BELLEAIR, Fla. – In October 2021, Caitlin Clark sent a direct message to the LPGA’s Twitter account asking for one of its cotton-candy logoed hoodies designed by Michelle Wie West.
“Think you could hook me up w the best sweatshirt ever made?!!!” Clark asked. “Huge fan.”
Tour officials didn’t actually see the message until Clark made her debut in an LPGA pro-am, and they scrambled to present her with the hoodie Wednesday morning on the first tee at Pelican Golf Club.
In creating the WNBA-like hoodie, which raised awareness for the tour and money for charity, Wie West said “We’re often hidden; we’re often left out; we’re often not covered.”
That it took three years for the tour to even notice Clark’s request is a terribly on-brand whiff.
Rarely is the LPGA at the forefront of anything, including the current surge in women’s sports.
Yes, purses on the LPGA are at an all-time high. Major championship prize funds alone have more than doubled since 2021 to nearly $48 million. Total prize money in 2024 topped $125 million, up more than 80 percent since 2021.
It might be tempting to underline those numbers and deem LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan’s tenure thus far a success. The sport, after all, seems to center around money these days.
Except that’s not the whole story. Far from it, in fact.
Coming off the dreadfully public transportation disaster at the Solheim Cup, which quickly escalated into a crisis-management catastrophe, it’s appropriate on the eve of the LPGA’s season-ender to dig a little deeper and attempt to answer a simple question: After more than three years at the helm, how is she doing?
First, it was always going to be hard to replace Mike Whan, a master communicator. The current USGA CEO, Whan announced his decision to step down as LPGA commissioner in January 2021 after a successful 11-year stint. Hired in May 2021 as the tour’s ninth commissioner, Marcoux Samaan didn’t actually get to work in her new role until August, and the first thing on her 100-day agenda was to listen and learn.
The former Princeton athletic director got off to a painfully slow start.
Failure to breakthrough to the mainstream
At the 2023 CME Group Tour Championship, Marcoux Samaan called this a period of transformational growth for women’s golf. And yet, there’s little evidence that the LPGA has broken through into the mainstream at a time when female athletes are experiencing an unprecedented amount of…
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