With women’s golf booming there’s never been a better time to play the game professionally. There’s more sponsorship money and more opportunities for women to play golf competitively for a living. In fact there are eight women’s tours globally. So whether you’re an aspiring professional hoping to graduate from the amateur ranks, or simply an avid supporter of the women’s game, there’s certainly a lot going on in the global competitive scene.
Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA)
Let’s start with the biggest and most publicised women’s golf tour in the world - the LPGA Tour. The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) began the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments in 1950 when 13 pioneers including Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg and Louise Suggs had a dream to provide for elite women golfers with a platform to play professional golf. The founders were elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame as a group in 2023.
The LPGA began as a tour with events just across the USA but has since expanded to have a more global presence with a handful of co-sanctioned events now held outside of the United States in Asia, Europe, Australia and Canada. Every year it goes from strength-to-strength.
In 2020 the LPGA Tour soared to new prize-fund heights breaking through the $70 million prize purse mark, making it the world’s richest tour for women. Because of that it is widely regarded as the largest and most prestigious women’s tour to play on.
In order to earn playing rights (a tour card) to compete on the LPGA Tour, women professionals have to graduate through an annual qualifying school. This can take up to four stages to negotiate, each like a regular golf tournament with only a small number of players going on to the next stage.
The final qualifying school is over six rounds. Those successful join the leaders on the previous year’s LPGA money list/order of merit, and certain other exempt players who have maintained their playing rights, as members of the tour.
Epson Golf Tour
The Epson Tour is the LPGA’s developmental tour, it was founded in 1981. It has changed its name several time over the last two decades due to various sponsors, so you may have heard of it before as the LPGA Futures Tour, the Duramed Futures Tour or even the Symetra Tour.
The tour is made up of a series of events played all over the USA (22 in 2023) culminating with a season-ending Epson Tour Championship. This tournament has been played at River Run Country Club in Davidson, North Carolina since 2020. The top 10 players on the tour’s money list earn their LPGA Tour card for the next season, and those just outside that mark (the next 24 players) get to improve their status for LPGA Tour Qualifying School.
American Auston Kim is one to watch. She has just won the 2023 Epson Tour Championship and will be hoping to make a fast-start on the LPGA next year. You don’t have to be a professional to play on the tour, it is also open to top-ranked amateurs, many of whom use it as a springboard to turn professional if they successfully earn their card.
Women's All Pro Tour (WAPT)
The Women’s All-Pro Tour is the official qualifying tour for the LPGA’s Epson Tour. Women may participate in the WAPT as a member or as a guest, allowing amateurs as well as professionals to compete. The beauty of this tour is that there are different entry options available.
The women who choose to become full members pay an annual joining fee (less than $700) giving them preferential rates on the entry fees to the individual events, free range balls at tournaments, lunches and practice rounds and other perks. For those interested in competing, but not yet sure whether it’s right for them, they can pay one-off entry fees to the individual events to compete.
In 2023 the tour also introduced a new six-event WAFT Collegiate Series, running from the end of May through to the start of August, as summer preparation before returning to compete in college.
Ladies European Tour (LET)
The Ladies European Tour (LET) was founded in 1978 and has its headquarters at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club on the outskirts of London. There are over 130 players from more than 40 countries internationally competing on the tour, which runs a full-schedule of events (29 in 2023) across five continents.
It is fair to say that the LET has had a very turbulent history, nearly collapsing through lack of sponsorship and funding in the 1980s, leading to tour members forming the Ladies European Tour Limited in 2000.
In January 2020 the LET entered into a joint venture arrangement with the LPGA Tour with the aim of increasing the playing opportunities for female golfers in Europe. With that has come more exposure and sponsorship like the Aramco Team Series.
The LET also organises and runs the Solheim Cup when it is in Europe. Like the LPGA, in order to gain a tour card and playing rights to compete on the LET you have to go through several stages of qualifying school, culminating in Q-School Finals.
Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS)
The Ladies European Tour Access Series (LETAS) is the LET’s developmental tour. It’s been running since 2010 and in that time has produced some notable graduates including English winners Lily May Humphreys and Meghan MacLaren who have both gone onto win on the LET.
