Women's major ANA Inspiration changing to The Chevron Championship is a 'no-brainer'

It has become a tradition for the winning player to jump in Poppie's Pond at Mission Hills

Women's golf will say farewell to its most recognisable professional tournament when the ANA Inspiration morphs into The Chevron Championship in early spring next year.

Like the Masters, the ANA is a major that benefited from being played at the same spectacular venue each year. But when the world's best female players assemble at Mission Hills in California in late March 2022, it will be for the final time.

The tournament's history stretches back to 1972, when it was known as the Dinah Shore Colgate Winner's Circle. It has gone through a series of rebrands and was the Kraft Nabisco before All Nippon Airways came on board in 2015.

But it was affectionately known as 'The Dinah Shore' after the American entertainer who originally lent her name to the event. It always attracted the best players and in 1983 was given major billing.

This was an event that helped elevate the likes of Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Betsy King, Annika Sorenstam, Lydia Ko and Lexi Thompson to superstar status.

It is a significant social occasion for the west coast of the United States and a fixture in the golf calendar; the first major of the year, the place where the champion jumps into 'Poppie's Pond' next to the 18th green.

Amy Alcott was the first to do that in 1988 and towelled robes have long since been on hand to assist with what, admittedly, has become a celebration that has lost any sense of spontaneity.

And whoever succeeds Thailand's Patty Tavatanakit early next April will be the last to take the leap and make their major splash because, in women's golf, traditions and history have to go out of the window whenever the price is right.

That is why, of the five female majors, the US Women's Open is the only one not to carry a sponsor's name in its title. It is run by the cash-rich United States Golf Association which, incidentally, posted net assets of $734m (£539m) in their last accounts.

The other four tournaments are not staged by organisations with such deep pockets. But there is a crucial imperative to bolster prize funds which continually lag behind their male counterparts.

Last summer the R&A announced a significant increase to $5.8m (£4.26m) to make the AIG Women's Open the most lucrative of the majors, which also include the Women's KPMG PGA and The Evian Championship.

This year Olympic champion Nelly Korda is the leading earner on the LPGA Tour with $1.94m. On the men's PGA Tour, England's Tyrrell Hatton was 67th on the money list and banked $2.01m.

Purse inflation in the women's game is vital and this is why the LPGA could not ignore the Chevron deal. It boosts the tournament prize pot from $3.1m to $5m in a six-year deal.

The event will move to a different date and a new venue in the Houston area of Texas from 2023. It will no longer clash with the relatively new pre-Masters Augusta National Women's Amateur and will receive network television coverage in the US.

These are key factors that mean historical resonance must take a back seat. It is progress of sorts and is a no-brainer.

Social media wondered whether the previous LPGA commissioner, Mike Whan, now in charge at the USGA would have gone for such a deal when the ANA agreement expired. "Simple (yet painful) decision for @LPGA," he tweeted.

"NO title sponsor, NO earlier dates from course (to avoid Augusta), NO way to fund growth in purse, fans, TV, etc - To quote Founder Shirley Spork, 'it hurts, but ALWAYS choose to elevate the game and leave it better for future generations'."

In other words, back the bottom line. Hence new LPGA boss Molly Marcoux Samaan stated: "We could not be more excited," when the announcement was made.

"We do not make the move lightly," Marcoux Samaan added. "Since (founder and Colgate-Palmolive chairman) David Foster and Dinah Shore created this competition in 1972, it has held a special place in the hearts of our players and fans around the world."

The move to Texas and network TV is to suit the new sponsors. They inevitably call today's tune rather than rely on a familiar melody from the Dinah Shore songbook.

These are the ways of the finance driven world of professional sport and traditionalists must suck it up.

Now the LPGA seeks a venue worthy of the historical resonance generated by the tournament's long-time home. Houston is a big place, but we have a problem, few immediately spring to mind.

Indeed it is probably an impossible task. Sadly that matters less and less when the history that counts most in the sporting world is written on a balance sheet.