The Chevron Championship is Making a Splash...Literally

HOUSTON, Texas— It's the one thing that people can't stop talking about.

Nearly 40 years ago, 29-time LPGA Tour winner Amy Alcott did what no one else had every done before. She took a massive (well sort of) leap...into a murky body of water and it's become a staple in women's golf ever since.

There’s no greater tradition in women’s golf than the winner of the Chevron Championship—formerly called the Kraft Nabisco Championship—jumping into the pond beside the 18th green after sinking the title-clinching putt. Alcott started it in 1988, but the infamous leap didn’t catch on right away. For the next two years, winners Juli Inkster and Betsy King, didn’t follow suit. It wasn’t until 1991 when Alcott got the chance to jump again, and this time she did it with tournament host and the First Lady of Women’s Golf, Dinah Shore.

But even after Alcott and Shore took the dive, it wasn’t until 1994 champion Donna Andrews did it for the tradition to stick. Dinah Shore passed a month prior to the start of the championship that year, so in her honor Andrews decided to take the plunge—and since that moment, it’s become the rite of passage for the champion to commemorate what she just accomplished in such a unique way.

The pond, affectionately referred to as Poppie’s Pond was named after long-time tournament director Terry Wilcox, whose grandchildren called him “poppie”. Just like how Shore left her impact, with the course being called “Dinah’s Place”, the many souls that touched this event are honored in many ways that continue with the tournament’s legacy.

RELATED: Meet Dinah Shore, The First Lady of Golf

But the 18th green pond at Mission Hills wasn’t always the most…welcoming body of water. In 1999, the legendary Dottie Pepper came down with an ear infection when she took her first jump. Soon after that, the decision was made to turn the pond into basically a re-fillable swimming pool.

Over the years, players have embraced the jump making it one of the most cherished traditions in women’s golf. It’s a moment when the weight of a major ceases to exist, and a player just gets to be themselves with their friends and family surrounding them. In 2008, Lorena Ochoa had more than two-dozen folks in the pond with her in 2008 while a Mariachi band played!

Lorena Ochoa of Mexico is held aloft by close family members in the water beside the 18th green after the final round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship at the Mission Hills Country Club, on April 6, 2008 in Rancho Mirage, California. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

But for the past three years, going on four, the tradition has lost some of that magical sauce. Why?

Because after 50 long years, the championship left Palm Springs and moved to Houston, Texas once Chevron took over as the title sponsor for the major.

Jennifer Kupcho was the last champion to take the leap in the original pond at Mission Hills in 2022, and since then Chevron has tried to re-created a version of the beloved victory lap, but it just doesn't hit quite the same.

The moment was special because it was organic, not and not some manufactured version of what once was.

This year's championship is making headlines because there's been a pool added to the right side of the 18th green due to the fact that Memorial Park, the major's new home, doesn't have a body of water on the hole itself. A more permanent water feature is meant to be added next year.

The reception to this hasn't been great, and for good reason. The Chevron Championship, in this new era deserves a new kind of tradition, unique to the area and it likely needs to come from a player and not the Tour or the organizers. Amy Alcott acted on a whim and it paid off. Who is daring enough to try something new this time?

New CMO for the Tour Chad Coleman chimed in on the matter, too.

I like where his heart is with this, and his phrasing of "player-driven tradition" is spot on...and so it remains, that whatever the new "bit" is, let it happen.