'Men Don't Want Competition From Women For Coveted Tee Times' - 7 Things We'd Like To See Change In The Women's Game

The New Year is in full swing and for many of us that signals an opportunity to set golfing goals and make changes to our game to achieve them. At the very least, it’s always nice to have ambitions, to aspire to be a better player and win competitions. At Golf Monthly HQ, we were discussing the changes that we would like to see happen in the women’s game this year. From co-sanctioned tournaments to gender-less competitions and greater coverage for the sport - our ambitions are lofty, but why not aim high! Here are our top seven picks…

Co-Sanctioned Tournament(s)

The Scandinavian Mixed was a trailblazing DP World Tour and LET co-sanctioned event that was inaugurated in 2021, yet it has sadly disappeared from the 2025 schedule. It’s a real shame as it offered a genuine opportunity for Europe’s top women to compete on a level playing field with their male counterparts.

Sweden’s Linn Grant broke tournament records when she blazed to victory in 2022, becoming the first woman to win a DP World Tour event. It was exactly the sort of positive story the women’s game needs. Rather than remove the co-sanctioned format, 2025 should be an opportunity to replace it with something bigger and better. How about including LPGA Tour or LET players in the next season of TGL, because the women would be just as entertaining? Or how about a primetime reality show like the Big Break to recruit a new female golfing superstar?

LIV Golf Invitations

The controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour has done just about everything to make headlines in world golf…except invite a woman to join the tour. We don't want the LPGA or LET to be pulled apart, but if there is a way of working together, wouldn’t it be exciting to see one or two high profile female players get that golden payday opportunity?

Surely out of all the world’s tours LIV is trying to be the most forward-thinking, innovative and inclusive. Maybe LIV could start with just one big name addition as a publicity stunt and eventually work towards a handful of invites. It would make fantastic viewing to watch World No.1 Nelly Korda or outspoken Englishwoman Charley Hull teeing up on this controversial high money stakes tour alongside the men.

More TV Airtime For LET & LPGA Tours

It’s that catch-22 situation. The women’s game lacks sponsorship because it doesn’t have the viewer figures, yet it can’t get the high numbers the men’s game commands as the TV networks give it so little airtime, so the sponsors aren’t interested. In a dream world 2025 will be the breakthrough year where we see the women’s game get the TV coverage it deserves.

There are 35 events on the LPGA Tour this season, with a combined purse of more than $131 million, the largest in history. The tour is moving in the right direction and now needs sponsors to come on board who see the potential the women’s game holds. Sponsors that will try new things to elevate the women’s game in visibility and popularity. Ideally brands that have already seen success in another women’s sport, like the WNBA, NWSL, NCAA or women’s basketball, as these sports are soaring. It’s time for women’s golf to play catch-up.

England To Host A Big Event

The rumour mill is ripe with speculation about the venue for the 2030 Solheim Cup. The biennial match play tournament versus the Americans will visit the Netherlands in 2026, followed by Kentucky, USA in 2028. Surprisingly, the event has never been hosted in England but has visited Scotland on multiple occasions, plus Ireland and Wales. Wouldn’t it be fitting to see the tournament come to England and entice our all-time greatest golfer Dame Laura Davies to captain the team?

In 2023 record-breaking crowds came to watch the AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath Golf Club in Surrey, proving that there’s an audience appetite for this. Just imagine the crowds the Solheim Cup would draw if it was played at Sunningdale, Walton Heath or Woburn Golf Club - three English clubs with a proven track-record of successfully hosting major tournaments.

The Ladies English Open used to be a regular fixture on the Ladies European Tour calendar, but despite being a regular fixture through the 1990s and then reinstated in 2004, lack of sponsorship means it hasn’t been played since 2008. 2025 should be the year we hear an announcement of something exciting for the future, like the Solheim Cup or that the English Open is back, added to those forward-planning calendars.

A New Women’s Superstar Player

The most exciting thing that could happen in 2025 would be for one of the LPGA or LET Tour school graduates to get off to a hot start and become the next big thing. Women’s golf certainly needs some exciting fresh new faces and ideally a new superstar!

For months at the start of her career it looked like the big-hitting Slovenian teen sensation Pia Babnik was going to be that rising star and her performance in the Aramco Team Series finals at the end of 2024 showed the potential is still there. With the likes of Lexi Thompson semi-retiring from the game, and other high profile players taking a step back from the spotlight, we need some new superstar players to fill their shoes.

Gender-Less Club Competitions

Since the controversial World Handicap System came into effect in 2020 clubs have slowly and steadily adopted changes to their course layout and teeing grounds to allow for competitions to be played from a distance-measured numbered tee, as opposed to a gender-biased coloured teeing ground.

In 2025 we’d like to see more clubs take this one step further and do away with male and female competition days entirely in favour of scheduling competitions that can be entered by all. These gender-less club competitions are the future of equality at clubs, but the traditionalists don’t like the change.

Men who are used to playing their Saturday stableford round don’t want the competition for those precious early morning tee time slots opening up to women. Working women, on the other hand, have been campaigning for this change for decades. Allowing them to enter all competitions at the weekend by making them open to men or women to choose to play from whatever distance teeing ground they wish, is the way forward.

A Netflix Series Following LPGA Players

Full Swing has been one of the most popular series aired on Netflix, giving a unique insight into golfers’ lives both on and off the course. The huge social media followings of stars of the women’s game like Nelly Korda, proves that a female version of this popular Netflix show would be a great hit with TV audiences globally.

The popular podcast Inside the LPGA, alongside the YouTube video series that highlights female players, shows that there is a market for more of this type of coverage. It would certainly be great for stars of the women’s game to get a global presence on a platform like Netflix.