The global landscape of women’s golf is set to change should a proposal be approved tomorrow for the LPGA to merge with the Ladies European Tour (LET).
As reported by Golf Digest, a vote is taking place ahead of the LET’s end-of-season Andalucia Costa Del Sol Open De España, where a 60% vote in favour by LET members will be required for the merger to go ahead.
As far as LET players are concerned, the decision to vote in favour of a merger, which has already unanimously been approved by board members of both tours, is surely a no-brainer.
It was back in 2019 when the LPGA and LET broke new ground by announcing a joint partnership, and at that time it was the best news ever for a struggling LET, which had limited playing opportunities and rewards for its members.
Since 2019, the LET has doubled its tournament schedule and total prize purse from €11.5m to €35m in 2023. Yet this figure does seem like a drop in the ocean compared with the LPGA, which this year reached a record total prize purse of $108 million - a 15% increase from 2022.
All said and done, women’s professional golf is in the best shape it’s ever been and this potential merger is the next stage in the development of what has become a successful partnership. Should the merger go ahead, not much will change initially, as both tours will retain their name and run their own tournament schedules, and like this year, have a few co-sanctioned events.
What will become a focus is how best the LPGA and LET can work effectively together to enhance current commercial opportunities and secure new sponsorship to increase revenues.
So, a big question that will inevitably be on people’s minds is whether or not a women’s tour could ever possibly go down a similar road to the men’s game and associate women’s golf on a large scale with Saudi Arabia. Morals or money? Sadly, whichever way you look at it, money has so much power. Each LIV golf event on the Saudi PIF-funded circuit has a $25 million purse, which incidentally is at least double the richest women’s Major.
It’s no secret that many LET players don’t know where they would be now without the Aramco Team Series events (Aramco is a Saudi oil company), which were played this year in Singapore, Florida, London, Hong Kong, and Riyadh. While in February, Lydia Ko won the Aramco Saudi Ladies International and with a $5 million prize fund, this is the largest outside of the women’s Majors and it also matched the PIF Saudi International, a men’s pro event on the Asian Tour.
Revenues aside, there will be much to ponder to achieve the best possible outcomes for a women's tour and their respective feeder tours, LETAS and Epson, but together can only be stronger and will definitely make for a brighter future.
