The U.S. Women’s Open tees off Thursday at Pebble Beach Golf Links with a record purse of $11 million. On Sunday, the winner will take home $2 million — $200,000 more than the $1.8 million defending champion Minjee Lee won last year from the $10 million pot. 

USGA CEO Mike Whan said the goal is to eventually up the purse to $12 million — which should be easier when a new presenting sponsor comes on board. ProMedica’s backing of the 2022 event was a major factor in last year’s huge purse increase from $5.5 million but the company was released from its contract after suffering financial issues. 

This year’s edition will be a tournament of firsts — starting with the Women’s Open initial run at stunning Pebble Beach, which has hosted six men’s U.S. Opens and will welcome three more women’s championships over the next two and a half decades.

The weekend will also mark the first women’s major to air in primetime on network television. In total, NBC will have 12 hours of coverage on Saturday and Sunday after USA Network has first and second round coverage in primetime on Thursday and Friday.

Changing Of The Guard

While this is the first U.S. Women’s Open for 20-year-old phenom Rose Zhang — who won her LPGA debut last month before finishing T-8 at the Women’s PGA Championship — it will be the last for women’s golf pioneer Michelle Wie West. The 33-year-old won the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst and a total of five LPGA events but has battled injuries throughout her career.

Brazil’s pro soccer teams — which historically have lagged far behind the global success of the country’s national squads — are getting a massive financial boost, in part from U.S. money.

The New York-based Serengeti Asset Management and Brazil’s Life Capital Partners are collectively purchasing a 20% stake in the commercial rights of most clubs in Liga Forte Futbol, a collective including teams in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, B, and C.

The 50-year deal, valuing the stake at about $500 million, will see the investment firms aiding in LFF’s revenue-generating efforts, including a pursuit of larger international media rights.

Roughly two dozen LFF teams have already signed on to the deal, which resembles in structure CVC’s Capital Partners’ prior investments in the media rights of Spain’s La Liga and France’s Ligue 1. Serengeti also recently engineered a similar commercial investment in Peruvian pro soccer.

Despite Brazil’s five World Cup titles, nine Copa América championships, and a legacy burnished by international superstars such as Pelé and Neymar, Brazil pro soccer has lagged far behind top European pro leagues such as the Premier League and La Liga, in part due to significant financial imbalances between individual clubs. The deal with Serengeti and Life Capital Partners seeks to address those imbalances.

“Unified, following the best practices in the global market, our vision is to transform the Brazilian league into one of the three biggest leagues in the world,” said Mário Bittencourt, president of LFF’s Fluminese FC.

One of the NFL’s most powerful and prominent team owners is getting the Netflix star treatment, and boosting the streamer’s sports ambitions in the process.

Netflix is reportedly paying $50 million for the rights to produce a 10-part documentary series on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In beating out rival entities such as ESPN and Amazon, Netflix will gain another prominent piece of sports content, which has already drawn comparisons to highly regarded series such as the Michael Jordan-focused “The Last Dance.”

The Jones project won’t advance Netflix’s extremely limited efforts to date in live sports. But with 232.5 million subscribers as of the end of the first quarter and existing hits such as “Drive to Survive” and “Full Swing,” Netflix still holds sizable sway over the entire business of streaming.

The $50 million price tag for the Jones project remains a mere fraction of the cost of any top-tier live sports rights, and would remain within the strategy of Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who told an investor conference late last year, “we’re not anti-sports, we’re pro-profit.”

The Jones-Netflix project is also slated to be a key early effort between the NFL and Skydance Media, which late last year struck a broad-based content deal. The documentary is expected to focus heavily on the Cowboys’ three Super Bowl titles under Jones in the 1990s and feature interviews with former stars Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin.

Though the Cowboys haven’t reached the NFC title game since the 1995 season, the team is still the NFL’s most valuable franchise.

The next step in Saudi Arabia’s aggressive global sports strategy appears to be a new investment company focused entirely on athletic entities.

So far, Saudi Arabia has made major investments in sports through its Public Investment Fund — valued at $650 billion — but will now launch a multibillion-dollar entity dedicated solely to sports, according to the Financial Times.

Current Saudi sports investments include:

• At least $2 billion of funding to back LIV Golf
• Majority ownership of Newcastle United ($409 million purchase)
• Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix
• 16.7% stake in Aston Martin F1 team
• Saudi Pro League ($75 million annual contract for Cristiano Ronaldo)

The PIF has been making news in sports all year, most notably through its agreement with the PGA Tour to cement its place in men’s professional golf. Tennis has also been a target for the PIF, which has reportedly had talks with the ATP Tour and WTA Tour.

Minority investments in American pro teams could be on the horizon for the new Saudi sports company, too. The Qatar Investment Authority purchased a roughly 5% stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment and NBA commissioner Adam Silver has not ruled out accepting investment from the PIF.

It’s unknown when this new company could launch or what its first steps may be.