When Title IX passed in 1972, supporters hoped the infusion of critical dollars to various collegiate sports would boost female participation and provide a foundation for more competitive programs to flourish. Fifty-two years later, that hope is being realized.
Women’s sports are drawing more and more eyeballs. Athletes such as gymnast Simone Biles and basketball star Caitlin Clark are now household names.
But the same cannot be said for women’s professional golf, which has been burdened by a number of self-inflicted issues.
The starting culprit is the lack of meaningful television exposure. The LPGA, home of the best female players, has been shunned by the same television networks that have made men’s professional golf a staple on most weekends outside football season.
Even when women’s professional golf secures network television time slots, the ratings are abysmal. In fairness, men’s professional golf has also seen a decline in eyeballs.
Golf remains a niche sport and is nowhere near the heavyweight status of the National Football League or National Basketball Association. Even Major League Baseball saw a rise of nearly 7 percent in viewership from 2022 to 2023.
On the men’s side, the absence of Tiger Woods from competitive play has proved to be difficult to overcome. The longstanding men’s PGA Tour has also been hurt by the emergence of rival LIV Golf.
The LPGA schedule is another concern.
After opening in January with two consecutive events in Florida, the next event was a month later, the first of three tournaments in Asia. Given time zone reality, the Thailand, Singapore, and China events were nearly invisible. The return to the United States did not happen until the end of March.
Then there was the fascination with having events in New Jersey.
Consider that in 2023, no less than four events were played in the Garden State. Given the number of tournaments in a short time, attendance for each was cannibalized. In 2024 three events were held in New Jersey from early May to early June.
Placing women’s pro golf in the largest of metro areas has only pushed the invisible meter higher given the competition against other more prominent professional sports teams. Local news networks don’t even mention women’s scores from such events.
One network executive, who preferred anonymity, offered a clear reason—“you can’t have a ”B“ product attempting to compete in an ”A“ market.”
On the flip side, when women’s golf has visited a mid-level populated city, the results have been positive. This year’s Women’s U.S. Open returned to Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania and the reception was noteworthy. Why? The women generated the interest without other sports grabbing attention away.
The same reality now faces the PGA Tour. In years past, the tour would make annual visits to the New York City and Chicago areas. That’s no longer the case. Both metro areas are dominated by a slew of other professional sports teams and the resulting hodgepodge has meant golf events, even when Woods was in his prime, received scant attention.
At the core for any sport is having a top player drawing eyeballs. Within the last 50 years only two female golfers—Nancy Lopez and Michelle Wie West—were able to attract massive numbers of people to their events. Lopez was the Arnold Palmer of women’s golf during her prime in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Wie West was hailed early in her teens and she backed that up by nearly making the 36-hole cut in the PGA Tour’s Hawaiian Open in 2004 as a 14-year-old. Two years later, Wie West nearly became the first woman to qualify for the U.S. Open, missing the event by a mere five strokes. The fanfare for her was like the galleries Woods generated.
The expectations accelerated rapidly. However, even though she captured the 2014 Women’s Open, what appeared to be a rocket-like trajectory was cut short by various injuries that ultimately produced only five LPGA titles.
In the current mix of players, much attention is centered on the success of current world-No. 1 player Nelly Korda. The 26-year-old played brilliantly early in 2024 with five consecutive starting wins—one of them a major. But Korda’s play has tailed off and her marketing impact has been minimal.
Lydia Ko, the third-ranked player, showed fine form in capturing the Women’s Open at St. Andrews and the gold medal at the Paris Summer Olympics. But the 27-year-old has also been unable to become a household name.
The announcement in 2023 that standout amateur Rose Zhang was turning professional had an early buzz—comparable to that of Wie West—but the production of the 12th-ranked player has plateaued and her impact on the viewership meter has been insignificant.
One of the more pressing issues facing women’s pro golfers is if or when to marry and start a family. Past world No. 1 players Lorena Ochoa and Annika Sorenstam opted to cut short their golf careers to have children. Ko is also considering doing so.
Structurally, pro golf’s main organizations are in their own silos. There’s the PGA Tour, LIV Golf, USGA, R&A, PGA of America, LPGA, DP World Tour, and more. While intersections do happen, the organizations tend to forgo alignment in favor of protecting their respective turf.
Linking men’s and women’s pro golf with regular and ongoing events could be a major plus for both. In years past, team events occurred but only during the end of the season when viewership had already dropped off.
In 2014 the USGA opted to schedule the U.S. Open and Women’s Open in consecutive weeks. The event drew interest and Wie West captured her lone major title at Pinehurst. A similar event is planned for 2029, also at Pinehurst. The main unresolved issue is whether the women will be in the lead-off position. In 2014, the women went second.
There has also been the smart, pro-active move in aligning the former LPGA Championship under the umbrella of the PGA of America via the now named KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Top tier venues have staged the event with hosts such as Baltusrol, Sahalee, Congressional and the Atlanta Athletic Club, to name just a few.
Leadership of women’s pro golf is also important.
Mike Whan, CEO of the USGA, served as commissioner for the LPGA from January 2010 to June 2021. Whan was a 24-hour, nonstop promoter for the LPGA and his efforts resurrected the group’s moribund existence.
The new commissioner—Mollie Marcoux Samaan—is a former athletic director at Princeton University. A controversy took place in July 2022 when she indicated she would take a business call from the leadership of LIV to discuss future intersections.
LIV is backed by the Saudi government, which has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners.
The intersection could prove to be a public relations nightmare.
The total amount of prize money on the LPGA Tour in 2024 is up to nearly $124 million, compared with $88.9 million in 2022, nearly a 40 percent jump. The purses for the major championships have increased by 80 percent from 2021. For example, the AIG Women’s Open purse grew to $9 million, a 23 percent increase from 2022. The U.S. Women’s Open had a purse of $12 million this year—$1 million more than in 2023.
Junior golf leagues are flourishing, especially on the girls’ side with a pipeline of eager participants. Yet even with all that good news, the visibility and reach of women’s pro golf trails noticeably the hype and fanfare paid to other women’s sports.
Title IX has been the catalyst for growth in other women’s sports. Women’s professional golf faces a hyper-competitive landscape that will require quick thinking and steely resolve to produce meaningful results.
Golf is a slow game, but slow is one thing the LPGA can’t afford to be.
