by Before play began at the LPGA’s season finale this week at the CME Group Tour Championship, there were plenty of announcements and developments from the tour. From the schedule to new programs to Mollie Marcoux Samaan’s press conference, here are my five takeaways from a busy few days in Naples.
1. After a day or so to think about it, I’m officially giving next year’s schedule a grade of C+. On the plus side, starting the year a few weeks later gives the players a longer offseason and eliminates the bizarre three week break between the Tournament of Champions and the first Asian swing. New events in Utah and Mexico are also positive developments. Total prize money is over $130 million. Losing Cognizant as the sponsor for The Founders Cup, a tournament that honors the LPGA’s history, is the major black eye on the calendar. The Founders Cup will now take place earlier in the year and will be funded by the LPGA. No sponsor is bad enough, but the event takes another hit as the LPGA won’t be matching the $3 million dollar purse from last year. The total purse is one of the lowest of all of next year at just $2 million. All in all, the 2025 schedule follows the LPGA’s trend of gradual improvement without much significant progress.
2. Mollie Marcoux Samaan talked at length on Wednesday about the new schedule and the outlook for the tour. When asked about expanding engagement and growing the fan base, she spoke to increases in staff especially in the marketing department that has almost doubled in size. A dizzying amount of partnerships were mentioned with companies named Aspire, Braze, Legends, Next League, and so on, all seemingly focused on things like digital transformation, event sales, and licensing. A player marketing committee will also be formed to gather feedback on how best to tell the stories of the players both on and off the course. Marcoux Samaan described this as a “clear strategy” to get more people to engage with their content. It feels more like a piecemeal strategy outsourced to a grab bag of third party groups. Recent history tells us this is not wise. Last year, the tour announced a groundbreaking partnership with Naomi Osaka’s creative media company Hana Kuma focused on growing athlete’s personal brands. The partnership was short-lived with zero meaningful content created. Marcoux Samaan’s announcement of the player marketing committee headed by LPGA CMO Matt Chumura all but confirms the Hana Kuma relationship is dead.
3. In a win for acronym lovers everywhere, next year will see the launch of the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP). The program is designed to allow the best amateurs in the world direct access to the LPGA without having to go through Q-school. Don’t expect a high number of players to qualify via the points based system. Lottie Woad has 16 points currently, the most of any amateur, and is four points shy of the required 20 to make the jump. Marcoux Samaan mentioned past players that would’ve qualified under the system include Leona Maquire, Rose Zhang, and Lydia Ko.
Lottie Woad celebrates winning the Augusta National Women's Amateur at Augusta National Golf Club.
4. Toledoans have an intriguing consolation prize coming their way next year. An LPGA stop for 40 years, the City of Glass will not see the main attraction in 2025. However, Stacy Lewis will host a joint Epson Tour/LPGA Legends event at Highland Meadows in July. The 54-hole event will feature 102 Epson Tour players and 42 LPGA Legends. The past champions of the LPGA Tour rarely get any sort of spotlight, so the opportunity to mentor up and coming players on the Epson Tour while tuning up their own games before the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in August feels like a win/win situation and a way to keep professional golf in Toledo.
5. Last but certainly not least, the hot topic of slow play came up in almost every early week interview. After Lexi Thompson joined the likes of Nelly Korda and Charley Hull going on the record to acknowledge the problem, Marcoux Samaan announced that a pace of play committee will be formed in the offseason to figure out how to speed things up. Committees and professional golf do not have the best track record for meaningful change. There will be more optimism for progress if Korda, Hull, or Thompson are part of the new committee.
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