While it might have surprised many to hear LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan say she would talk to LIV Golf, Annika Sorenstam thought it was the right move. Just like Juli Inkster.
These LPGA legends understand a crucial point: If Greg Norman and LIV Golf aim to create a rival tour that is similar to what they have done in the men’s game, it would bankrupt the LPGA, the longest running professional women’s sports organization. ancient of the world USA.
“I think if Norman does this,” Inkster said, “he’s going to totally screw up the LPGA, because I think most of the girls would go, just because the money is a game changer.”
As the best in the women’s game gather at historic Muirfield for the first time this week, they will compete for a $6.8 million purse. This season, the LPGA will play for a total of $97 million, about a fifth of the amount of money that the PGA Tour. Last week, LIV Golf announced that its players will compete for $405 million in 2023 across 14 events.
With a schedule made entirely of uncut, limited-field tournaments, even a fraction of that would be enough to lure many big-name LPGA players into a women’s LIV league. Not to mention the possibility of signing bonds.
“I hope we survive,” former No. 1 Stacy Lewis said. “I am scared for this tour. I am afraid of losing all the opportunities we have created.”
LIV Golf CEO and Commissioner Greg Norman watches from the first tee during the final round of the LIV Golf tournament at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. (Soobum Im/USA TODAY Sports)
Sorenstam believes the commissioner’s job is to listen to potential opportunities, and that includes LIV. Because the LPGA is part of a 50-50 joint venture with the Ladies European Tour, there is already a partnership with the Saudi-backed Aramco Series, which features prize money that is three to four times more than an event. typical on that tour, totaling $6 million.
Sorenstam, a 10-time major winner who won 72 times on the LPGA, looks at the rival league that has formed in the men’s game and sees the need for a more LPGA-aligned version.
“If it’s the money they have at LIV, they know they’re going to crush the LPGA,” Sorenstam said. “Hopefully they intend to grow the game and work together with the LPGA.
“Crushing the LPGA doesn’t do anyone any good, history-wise, future-wise, sustainability-wise. There is so much negativity around this. I think we need to somehow find a way to get a positive image out of all of this, if you know what I mean.”
It’s no exaggeration to imagine the LPGA being forced to make a choice between doing business with the Saudis in a big way or total destruction.
While there have been calls for talks with LIV officials, it’s unclear exactly what the talking points might be — there are plenty of ways this could all be resolved. An independent rival tour drawing dozens of top players would cripple the LPGA. Instead, a series of official LPGA events backed by Saudi Arabia is one possible way the two could work together, as is the Aramco Team Series on the LET. It’s impossible to know what LIV wants, of course, without having a conversation.
What seems more unlikely, however, is that the top players will band together to toughen up the Saudis on principle.
“I think you have a handful that feel the same way I do,” Lewis said. “I think you have a majority that would ask, ‘What’s the number?’
“Should we talk to them? Absolutely. Ultimately, I think we have to find a way to coexist.”
Critics of LIV often point to the wide range of human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, including politically motivated killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Members of the royal family and the Saudi government have been accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
How can a women’s organization reconcile doing business with a regime that has such a horrendous record of human rights abuses, especially against women?
“I think that’s maybe one of the reasons why we should partner up,” Sorenstam said, “so we can make a difference.”
Marcoux Samaan said golf week last week that he has not yet had a conversation with LIV and that it is too early to speculate on possible outcomes or options.
“We have been breaking down barriers for a long time,” said Marcoux Samaan. “I think we always go back to our values and goals before making any decisions.”
Phachara Khongwatmai putts on the 18th green during the opening round of the LIV Golf Invitational at The Centurion Club near London in June. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf/Getty Images)
A voluntary status-of-tour meeting was held last month at the Dow Great Bay Lakes Invitational to discuss the potential threat of LIV, among other things, and was only attended by a couple dozen players.
Nancy Lopez has always cared about the LPGA. As a rookie in 1978, she was convinced the LPGA would close the pay gap. She’s still mystified by the fact that there’s still such a chasm between tours and she’s even more confused by what might be on the horizon.
“I’m such a loyal person,” Lopez said when asked what he might have done in his prime if faced with the prospect of piles of cash.
“It would be hard to say ‘No, I don’t want the money,’ but God, it would be so hard to leave the LPGA. It would just eat me.”
