The 2023 Ladies European Tour season begins this week with the Magical Kenya Ladies Open, the first of 30 events on a schedule that boasts a record-setting 35 million euros (roughly $38 million) in prize money. Meghan MacLaren, a three-time winner on the LET, is grateful for the perspective of what tour life was like only a short time ago, when the schedule was half that size and it was possible to finish 20th on the money list and still lose money.
Players voted in late 2019 for the LPGA and LET to form a joint venture partnership, with the goal of using shared resources to strengthen the struggling tour, increasing playing opportunities in Europe in particular.
“If we hadn’t had that partnership when Covid hit,” said MacLaren, “I think a lot of us know that things would be drastically different now, and the tour might not be operating at all, and I don’t think that’s a stretch to say.”
Of course, something else happened around that time to strengthen the LET: the investment of Aramco and the Public Investment Fund.
In addition to this month’s Aramco Saudi Ladies International on the LET, which features a $5 million purse, there are five stops around the world in the Aramco Team Series. Total prize money for all six Saudi-backed events on the LET is $10 million.
With two majors accounting for $13.8 million in prize money, Saudi money represents more than 40 percent of what remains.
The LET now finds itself in a position to more attract players to its tour, which stands in stark contrast to a short time ago, when many fled to what’s now the Epson Tour seeking opportunities.
The minimum purse on the LET this season is 300,000 euros. Last season, there were 11 events with purses below that mark. MacLaren looks at the La Sella Open in Spain and its $1 million purse as a strong sign of positive momentum given that a sponsor outside of Aramco put up a seven-figure purse.
What’s more, the schedule has a better logistical flow.
Striping it 🦓#RaiseOurGame | #MKLO2023 pic.twitter.com/vNVamNW52X
— Ladies European Tour (@LETgolf) January 31, 2023
There are three years left on the LPGA-LET joint venture contract, and the possibility of the LPGA merging with the LET has been a point of conversation for many months now. It was expected that LET players would vote late last year on the merge, but that never happened.
The two sides, it would seem, are still working out the details of what a potential merger would look like.
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