,” the Cavan star said. “We’re playing for four hundred grand this week. They’re playing for nearly $4 million in Boston this week on the LPGA, so it was a choice to be here.”
The bump in the prize fund means that the 2025 KPMG Women’s Irish Open will have the third-highest prize fund on the LET outside the Majors and the Aramco Team Series events.
While pleased with the new date and hopeful of a better field, Cian Branagan, CEO of promoters ForeFront Group, admits increasing the purse is a significant challenge but that making the event sustainable is paramount.
“Look, it’s frustrating,” he said. “Everybody wants to see the purse go up. It’s a question of where to get the money and who pays for it. People are putting in a lot of money as it is.
“I sat in Leona’s press conference this year when she mentioned the purse and thought, that’s fair because it needs to be said. But there’s also the question of who pays.
“It’s all well and good saying we’d love to go to a million bucks, but who’s going to pay that? Our partners are already putting in a huge amount of money. So we need to keep the show on the road and this is the start of trying to get that prize fund up.”
The event returned to the LET schedule after a 10-year hiatus with back-to-back stagings at Dromoland Castle in 2022 and 2023 before the move to Carton House’s O’Meara Course this year, when England’s Annabel Dimmock claimed the trophy.
“If we go to, let’s say €600,000 next year, that’s not sustainable,” Mr Branagan added. “If partners drop off, that puts the event in jeopardy. So, we have to aim for natural growth.
“It was important to get the first three years out of the way and ensure we had a solid foundation. This is the start of that growth.
“We had a meeting with Sport Ireland, and they kindly agreed to match funding which means we are increasing to €450,000.”
The Women’s Irish Open had yet to return when the 2027 Ryder Cup contract was signed in 2019, and therefore, it was not included in commitments by the government to support events such as the Amgen Irish Open, the Irish Challenge and the Irish Legends until 2027.
Early bird tickets for the 2025 KPMG Women’s Irish Open are already on sale via the tournament website with U16s getting in for free.
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome the KPMG Women’s Irish Open back to Carton House, Fairmont,” said Martin Mangan, General Manager at Carton House.
“The atmosphere at this year’s event was electric, with a fantastic turnout of fans, and the level of golf was truly world-class. We look forward to building on this momentum and delivering an even more memorable experience in 2025.”