The Chevron Championship has a new venue, a new record purse, and, as of this week, a brand-new pool sitting just off the 18th green at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston. It is not Poppie’s Pond. But the LPGA didn’t want to let go of what might be its most recognizable moment in all of golf.
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When the tournament moved from The Club at Carlton Woods to Memorial Park, a public municipal course, the obvious problem became clear almost immediately. There was no water near the 18th hole. And without water, there was no jump. So organizers built one.
The temporary pool measures 15 feet by 25 feet, sits 4.5 feet deep, and features a patio area for fans to sit around it. Players can enter via stairs. The winner can jump in, wade in, or skip it entirely. LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler was direct about why the tour went through the effort.
“The LPGA has a couple of very special traditions that we want to honor, and this is one of those,” he told Golf Digest.
Kessler compared the post-splash white robe to the Masters green jacket. This is tied to the identity of the Chevron Championship, so letting it quietly disappear wasn’t an option. The tradition itself dates to 1988, when Amy Alcott spontaneously jumped into Poppie’s Pond after winning the Nabisco Dinah Shore at Mission Hills in California.
Champions continued that tradition for decades at Rancho Mirage before the tournament controversially moved to Houston in 2023. The jump carried on at Carlton Woods, where Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda, and Mao Saigo all took the plunge in successive years.
The Chevron Championship, the LPGA's first major of the year, is being held at a new venue this year, one that doesn't have water on the closing hole. So to keep the traditional champion's leap alive, organizers put in a temporary plunge pool near the 18th. Next year, Tom Doak Show more
Vu, a two-time major winner, wants to see it continue even if the setup looks different.
“I do know a lot of us want to continue the tradition,” she said. “Hopefully, they can keep it going even if it looks a little cute.”
Australian Grace Kim was more candid about the new setup.
“They’ve obviously done a good job trying to keep the tradition going,” she said, before adding that the shallower water gave her pause. “That’s very shallow. Wouldn’t that be a little dangerous?”
The pool is a one-year solution. Architect Tom Fazio is redesigning the 18th hole at Memorial Park over the next year. It will have a permanent water feature that will be ready for the 2027 edition. This year also comes with a record $9 million prize pool, but the new venue is drawing its own set of opinions from the field.
What are LPGA Tour pros thinking of Memorial Park?
Defending champion Mao Saigo noticed two things immediately at Memorial Park: the length and the slope. Playing to 6,811 yards at par 70, the course runs roughly 100 yards shorter than Carlton Woods, yet Saigo still flagged the distance as a challenge, particularly the severely contoured greens.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, who skipped last week to prepare for this week, described the contrast sharply. Where Carlton Woods had tree-lined corridors demanding precision, Memorial Park opens up visually but punishes approach play.
“The greens are tougher here,” she said.
Hannah Green, who just won a three-way playoff at the JM Eagle LA Championship, got the inside scoop from Min Woo Lee, who won the Houston Open in 2025 here. Lee told her that the fairways are wide and the rough is easy to deal with.
The rain delay on Tuesday made things even more uncertain because of the wet conditions. Green and Charley Hull both said that the course is playing softer than usual.