Men’s golf has been torn apart over the past year by an unprecedented infusion of money. The women’s game is at a pivot point of its own, but with a different problem: How to bring more awareness, and more riches, to the LPGA.
As the LPGA Tour’s second event of the season arrives this week, there are signs of progress, those around the tour said. Players will compete for more than $100 million in 2023, the biggest total purse in the tour’s history. And that could increase as the year goes on, LPGA Tour Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said.
Golfers on the Epson Tour, the feeder circuit to the LPGA Tour, will compete for a record-breaking $4.95 million over 22 tournaments this year, and 119 golfers made more than $100,000 on the LPGA Tour last season. But the better players perform, the more global their schedules become. With annual expenses in the high five figures, according to one recently retired player, that doesn’t leave much wiggle room for investing in your future.
“I always feel like more money into the game is always a good thing, but it has to come on the right terms,” said Annika Sorenstam, a 72-time winner on the LPGA Tour. “The golf world is big in a way, but it’s so small also. We have to work together and keep the focus in mind — what’s good for the game, good for women, more playing exposure, playing opportunities, more dreams come true.
“Players around the globe have different stances on the issues at hand when it comes to a Saudi investment in the game, but the sensitivities and controversy around their participation in the events are very real and difficult to balance,” Poe said.Fortune 500 companies that have aligned themselves with women’s golf talk optimistically about raising the financial stakes.
“We’re at a phase when we’re about to see even more growth on the LPGA,” said Shawn Quill, the national sports industry leader for KPMG. “The product on the course is getting better and I think… corporate America needs to stand up and match their distribution of [sponsorship] spend. The LPGA is a good place for that investment.
Then there’s the schedule. This season started in Orlando; after this week’s tournament in Thailand, it’s on to Singapore, then Arizona, California and Hawaii. A tweet featuring a dizzying animated map of where the circuit’s tournaments will be played this year was viewed more than 1.5 million times in January.
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