The top six players on the LETAS Order of Merit earn LET membership for the Ladies European Tour. Those that just miss out but finish in spots 7-20 get to skip the first stage of the qualifying event and progress straight to Q-School finals.
You don’t have to be a professional golfer to play on LETAS, it’s open to amateur golfers also, as long as you are over the age of 18 and have a handicap of two or better. There were 16 events played in 12 countries across Europe in 2023 with a total tour prize fund purse of just over £720,000.
LPGA Of Japan Tour
The LPGA of Japan Tour is a women’s professional golf tour organised by the Japan Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association. It has been running since 1968 and has the second biggest prize purse in women’s golf, just behind the LPGA with $60 million.
There were 38 events played in 2023 all across Japan. Women’s World Golf Hall of Famer Hisako “Chako” Higuchi holds the record for the most prolific wins on the JLPGA of all time with 69 victories spanning over two decades from 1968-1990.
LPGA Of Korea Tour
The KLPGA Tour was catapulted into the global golf spotlight back in 2020 coming out of Covid-19 pandemic, as the KLPGA Championship was the first professional golf event, in the men’s or women’s game to be played since we went into lockdown.
The Korean Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour (KLPGA) is a women’s tour played mainly in South Korea, with one event each played in Vietnam, Taiwan and China. The tour began in 2008 and every year grows in size and popularity with upwards of 30 events on the schedule, the highlight being the KLPGA Championship.
With more than a handful of the world’s top 20 players, a seemingly endless supply of title contenders, including over 30 major winners all hailing from Korea, it’s fair to say that the Korea Tour certainly produces some fine female golfers.
Women’s World top 30 player Min-Ji Park was the tour’s most prolific winner in 2023, with six victories amassing her over $1.4million. Women’s World Number 15 Jiyai Shin had a record-breaking nine victories from 18 starts on the KLPGA Tour in 2007 while still a teenager. Also, reigning Olympic champion Inbee Park, a 7-time Major champion, is one of the South Korean golfers who made a successful start to her career on the KLPGA before graduating to the big-money earning LPGA Tour.
WPGA Tour Of Australasia
Formerly known as the ALPG Tour, as the name suggests, the WPGA Tour of Australasia is a professional golf tour for women which is based in Australia. It was founded in 1972 by the Ladies Professional Golf Association of Australia, although in the early years there were only a handful of events and the tour struggled, it has since gone onto be a big success with over 150 members.
There were 18 tournaments played this season (2022/23) over the Australian summer (between November and March) including the ANZ Ladies Masters, MFS Australian Open and New Zealand Women’s Open, all three co-sanctioned with the LET.
The tour’s most famous graduate is former women’s world number one Karrie Webb, a Golf World Hall of Famer, who was a prolific winner on the WPGA and then subsequently the LPGA - a real global face in women’s golf.
China LPGA Tour
The China LGPA Tour is a professional golf tour for women organised by the China Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association, which has been running since 2008. Although there are only a handful of events played on the China LPGA Tour (13 on the 2023 schedule) thanks to the opportunity to co-sanction many of these with the bigger tours, Chinese golf gets put into the annual spotlight.
In total there are four events co-sanctioned with the LET and one each with the LPGA Tour, the ALPG Tour and the LAGT. Although the number of events is low the prize funds are rich. In fact, in the 2023 Buick LPGA Shanghai event, players were competing for a massive $2.1 million purse. The winner, double Major champion in 2023 American Lilia Vu, took home the top prize of £315,000 along with the champion's trophy.
Sunshine Ladies Tour
The Sunshine Ladies Tour was founded in 2014 with the goal of changing the face of golf in Africa by making the sport more accessible and inclusive to all women. It’s open to professionals and low handicap amateurs and over the last 10 years has consistently provided a pipeline of talent for the world stage.
Through its co-sanctioned events with the Ladies European Tour (LET) and the Sunshine Ladies Tour, a six-week summer swing at the start of the year allows women from over 40 countries worldwide to get their season underway in South Africa. Thanks to the tour’s longstanding partnership with Investec, the top three professionals in the order of merit gain automatic entry into the following year’s Investec South African Women’s Open and the winner receives a bonus prize worth R200,000.
