Prize Money and Sponsorships Are Growing in Women’s Golf, but Is It Enough?

Brittany Lincicome began enjoying on the L.P.G.A. Tour in 2005, when it was a struggling endeavor with few occasions. Now, in her 18th season, the tour is flourishing and she or he has no plans to retire any time quickly.

“My mother and father had mentioned, ‘Play 10 years and you may retire,’” Lincicome mentioned. “Now there’s no finish in sight. The prize cash is on the market. The purses are going up yearly. It could be onerous to go away. Plus, I’d like to get a win and have my daughter there with me.”

Lincicome, who’s pregnant together with her second baby, mentioned the distinction between her rookie season and at the moment is the sponsors, who’ve elevated the standard of the programs the golfers play. “It’s cool to see the place we got here from and what course we’re going,” she mentioned.

Her first main victory got here in 2009 on the Chevron Championship, previously referred to as the ANA Inspiration and an L.P.G.A. main since 1983. This 12 months’s event, which begins on Thursday and has lengthy been related to Dinah Shore, an actress, discuss present host and early supporter of the ladies’s tour, would be the final to be held on the Mission Hills Nation Membership in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

A central a part of the occasion has been Poppie’s Pond, the place the champion, her caddie and any variety of family and friends take a victory plunge adjoining to the 18th inexperienced.

Whether or not the pond will transfer to Houston, the place Chevron is headquartered subsequent 12 months, as a part of the corporate assuming the title sponsorship, is unclear. However, pond or not, one of many 5 ladies’s majors has a company sponsor to maintain it going, with a handbag that has elevated practically $2 million this 12 months, to $5 million from $3.1 million.

“It’s bittersweet,” mentioned Stacy Lewis, whose first skilled victory got here on the occasion in 2011, when Kraft Nabisco was the sponsor. “It can all the time have a particular place for me. However as a event it was time. After we misplaced Kraft, the tour wanted numerous time bringing ANA on board. And the fan base has shrunk over the previous 10 years.”

Whereas the L.P.G.A. Tour lags behind the PGA Tour in prize cash, sponsors for one of the best feminine golfers on this planet have been stepping up — new offers for tournaments, cash for the developmental tour and elevated help for athletes who wish to have households.

Purses have additionally risen to $90 million this 12 months, up from $67 million in 2019.

“The purses are tremendous vital so we will have one of the best event schedule that we will put collectively and permit one of the best ladies on this planet to achieve their objectives,” mentioned Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who grew to become the L.P.G.A. commissioner final 12 months.

Such will increase have come slowly. A decade in the past, Marcoux’s predecessor, Mike Whan, now the chief government of the usG.A., inspired gamers to speak about their golf, however to ensure they thanked sponsors for getting behind the tour.

In his new position, Whan has introduced in ProMedica, a well being care firm, as the primary presenting sponsor of the U.S. Ladies’s Open. The purse has practically doubled, to $10 million from $5.5 million. However it wasn’t simple.

“I noticed how a lot cash the usG.A. misplaced on the U.S. Ladies’s Open,” Whan mentioned. “I might see they have been doing the precise factor. However they weren’t reaching out to corporations that additionally wished to do the precise factor.”

The businesses which are coming in as sponsors of the L.P.G.A. Tour are aligning their monetary backing with broader variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives. KPMG was among the many first to take action with its sponsorship of the Ladies’s P.G.A. Championship in 2014.

“We’ve greater than doubled the purse since then,” mentioned Shawn Quill, managing director and nationwide sports activities business chief at KPMG. “We’ve been capable of put the L.P.G.A. gamers on one of the best programs on this planet, the identical ones that the lads play.”

This 12 months’s occasion is at Congressional Nation Membership, the place Rory McIlroy gained the lads’s U.S. Open in 2011.

As a title sponsor, KPMG has not solely elevated the prize cash, however has additionally added a ladies’s management summit, which focuses on C-suite executives and future leaders. “As sponsors, we noticed this could possibly be greater than a hospitality occasion,” Quill mentioned.

Aon, the skilled providers firm, sponsors a season-long competitors that collects one of the best scores on the hardest gap every week on each the PGA and L.P.G.A. excursions. It made a dedication in 2019 to pay the identical $1 million prize to the female and male golfers who gained the problem.

“It ties into our inclusion and variety technique,” mentioned Jennifer Bell, chief government of North America for Aon. “We additionally wish to affect different sponsors since we’ve taken on this problem.”

On the finish of final season, Bell awarded checks to Matthew Wolff, who turned professional in 2019, is ranked forty fifth on this planet, and has gained over $7 million; and Hannah Inexperienced, who turned professional in 2018, is ranked thirty first on this planet, however has gained simply over $2 million.

“Once I handed the $1 million test to Hannah Inexperienced final 12 months, she had a smile on her face from ear to ear,” mentioned Bell. “I mentioned, ‘What are you going to do with it?’ She mentioned, ‘I feel I’m going to purchase a house’. She nonetheless lived together with her mother.”

The disparity in earnings between gamers on the lads’s and girls’s excursions is gigantic. Whole prize cash on the PGA Tour jumped to $427 million in 2022 from $367 million, a determine practically 5 instances that of the L.P.G.A. Tour. That has meant many prime feminine golfers reside extra modestly.

Epson America, america subsidiary of the Japanese printer and imaging firm, has created three further advantages for gamers on the Epson Tour, guaranteeing minimal event purses of $200,000 and awarding a $10,000 stipend to the ten gamers who graduate to the L.P.G.A. annually. It has additionally lowered entry charges.

“They’re one of many largest obstacles,” mentioned Meghan MacLaren, a winner on the Women European Tour who’s now enjoying on the Epson Tour. “Earlier than I add all the opposite stuff on, like flights, resorts, and journey, you’re $10,000 for 20 occasions.”

Elevated prize cash on the prime of the L.P.G.A. or Epson Tour invariably trickles all the way down to gamers who end out of competition.

“What we actually favored concerning the sponsorship is we’re investing in the way forward for ladies’s golf,” mentioned Keith Kratzberg, chief government of Epson America.

Company sponsors have additionally begun selling the values they espouse of their corporations with their athletes.

When Lewis was pregnant in 2018, she anxious about telling her sponsors. Previously, some sponsors hadn’t paid golfers who didn’t play a sure variety of occasions, often between 18 and 20 tournaments. Two of essentially the most dominant gamers of their eras, Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa, each of whom have been ranked No. 1 on this planet, retired from golf of their primes to have kids.

For Lewis, it was completely different. “KPMG mentioned, ‘We’re going to pay you whether or not you play your 20 occasions or not,’” she mentioned. “We’re going to deal with you like several worker at KPMG.”

When she went public with the corporate’s promise, all however one in every of her sponsors additionally agreed to pay her in full.

“That set the bar for different corporations,” mentioned Gerina Piller, a 15-year tour participant who usually travels together with her son. “It paved one other method to make it attainable to chase our dream and be a mother and never get caught with the choice of, can we play or can we keep house?”