The Champion's Leap in the Chevron Championship Explained
"Champion's Leap" is the name of one of the best-known traditions at any of the major championships in women's professional golf, or any other LPGA Tour tournament. It is the celebratory, flying leap taken by the golfer who wins the Chevron Championship into water near the 18th green. Let's go over some details of this fun frolic, starting with how the Champion's Leap came to be.
Who Made the First Champion's Leap?
When LPGA star Amy Alcott arrived at Mission Hills Country Club in the Coachella Valley of California in 1988, she hadn't won a tournament in nearly two years. But she did win the 1988 Nabisco Dinah Shore (as the Chevron Championship was known at the time, one of its multiple past names) that week.And when Alcott finished off the victory on the 18th hole at Mission Hills that year, she was so happy she was moved to do something big: She took off running toward the water by that 18th green and splashed down into the murky pond in celebration.
That is how the Champion's Leap in the Chevron Championship was born.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times for an article in 2011, Alcott explained:
"It was just a moment of pure excitement. That's part of my personality. I said, 'What the hell'."At the time, that pond was a body of murky water, mud, reeds, algae — about what you'd expect from a golf course pond. That would change over time as the Champion's Leap became established — but it took a while longer for that to happen.
The Champion's Leap Established
Alcott's running jump into the pond by the 18th hole at Mission Hills was something the next couple champions did not replicate. It was up to Alcott to give it another go.After the 1989 and 1990 champs (Juli Inkster and Betsy King, respectively) stayed dry, Alcott won the tournament again in 1991. At the start of the week, she had coaxed tournament host Dinah Shore into a deal: If I win, you jump in the water with me.
And when Alcott won again in 1991, that's what happened: Alcott and the entertainment legend Shore went into the water.
But the Champion's Leap still wasn't established. Dottie Pepper and Helen Alfredsson, winners in 1992 and 1993, respectively, stayed on dry land. The jump was still thought of as Alcott's thing, rather than a tournament tradition.
That changed in 1994, after Dinah Shore's death early in the year. When Donna Andrews won the 1994 tournament, she decided to honor Shore by making the jump into the water. And since 1994, every single winner of the Nabisco Championship, Kraft Nabisco Championship, ANA Inspiration, and Chevron Championship (the tournament's various names over that period) has made the Champion's Leap.
Poppie's Pond at Mission Hills
The golf course at Mission Hills Country Club on which the Chevron Championship was played was eventually renamed in honor of Shore. Today is it called the Dinah Shore Course.And the pond next to the Dinah Shore Course's 18th green eventually got its own name, too: Poppie's Pond. Terry Wilcox was the tournament director of this major from 1994 (the year of Andrews' jump) through 2008. His nickname was "Poppie." In 2006, the pond into which the champions jumped every year was named "Poppie's Pond" in his honor.
Over time, Poppie's Pond was cleaned out and cleaned up, changing from a natural-looking, murky body full with mud and vegetation, into basically a swimming pool. Which might have been a relief to many of so-called "Ladies of the Lake" who leaped into it over the years.
The jump itself changed, too, over the years, with some players strolling in, others running full speed; some falling in, others cannonballing in. Most players were accompanied on the jump by their caddies, some by friends or family members. In 1996, Patty Sheehan cartwheeled into the water. But 1998 champ Pat Hurst, who couldn't swim, only waded in up to her knees.
The Champion's Leap After Mission Hills
Mission Hills Country Club's Dinah Shore Course was the home of the Chevron Championship from its inception in 1972 through 2022. But in 2023, Chevron took over as the tournament's title sponsor and moved the major championship near its headquarters in Houston."What will happen to the Champion's Leap?" was a frequent question ahead of that change of venues. It had become such an iconic celebration over the years. Would it survive the move?
The first club after Mission Hills to host the tournament was The Club at Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, whose 18th hole was adjacent to a large golf course lake. Unlike what Poppie's Pond had become over the years (swimming pool-like), the lake by the 18th hole at Carlton Woods had a natural appearance, complete with vegetation and wildlife. It was an open question whether every winner would be willing to take the Champion's Leap there.
But 2023 winner Lilia Vu did, running off a temporary pier installed just for the occasion. So did the next two champs.
In 2026, the Chevron Championship moved to Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston. There was no water near Memorial Park's 18th green. But organizers announced plans to construct an artificial pond by the green in time for 2027, and installed a temporary pool close to the green for 2026.
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