HOUSTON — The LPGA Tour is hoping to make a big splash with its new water feature at the Chevron Championship this week. Because the champion’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.
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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. I was kind of hoping it would just end at Carlton Woods.
“I’m sure it’s a lot cleaner than the water at The Club at Carlton Woods. Hopefully, it’s one of the Australians that will be jumping in that pool. The pool is better than the dirty water.”
Asked if she would jump in knowing it’s 4½-feet deep, Kim said: “That’s very shallow. I don’t know. Maybe it would be a little jump. Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
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Lilia Vu, the ’23 champion, continued the tradition by jumping in the pond at Carlton Woods, followed by Nelly Korda and Mao Saigo in the past two years.
A two-time major winner, Vu is glad they have the option to make a splash at Memorial Park.
“I initially saw the kiddie pool version of it,” Vu said in Los Angeles. “I’m not sure if they’re updating it. I do know a lot of us want to continue the tradition. I was able to be the first person to jump in at Carlton Woods. Hopefully, they can keep it going even if it looks a little cute.”
Would she make a jump now? “I guess I would do a little cannonball, or a little hop-skip,” she said. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
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Mao Saigo (center) jumps into the pond at The Club at Carlton Woods after winning in 2025.
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Alex Slitz
The winner will have to answer the question for herself and her team, to jump or not? When the move from the private course to the public course (sans water) was announced, it figured the pond jumps were over. But Chevron and Memorial Park have strong ties, and the decision was made to build the feature. The pool is being paid for by the tournament, according to the LPGA, and it figures to a one-off situation, with architect Tom Fazio renovating the 18th hole over the next year and including a water feature
The LPGA views it through the scope of tradition, not the size of the pool. It believes that champions of this major are associated with wearing a post-splash white robe as much as Masters winners don a green jacket.
Memorial Park Golf Course: Hole 18
A rendering of what the 18th hole at Memorial Park is supposed to look like next year, including pond and a jump platform (upper right).
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“I don’t view it as a man-made pond that’s going into Chevron,” LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler told Golf Digest. “Here’s what I view it as: The LPGA has a couple of very special traditions that we want to honor, and this is one of those. When we talk to our players … you ask, ‘What are some of your favorite traditions on the LPGA tour?’ They talk about Poppie’s Pond and the evolution of it. And what we’re trying to do at Chevron is pay homage to the past champions and the traditions that make the LPGA so great. Whether a player jumps in or not, it’s totally up to that player, but this is fundamentally about honoring something that’s special to our tour, and we’re proud of.”
Credit the LPGA for trying, making myriad changes under Kessler, whether it’s a home run or belly flop. With the cannon-ball friendly new pond coming in 2027 at Memorial Park, the question is whether the LPGA was in too much of a rush to continue the tradition with what some refer to it as a kiddie pool.
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Stacy Lewis (second from left) jumps into Poppie’s Pond with her entourage after she won the 2011 Kraft Nabisco Championship.
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MARK RALSTON
Hannah Green has won four times worldwide this season, so she has to be considered among the favorites to win this week. After hoisting the JM Eagle LA Championship trophy on Sunday, Green said, “It’s going to be a bit of a hazard; I don’t know. People could hurt themselves.”
Asked if she’d still dip her toe in if she won, Green believed she would.
Star amateur Asterisk Talley, who is just 17 and playing the Chevron on a sponsor’s exemption, is definitely on board with the tradition started decades ago. Asked if she won if she’d jump, she answered with a tepid yes.
“Obviously, I’d jump in, but maybe I’d be a little scared now because it’s only four feet,” said the 5-foot-10 Talley. “I think it’s great they’re trying to carry on that tradition. It’s what people like to see. Just happy they’re doing that. That’s what the winner looks forward to at the end of the week. It’s going to be a good thing.”
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