NAPLES, Fla. — The LPGA had its Caitlin Clark moment.
With Caitlin Clark, actually.
The WNBA mega star played last week in the pro-am for the Annika tournament, named for Annika Sorenstam, one of its biggest names, whom Clark joined for nine holes. The other half of the round, she walked alongside the LPGA’s closest version of her, Nelly Korda. There were highlights. There were tee shots accidentally hit into crowds. Golf was played, and, by all accounts, the proceedings were enjoyed by both the players and those watching them.
Notably, though, the round in Florida also started at 7 a.m. ET, with Golf Channel managing to show some live play, as it started its Golf Today show at 11 a.m., 90 minutes earlier than normal. Are pro-am rounds broadcast-worthy? Not usually, even for the buzziest of names. Should it somehow have been played a little later? Maybe. More social-media thoughts, especially from the Midwest, where Clark grew up and now plays professionally, wouldn’t have hurt.
The point here is to illustrate a bigger picture, though.
Women’s sports is perhaps in its biggest boom. Clark has brought millions of eyes to the WNBA, along with millions of dollars, and maybe most important, she’s had extended staying power, with her name being talked about for the better part of two years now. There were also the ever-popular Olympics this year. In golf, Korda has ascended into rare air. There are the wins — seven now, the most by an LPGA player since 2011, and the most by an American woman since 1990. But there’s her celebrity, too. Korda was at the Met Gala. She’ll be in the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. She’s potentially reaching the point where your non-golf friend has at least heard of her, and your golf pals could call her by just one word: Nelly.
Question is, then, did her tour capitalize on that moment, as Clark’s league did? Maybe you saw a WNBA game, maybe you didn’t. But at the very least you heard about Caitlin Clark, somewhere, somehow, along with some of the league’s other stars and teams.
The topic was broached this week to a handful of the LPGA’s stars, along with its commissioner, ahead of the CME Group Tour Championship, its season-ending event, where its winner will collect a record $4 million, and that unarguably sits in the win column. There’s more good news there. On Wednesday, the tour released its 2025 schedule — which will be its 75th season — that’ll feature 35 events and a prize pool of $131 million, which, according to the tour, is a $62 million increase from four years ago; all tournaments will also be broadcast on either Golf Channel, NBC, CBS or ESPN+. Of course, like every sports league, the LPGA has made its mistakes, too. There was a well-documented fan transportation problem at the Solheim Cup. Cognizant, which backed the Founders Cup, is not among the sponsor names on next year’s schedule. There have also been questions about the job performance of the tour’s commissioner, Mollie Marcoux Samaan, which Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols expertfully described here, in an article published last week.
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In short, things happened — but did things happen as well as they could have? Admittedly, it’s a difficult question to ask of stakeholders. You want to believe in where you work. But you want what’s best for it, too. That said, these things take time, and what you see today or next year may be building toward something more. For clarity, I’ll include complete exchanges, and note where they took place — one-on-one interviews can occasionally offer different responses than formal press conferences, which occur under the lights, in front of tour officials and are shared on transcripts available to anyone with internet wisdom. To a few players, I also asked what their wish list would be, and I also asked a similar question to Terry Duffy, the CEO of the CME Group.
In a sentence, the answers were mixed.
Angel Yin
With Nelly, with women’s sports in general, the Caitlin Clark rise in women’s basketball, there has been an opportunity for the LPGA to capture that moment. Do you think they’ve done a good job of that?
“No,” said Angel Yin, speaking to me one-on-one.
Why do you say that?
“Gosh, it just doesn’t feel like it,” she said. “It’s an opinion. Like Caitlin Clark coming over to our tournament created a crowd, created a buzz — didn’t feel like it got out there enough. Went out to a certain amount of people. But I don’t know, like I said, to give a detailed answer, I have to like — I want to be more responsible with my answers so I just don’t want to speak. But if you have to ask how I feel about that, I don’t really think we’ve capitalized that much. Just riding the wave that other people are doing and we’re just associated with women. Unfortunately, I don’t think we have done enough.”
(Editor’s note: Yin has more to offer below.)
Lexi Thompson
This year, I think it’s safe to say that in women’s golf and on the LPGA tour, that this could have been a turning point year with the increased interest in women’s sports, the Caitlin Clark interest, with Nelly playing the way she has. Me question is: Do you think the LPGA captured that moment properly?
