It’s a new year and the new LPGA season begins later in January with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, and we can’t wait. It’s already too late for resolutions – and we know everyone breaks those anyway. But, it’s the perfect time to put our wishes for the LPGA Tour into the universe. It’s like our Golf Digest vision board for 2025 and beyond. So here goes…
More Nelly Korda magic
Korda won Player of the Year honours after a seven-win season in 2024, which included one major at the Chevron Championship. She went on a ‘heater’ by winning a record-tying five consecutive tournaments, something done only by Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sorenstam (2004-2005). Korda’s swing is beautiful to watch, and tournaments are at their best when the 26-year-old is contending. She started 2024 with a bang, had some struggles (what golfer doesn’t?), endured a neck injury, but came back to end the season by playing incredibly well with a win in The Annika and T-5 in the CME Group Tour Championship.
Everything the WNBA star does is epic – even an errant tee shot – and her participation in the pro-am at The Annika event was insanely huge for women’s golf. It’s one of the coolest things that happened all season and brought vast attention, fun, fans, money and ratings. How great would it be to have Clark get the ball rolling on starting a new event in her home state of Iowa? She loves golf. She loves Iowa. And everyone loves her. It would be an instant classic. Sign us up for anything with Clark.
An inspiring new LPGA commissioner
The LPGA needs a leader who is innovative, creative, knowledgeable and someone who gets it. Someone who will try new things and take the tour to new heights, beyond the increased purses that have come mostly in the majors. Women’s sports leagues – like the WNBA, NWSL, NCAA women’s basketball – are soaring, and the LPGA has lagged a little in capturing the attention and magic of the popularity of women athletes. Mollie Marcoux Samaan’s shortened tenure ends today, and the 10th LPGA commissioner needs to be the right one and the right time.
The LPGA is celebrating its 75th season, and it would be appropriate to have one of the tour’s best seasons ever. The biggest stars playing like stars and good Sunday back-nine duels and competitive finishes in majors would be nice. We’d like to see more victories by multiple Australian golfers; Rose Zhang build on her Founders Cup win from last May and unbeaten performance at the Solheim Cup in September; Lydia Ko back up her fantastic year so strongly that she can’t fathom retiring; and the highly entertaining Jeeno Thitikul remain such a worthy competitive foil to Nelly Korda.
The LPGA has been increasing purses, especially in the past few years, and that’s great, but it needs to continue. There are 35 events this season with a combined purse of more than $US131 million, the largest in history. The tour needs to continue to attract more and more money from sponsors. The CME Group Tour Championship has the biggest non-major purse at $US11 million (and a record $US4 million to the winner). We hate to say everything comes down to money, but it doesn’t hurt.
Fans need to overlook snafus sometimes
The LPGA dropped the ball with major transportation issues for the Solheim Cup. Some fans waited for hours because there weren’t enough shuttles from the carparks. It was a bad look and people were justifiably mad. However, the US won for the first time since 2017, and we hope people remember the positives because everyone makes mistakes. And we hope this was a lesson for the LPGA to be proactive with tournament logistics.
Explore all of these ideas. Capital One’s The Match last February featured Lexi Thompson, Rose Zhang, Rory McIlroy and Max Homa, and it was wonderful to see LPGA golfers represented on such a big stage. McIlroy won, but women’s golf did, too. The same can be said for the Grant Thornton Invitational, which was better than ever this year with a pair of University of California–Los Angeles products, Jake Knapp and Patty Tavatanakit, outduelling Tom Kim and Jeeno Thitikul. The golf was spectacular and so were the many smiles. The game needs more of these joyful displays more than ever. And here’s a big wish: include LPGA players in the next season of TGL, because the women would be just as entertaining, and a primetime show should probably appeal to more of the golf-playing population.
A big week at the Black Desert Championship
This tournament is one of two new events on tour, and we hope the Utah stop in May at the spectacular resort inspires other tournaments to reach higher. LPGA players will stay for free at the Black Desert Resort after flying there from the Chevron Championship in charter planes provided by the tournament. Can’t wait to see all of the bells and whistles for this event that marks a return to LPGA play in Utah for the first time in 60 years.
