Multiple winners good for LPGA, Whan says
The LPGA will have either 25 or 26 different winners in 32 events this season, depending on who wins the CME Group Tour Championship Sunday. Commissioner Mike Whan is just fine with that diversity.
He delivered his annual “state of the LPGA” address Friday at the second round of the seasonending tournament, revealing that next year’s total purses will exceed $70 million for the first time.
And having a tour where women from 10 countries this year are winning is just fine with him.
“I’d definitely prefer the top 10 players in the world rankings come from 10 different countries. And the reason, if I get one player that wins 33 per cent of the time she tees it up, when she doesn’t tee it up it’s not the same event.”
Only four women have multiple wins this season; player of the year Ariya Jutanugarn has three, as does Sung Hyun Park. Nasa Hataoka and Canada’s Brooke Henderson are two-time winners, and 21 other women have prevailed once.
The tour will set a record for purses in 2019, for the third straight year, bolstered in large part by CME Group raising the purse for the tour championship from $2.5 million to $5 million next year. The only event with a $5 million purse in 2018 was the U.S. Women’s Open. That seems likely to rise next year, since Whan said the CME event would not have the biggest purse on tour in 2019.
Whan said the variety of winners from the variety of nations is a precursor for what he expects to see in men’s golf within the next decade.
“It’s good for our business,” Whan said. “Success from all over the world means TV interest from all over the world.”