“Yeah, well, first and foremost,” Lexi Thompson said in her press conference, “I think women’s sports in general are on such a high right now and moving in the right direction, whether it’s growing in each sport or golf in general.
“You know, I’ve always said in any interviews since I turned pro, the game of golf, our sponsors, tournaments, purses, they’ve all raised and our TV coverage has increased.
“I think we could keep on improving. I think there is a lot more room for improvement. I think we’re making as many stories as we can and focusing on all the good, but I think there are so many talents out here and so many stories that we can really focus on and really bring in a lot of fans and bring in a bigger fan base than what we have.
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“I think there is just more room for improvement. We’re improving right now, but there is a lot more to go.”
I guess bigger question, have you ever thought of a way that those stories could be told like that?
“That’s a great question as well,” Thompson said. “I think just showing the personalities of the players out here. Of course everybody sees the talent. I think more and more people need to realize how talented the women are out here and come out and support us. Because I don’t think TV does it justice. I think you have to see it in person.
“But, yeah, there are so many great personalities out here. It’s just a matter of making those stories based on those people that are willing to open up and really show the world they’re more than just golf. There is way more to us than that.”
(Editor’s note: Thompson has announced that this year will be her last as a full-time LPGA member.)
Nelly Korda
With this year and the increase in interest in women’s sports and the interest in obviously your success this year and the interest in Caitlin Clark’s play in the WNBA, do you think the LPGA has done a good job capturing that moment and promoting that?
“I mean, obviously I’m the one hitting a golf ball, but at the end of the day I don’t know the logistics behind everything,” Nelly Korda said during her press conference. “I focus on my career and what I’m doing, so I don’t really know if I can answer that question.”
(Editor’s note: Korda has been asked about the comparisons to Clark before, and one of the stories on the subject can be read here.)
Lydia Ko
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This year, there’s been a good rise in interest in women’s sports, with Caitlin Clark, with your success, with Nelly Korda’s success, a lot more broadcasts. My question is, do you think the LPGA tour did a good job of capturing that moment?
“I think it’s going to be an answer that’s different for everyone, to be honest,” Lydia Ko said during a one-on-one interview after her press conference. “I don’t turn on and watch the coverage when I’m not playing, but I’m always looking at highlights. I obviously follow the LPGA social media so I see it with that, but I do believe that we’re getting better, and obviously within our tour, there’s just been so many great stories that have been shown. Yeah, I think with anything, nothing is perfect. We can always get better and improve. But I would never say that they did a bad job.”
Ally Ewing
“This year, with Nelly playing well, with an increased interest in women’s sports, Caitlin Clark, you could say there was an opportunity for the LPGA to maybe grasp that moment and ride that wave and go past that even. Do you think the Tour did that?”
“Well, I know I’ve never seen — in terms of Caitlin Clark last week playing the pro-am, I’ve never seen that many people around one group in a pro-am,” Ally Ewing said in her press conference. “So the excitement, I think, just to see a current dominant female basketball player who plays golf from time to time come in and play our pro-am, that was huge for a turnout.
“I ran out onto the 18th fairway to get a picture with her myself because I played basketball in high school. I think there is always opportunity to reach a little bit higher. I think the LPGA has done a great job in growth.
“So in terms of just doing better and better, I think we are doing better. I think there are tons of opportunities that we can look to use as we move forward.”
(Editor’s note: Ewing is retiring after this week.)
Mollie Marcoux Samaan
With the attention on Caitlin Clark, with the Olympics this year, with Nelly’s play this year, interest in women’s sports has never been higher. With that being said, my question is, do you think the LPGA properly captured that moment?
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“I mean, I think the numbers show that we captured that moment, right?” Marcoux Samaan said in her formal press conference. “If you look at what — our job is to make sure that our players have opportunities to make a living commensurate with their talent.
“Are we done yet? No. Should this be more? Should they be making as much as the men? Yes, we want to get to that point when we can. Yeah, I think we’ve done amazing work. I think our team has done amazing work. I think our partners have stepped up on many different levels and have really elevated what we’re doing.
“Are we done with that growth? Absolutely not. Are we focused on getting — continuing to get more fans under our tent and continuing to get more exposure for our players? Definitely. I mean, we’re a growth-minded organization.
“But I don’t think anybody could say that the growth hasn’t been remarkable over the last three years.”
(Editor’s note: Marcoux Samaan is in her fourth year as LPGA commissioner.)
