LPGA players past and present explain importance of talks with LIV

While it might have shocked many to hear LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan say she’d talk to LIV Golf, Annika Sorenstam thought it was the right call. As did Juli Inkster.

These LPGA legends understand one crucial point: If Greg Norman and LIV Golf aim to create a rival tour that’s anything like what they’ve done in the men’s game, it would wreck the LPGA, the longest continuous-running professional women’s sports organization in the United States.

“I think if Norman does do this,” said Inkster, “it’s going to totally ruin 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’ll compete for a purse of $6.8 million. This season, the LPGA will play for a total of $97 million, roughly one-fifth the amount of money as the PGA Tour. Last week, LIV Golf announced its players will compete for $405 million in 2023 across 14 events.

With a schedule made entirely of limited-field, no-cut tournaments, even a fraction of that would be enough to lure plenty of big-name LPGA players to a LIV women’s league. Not to mention the prospect of signing bonuses.

“I hope we survive it,” said former No. 1 Stacy Lewis. “I’m scared for this tour. I’m scared to lose all the opportunities that we’ve created.”

Sorenstam believes it’s the job of the commissioner to listen to potential opportunities, and that includes LIV. Because the LPGA is part of a 50-50 joint business venture with the Ladies European Tour, there already exists a partnership with the Saudi-backed Aramco Series, which feature prize money that’s three to four times a typical event 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-fitted version.

“If it’s the money that they have on the LIV, you know they’re going to crush the LPGA,” said Sorenstam. “Hopefully they have the intention of growing the game and working together with the LPGA.

“To crush the LPGA doesn’t do anybody good, history-wise, future-wise, sustainability-wise. There’s so much negativity around this. I think that we need to somehow find a way to get a positive image with all this, if you know what I mean.”

It’s not a stretch to imagine that LPGA being forced to make a decision between going into…