‘We’re Sitting On A Gold Mine’ – LPGA Tour Commissioner Seeks Cash Boost

The LPGA Tour is close to naming a strategic planning partner in a bid to find new investment to boost its profile.

LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan believes investment into the women's game could be considerably higher, particularly in light of the huge coverage afforded to the Ryder Cup compared to the Solheim Cup a week earlier.

In an interview with the Financial Times, she said: "When you start to look at the commercialistion of the two [competitions], they become apples and oranges. There’s been tremendous investment in the Ryder Cup and the results have followed because it’s a great product.”

Ryder Cup fans were certainly not short of coverage of Team Europe’s victory at Marco Simone. The report also states there was over 100 hours of coverage on US network TV, but in contrast, only a quarter of that was given to the match at Finca Cortesin.

However, Marcoux Samaan thinks the product offered by the women’s match is good enough to capture the imagination of all parties with even relatively small additional funding.

She continued: “I’m 100% convinced that if we got even a small percentage of the investment made in the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup could be a huge home run for players, for fans, for broadcasters and sponsors. I think we’re sitting on a gold mine.”

The person appointed to the new role will be responsible for increasing investment, including from outside parties, and Marcoux Samaan explained it is a vital component of growing the women’s game.

She said: “It’s impossible to maximize value in any business without investment. We have this amazing product and we need to figure out how to commercialise it, monetise it and have investment come into it. If you think about where the future could be, the returns are there.”

Marcoux Samaan is not alone in striving to close the gap between the women’s and men’s games. Before the final women’s Major of the year, the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath, R&A CEO Martin Slumbers explained that, as well as targeting bigger crowds for the tournament, he wanted more media coverage too. 

He said: “I would love to get to a point where I show opening tee shot to final shot in the afternoon. That's what I would like to show, and that's the goal long term.

“We will have seven hours a day here. That's the biggest we've ever had, through Sunday, and obviously Sunday right through to the final putt when we have the Champion. But the next big gap to close after that would be the media coverage to be opening tee shot to final putt on Sunday.”