Terry Duffy, CME Group CEO
If you had the chance to tell another business to sponsor like you have, to help the LPGA follow the women’s sports boom, what would you tell those businesses?
“I wouldn’t tell them anything,” said Terry Duffy, the CEO of the CME Group, which just signed a two-year agreement to continue its sponsorship of this week’s tournament. [Duffy spoke to a handful of reporters on Wednesday afternoon.]
“Here’s what I’m a big believer in: Sometimes visuals are much more important than words. I’d been asked when Mike Whan was still the commissioner of the LPGA — and I talked to Mike yesterday; he’s a great friend — he asked me, he had a sponsor that was thinking about dipping their toes in. And he said, will you talk to them? And I said, no, but I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I’ll host them. And I brought them here and I showed them what we had. And sometimes when you look at it and see it and have a touchy-feely versus just someone telling you, this is really good, your client is going to love it, and you go, it sounds like I’m being pitched by everyone else. That’s not what this is all about. I think this is one of these events that you have to experience.
“I tell people how it is. I tell people how exciting it is for my clients when asked. I tell how good of a benefit it is to my brand. I cherish my brand. I spent years building this brand. … Having it partnered with the LPGA is very important to me. So when you ask about others, I like them to come see that because my brand is that important to me, I just can’t even explain to them. I have to show them.”
Curious: When you brought that person down, what was the reaction?
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“They loved it,” said Duffy, adding that they went on to sponsor an event.
(Editor’s note: The CME Group continues to back the LPGA, though a moment in 2022 tested that. In a story also written by Golfweek’s Nichols — which you can read in full here — the CME Group had asked players to attend a dinner, but none came, leading Duffy to question LPGA leadership.)
Angel Yin
I think this year, in pro golf in general, it seems like there are a lot of suggestions, a lot of ideas on the table. There’s change. There are adjustments on the men’s tour, the women’s tour. If you were in charge of the LPGA, what’s a big-ticket item you would change?
“That’s a pretty loaded question,” Yin said, “because I don’t know if there’s a big-ticket item I would change because I think the direction we’re in right now is good. We have a big wave of women’s sports that’s on the rise. Probably my main focus on all of it is not getting more sponsors but getting us known. As women’s sports are on the rise, if you don’t surf it, it just dies out and you need to catch that wave.”
Have you thought about a way that can happen?
“Oh, I don’t know,” Yin said. “I think stuff like that, to go into detail, to be able to give an honest answer, is someone being able to look at all the numbers and all the strategies in the last five, six years and see where we can progress and compare to what other organizations are doing. If I had to give an answer right now, it would be investing into players. For example, Nelly. Nelly’s doing a lot. Nelly won her seventh tournament, she got her Sports Illustrated swimsuit, she went to the Met Gala — she’s doing a lot. And she’s putting her name out there. Whether she knows, she’s also representing all of us and so we appreciate what she does a lot and she’s doing good. And so yeah, just invest in players.”
Lexi Thompson
With seemingly a lot of change in pro golf, men and women, what would be — and a lot of ideas on the table — what would be one big-ticket item you would want to see changed?
“One big thing that I would like to see change,” Thompson said, “I would like to see better TV coverage for us and keep on increasing the purses each and every week. I think we’ve moved in the right direction on a few of our events, but to keep on increasing on that, showing how talented we really are.
“And the appreciation — of course we’re grateful for all the partnerships we have. We are so grateful for what we have. So I think just keep improving on that, the TV coverage. I would like to have more live LPGA golf on the Golf Channel or on regular NBC or network.”
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What’s something low-key that maybe only you would know? Anything specific to the tournaments, setups, whatever? Something that has just itched you a little bit and is like, man, I really wish we could solve it?
“Other than the slow play — I think everybody knows that one,” Thompson said. “I don’t think there is really much. Sometimes course setup is a bit of a challenge and not as thought through as sometimes maybe should be. It’s tough when you have all the different conditions going into each day.”
Nelly Korda
With a lot of change in men’s golf and women’s golf, there are a lot of ideas on the table. I guess if you had a pitch to make, what’s a big-ticket change you would make?
“Well, one, I would focus on pace of play,” Korda said. “I would circle back to pace of play.
I think we need primetime TV. We need more hours on TV. I mean, we have a great product out here. We have so many amazing stories. We just need to be on primetime TV.”
Is there a lower-ticket item that maybe is only specific to you, something that bothers you that you were like, man, I wish they would fix that?
“Nothing is really coming to mind right now, no,” Korda said.
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