Five things we learned from the LPGA commissioner’s state of the tour address

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NAPLES, Fla. — LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan delivered her annual state of the tour address Wednesday at the CME Group Tour Championship and praised unprecedented growth helped by the performances of players like World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Olympic gold medalist Lydia Ko, who earned entrance into the LPGA’s Hall of Fame with her victory in Paris.

Among the things that Marcoux Samaan pointed toward was the 2025 schedule, saying that the overall purse is nearly 90 percent higher than it was in 2021, the season before she took over for Mike Whan. The average income of the top 100 players, according to the commissioner, has gone to over $1 million, up from $575,000 a year ago. That number no doubt was helped by Korda earning more than $4 million with seven victories this year.

The tour added another $8 million in missed cut and travel stipends and this year provided a $4,000 health insurance stipend to all players. Marcoux Samaan said that she told players last week at a players’ meeting that starting next year the tour is going to fully subsidize health insurance for card-holding members.

“There’s a million amazing stories out there on the golf course, and I don’t think anyone can deny it’s been a great year,” Marcoux Samaan said. “So for me that’s only part of the story. All of that is a really important part, but the other part is I think what we’ve been building in the LPGA infrastructure, which has definitely needed to grow.

“We’ve been betting on our athletes, betting on our staff to be able to capitalize on this next wave of growth. We’re building the infrastructure in order to build our global fan base. We are looking at enhancing visibility for our athletes, ensuring that fans, whether they’re tuning in digitally or attending events or engaging with merchandise, experience the LPGA in exciting and meaningful ways.

“I would like to say we’re building the organizational might to be able to capitalize and service this next round of growth.”

This week at Tiburon Golf Club the total purse is $11 million, and the winner will take home a whopping $4 million, which Marcoux Samaan was quick to point out is bigger than three of the four men’s major championships. Second place this week will earn $1 million.

“It’s what our players deserve,” she said. “We’re super proud that we’re here.”

Here are four other items that Marcoux Samaan mentioned Wednesday in Florida:

Pace of play

This issue was brought to the forefront last week at the tour’s Annika event at Pelican Golf Club in Florida when the third round, in particular, took so long that Golf Channel extended its television window 51 minutes. It prompted England’s Charley Hull to suggest that the tour should go so far as to take tour status away from the biggest culprits. On Tuesday here in Naples, both Korda and Lexi Thompson weighed in, with Korda saying, “it’s ridiculous.”

Marcoux Samaan said Wednesday that they’re going to form a pace of play committee during this offseason that includes key stakeholders to see if they can figure out a way to speed things up.

“I think everybody is invested in this and have to be committed to making some change there,” she said. “So, yeah, we totally recognize it. We hear it. We’re digging in and all we can do is try to find the best solutions moving forward. We like the passion of our players. They want this tour to be great. They want it to be better.”

Gender policy

Hailey Davidson, a transgender golfer from Florida, went through the second stage of LPGA qualifying this year, but missed the cut by six shots at Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, Fla. Forty-three advanced to the final stage next month.

Davidson, however, does have limited status on the Epson Tour for 2025. She’s the second transgender golfer to earn status on that tour, after Bobbi Lancaster did so 11 years ago. Lancaster never competed in an event.

The LPGA voted to drop its “female at birth” requirement in 2010. Marcoux Samaan has said that if there were updates to the policy they would come by the end of the year.

“I think we’ve made that clear that we’ve been using sports medicine experts, legal experts to analyze our policy over the course of the year and review our policy,” Marcoux Samaan said. “We’re completing that review, and we’ll make any updates for the policy by the end of the year, which is what we’ve told our players, and we’ve told them throughout the course of the year. We told them in the player meeting. We will make any updates to our policy by the end of the year.”

New amateur pathway

Just before the news conference an announcement was made regarding the LPGA’s Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP), a program that gives top amateurs a chance to earn LPGA membership. It is effective immediately.

Through the program players that accumulate 20 points in a certain time will earn exempt status. Points can be earned through being ranked in one of the top three positions in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, finishes in LPGA events, amateur championships, winning various annual awards or participation in both the Curtis and Palmer cups.

Rose Zhang, Lydia Ko and Leona Maguire are the only players who would’ve reached the threshold over the past few years.

“This is just one step in our sort of analysis of pathways and figuring out how to get—continue to have the best players in the world competing on the LPGA Tour,” she said.

Ladies European Tour merger

A year ago the LPGA and Ladies European Tour were close to signing a deal that would’ve merged the two tours. It was reported that both tours had received unanimous approval from their respective boards.

It never happened and, a year later, it seems like it’s not going to happen. Marcoux Samaan was asked about a potential deal, and only continued to say that she’s pleased with the “partnership” that they have with the LET.

“We’re continuing to work with them,” she said. “Right now, we’re focused on our joint venture partnership and elevating that, thinking about pathways to the LPGA and continuing to expand our work with them.”

Marcoux Samaan was pressed about it again later and rehashed the same answer.

“We worked really hard on this before. Got to the goal line; didn’t quite happen,” she said. “The partnership, the joint venture partnership has continued. We continue to support them. They support us. Continue to elevate them and we’re working on what’s the next iteration of that partnership.

“I think we’re all in this together and we have really clear joint mission.”

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com