Korda’s impressive run is matched by strong metrics across the LPGA’s business.getty images
Nelly Korda’s recent run of sizzling play on the LPGA, including five straight wins and a major championship, has brought
newfound interest to the women’s game and comes at a time when the tour is poised to take advantage.
Even before Korda’s recent dominant stretch, not seen in women’s golf since the days of Annika Sorenstam, the LPGA’s business metrics were on the way up. The tour’s seasonlong purse total recently crossed the $120 million mark, a steep increase from $70 million in the pre-COVID season of 2019.
All told this season, 11 non-majors on the LPGA feature purse sizes of more than $3 million, up from just five last year. Also, in 2024 the women’s majors will award more than $42 million in total prize money, a number that jumped from just $23 million in 2021.
From 2021 to 2023, the average income for top 100 LPGA players grew by 46%, from $574,000 to $841,000, the tour said. For the first time, last year three players earned $3 million or more on the course.
The LPGA also has seen a boost this season digitally. On social media, impressions are up 62% from 2023, engagements are up 65% and video views have jumped by 70%, according to data from Zoomph.
The tour’s global staff is now around 225 and grew by 18% last year. On the corporate partnerships side, the LPGA signed a deal last year with
Fenway Sports Management to help facilitate deals through its vast portfolio.
FSM helped the LPGA
sign a deal with FM Global to title sponsor a new Boston event this year. In the last 18 months, the LPGA also has partnered with well-known companies such as
SeatGeek and
Legends. Overall, its number of corporate partnerships are up 20% since 2021.
Endorsement portfolio
Cisco
Delta Air Lines
Goldman Sachs
Grant Thornton
Nike
Richard Mille
TaylorMade
T-Mobile
Whoop
“The biggest benefit for us is that we as an organization, we’re best prepared now more than ever to try to capitalize on an athlete’s performance,” said Matt Chmura, the LPGA’s chief marketing, communications and brand officer. “Even metrics in events that Nelly hasn’t played in are significantly higher.”
With Korda, the question has been how the LPGA will capitalize on the moment around women’s golf, as well as the larger rocket ship that is women’s sports as a whole. The LPGA aims to take a measured approach, Chmura said.
“There’s a balance,” he said. “You want to maximize on the moment, but the generational greatness you’re seeing, you don’t want to get in the way of that. You don’t want to detract from her, but how do you maximize the reach? Our team is in touch with her team almost every day.
Korda is a marketer’s dream. On top of her recent winning streak, she’s No. 1 in the world and has a sponsor roster longer than some of her arrow-straight drives (see chart)
But will all of that lead to a Caitlin Clark moment for women’s golf?
Chevron is among the tournament sponsors that have increased purses.getty images
“I think they can, but it’s going to require a unique set of circumstances all coming together at once,” said Bill Colvin, founder of the Colvin Sports Network, who has been in golf marketing for more than 30 years. “At the LPGA, it has to have a Megan Rapinoe moment or Serena Williams moment, where their top athletes stand up and make their case that fans and sponsors can get behind.”
The knock against Korda by some critics is that she doesn’t promote herself or the LPGA enough. But Korda has been on the cover of both Golf Digest and Golf magazine. She’s been on NBC’s “Today” twice and was on “SportsCenter” around the Chevron Championship. She was set to host her own American Junior Golf Association event, The Nelly Invitational, in Bradenton, Fla., from May 3-6. On Monday, Korda attended the Met Gala.
She also played in the Grant Thornton Invitational, the mixed event with PGA Tour players, in the offseason, as well as the PNC Championship, both of which are on network television.
“Our athlete pool right now is incredibly strong with great personalities,” Chmura said. “It’s probably not the same lightning bolt that Caitlin Clark had for women’s basketball, but Nelly’s performance recently and over her career is shining a brighter light on the tour.”
Korda is represented by Wasserman and Chris Mullhaupt, while longtime tennis agent Patricio Apey also works as an adviser for the Korda family.