Lopez thought she would retire from the LPGA after having her first daughter, Ashley, but the fire of competition was still there and she needed the money.
“The money I made was good,” Lopez said, “but it wouldn’t support me until I was 93 and I needed to pay someone to take care of me one day.”
While the PGA Tour has the best retirement plan in sports, the LPGA pension ensures that most will need a second career.
As so many PGA Tour players talk about going to LIV to build generational wealth, consider what it would mean for an LPGA player to play five more years and then retire to raise a family without having to worry about money.
For some, continuing to chase major titles and Hall of Fame points pales in comparison to kids and financial security.
Jessica Korda, Alexandra O’Laughlin, Karolin Lampert and Lina Boqvist win the Aramco Team Series (Photo submitted by Aramco Team Series)
Saudi activist Omaima Al Najjar said there is no denying the fact that conditions have improved for women in recent years, although she maintains that the right to drive and the right to travel are basic fundamental rights and not a sign of progress. substantial.
“It’s important to remind the women participating in this tour,” Al Najjar said, “that the Saudi women activists who brought about those changes are still being tried, prosecuted, banned from activism and banned from travel.”
Al Najjar, now a medical surgeon living in Ireland, was a prominent blogger who campaigned for the right to drive in Saudi Arabia and fled when she felt the risks were too great. It’s still too dangerous for her to go back now.
Al Najjar is ALQST’s campaign manager for human rights, documenting prison conditions and advocating for the release of activists.
Al Najjar wants the players to speak not only about the activists, but also about the conditions of many migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Women come from developing countries to work in the kingdom as maids and often have their passports confiscated as they are forced to work seven days a week with no set hours, “which is a kind of slavery.” Al-Najjar said.
Meanwhile, women born in Saudi Arabia are fleeing the country, she continued, despite recent reforms because there are no safe houses in the kingdom for victims of domestic violence.
“There is a problem with the murder of women in Saudi Arabia,” Al Najjar said, “and a lot of husbands kill their wives or a lot of fathers kill their daughters and the Saudi authorities don’t do much about it.”
These are the issues Al Najjar hopes LPGA players competing in Saudi Arabia will speak out against, even if it means financial loss.
“It is important that they make such a statement,” he said, “and support Saudi women.”
Georgia Hall poses with the trophy after winning the 2022 Aramco Saudi Ladies International at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. (Women’s European Tour)
Few have chronicled the LPGA with as much diligence and passion as Ron Sirak, winner of the 2015 PGA Lifetime Award in Journalism. For those wondering how LIV Golf is different from the LET’s Aramco Series or the players who sport Golf Saudi logos on their caps and shirts, Sirak said it’s important to recognize the difference between sponsoring a tournament and owning a tour. Just like there is a difference between sponsoring a player and owning a player.
“I think it’s a difficult situation for the LPGA to figure out what their relationship would be with the people who want to fund them,” Sirak said. “Would they be being supported by the tour and would the LPGA remain an autonomous entity? Or would they be owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund?”
Given the Saudis’ seemingly endless supply of money and little regard for market value (this seems to have more to do with power and image), the LPGA is in no position to throw money at a potential threat and therefore Therefore, it has little influence.
LPGA veteran Ryann O’Toole believes the PGA Tour made a mistake by not committing to LIV Golf. If what Norman says is true, and LIV plans to build a women’s league, O’Toole would like to see the LPGA work with them so players don’t have to choose.
“I think it would be a great opportunity to take advantage of the possibility that there may be some significant financial opportunities,” O’Toole said, “and for us to come together as two organizations, rather than having two separate organizations.”
Whatever happens, it is important for Marcoux Samaan to maintain a sustainable model, even if the Saudis decide to pull out of the golf business suddenly. One that, even if the LPGA took a financial hit, would still survive.
Imagine if the Saudis, a country widely reported to have a 49 percent gender pay gap, became the first to pay elite male and female professional golfers equally. Or even close.
“Financially, it’s life-changing money,” said Maria Fassi, whose agency, GSE, has several LIV clients, including Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Paula Casey, Jason Kokrak, Brendan Grace, Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz. . .
“Whatever they come and offer me, $10 million, $20 million, 15, 7, whatever, it’s money that 99 percent of girls don’t see.”
And for many, where the money comes from may not ultimately matter.