2022 LPGA Season Odds and Ends

[AWinfortheAges]

7 hours ago, Argonne69 said:

 

Blue Bay event canceled in 3, 2, 1, .....

 

Anyone actually think they'll play this event next season?

 

I thought this event was doubtful when the schedule released. Might as well get a Drive On ready.

[OnTheBag]

7 hours ago, woahnelly said:

 

Won't be canceled but I doubt you see any Americans in the field, aside from Yealimi 

I agree.  With all the travel risks (getting in but not able to get back out, etc...), we will not see any of the top LPGA players in the field.  IF they tournament actually happens.

[18majors]

 

Congratulations Gabriela Ruffels; she finally has something to celebrate as a pro!  She finished solo 8th and earned a LET member card:

Scorecard

 

 

[woahnelly]

42 minutes ago, 18majors said:

 

Congratulations Gabriela Ruffels; she finally has something to celebrate as a pro!  She finished solo 8th and earned a LET member card:

Scorecard

 

 

/cdn-cgi/mirage/979bba206c69d5df8bb3a989099e03912af490928c3eba6e295e79a2788b5b76/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/979bba206c69d5df8bb3a989099e03912af490928c3eba6e295e79a2788b5b76/1280/https://wrxcdn.golfwrx.com/uploads/monthly_2022_12/318462872_1581439678983058_7660337782832024991_n.jpg.e77f3b2f8303e1ef1d590ea19294b8df.jpg

 

Bummer not to see her on the LPGA this year, I am always rooting for the Trojans. Maybe she will join Amari Avery soon enough 

[18majors]

3 minutes ago, woahnelly said:

Maybe she will join Amari Avery soon enough 

 

Will Amari turn pro at the end of 2023 NCAA season?

[woahnelly]

29 minutes ago, 18majors said:

 

Will Amari turn pro at the end of 2023 NCAA season?

 

One can only hope! She's currently 6th in the amateur rankings without much else to prove

[18majors]

 

Lydia's wedding shower:

 

 

[Seamus_McDuff]

2023 LET schedule announced

 

https://ladieseuropeantour.com/blog/let-announces-record-breaking-2023-schedule/

 

Two events I find interesting. 
 

Saudi Ladies International is now a $5M purse and the week before Thailand. Article says “60 LET players and 50 players from within the top 300 of the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.” Hard to pass up that kind of money if you’re invited and already going to Thailand. 
 

Aramco Team Series event in the US is now in Florida rather than New York and the week after Founders Cup. Will we see some skip Founders but play Aramco?

[18majors]

 

Good bye, although we didn't know too much about you:

Casey Danielson is stepping away from golf

 

“Being a professional golfer is chaotic and you always deal with the travel and the pressure, but this year, at the end, I didn’t have the motivation to get back up again and keep fighting,” she told D’Amato.

 

“That was the defining moment of my decision, was realizing that, That motivation has to be there. You have to really want it, and I just didn’t.”

[18majors]

 

Minjee Lee was the highest paid women golfer for the year of 2022:

The World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2022

 

 

                                                           Prize Money          Endorsement           Total   (US$ millions)

#10     Minjee Lee                                   4.8                              2.5                          7.3

#14     Lydia Ko                                       4.4                              2.5                          6.9

#17     Lexi Thompson                           1.9                               4.0                          5.9   

#18     Jin Young Ko                               1.3                               4.5                          5.8

#19     In Gee Chun                                2.7                              3.0                          5.7

#22    Brooke Henderson                      2.4                              3.0                          5.4

#22    Nelly Korda                                  1.4                               4.0                          5.4

                                     

[iBanesto]

13 hours ago, 18majors said:

 

Minjee Lee was the highest paid women golfer for the year of 2022:

The World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2022

 

 

                                                           Prize Money          Endorsement           Total   (US$ millions)

#10     Minjee Lee                                   4.8                              2.5                          7.3

#14     Lydia Ko                                       4.4                              2.5                          6.9

#17     Lexi Thompson                           1.9                               4.0                          5.9   

#18     Jin Young Ko                               1.3                               4.5                          5.8

#19     In Gee Chun                                2.7                              3.0                          5.7

#22    Brooke Henderson                      2.4                              3.0                          5.4

#22    Nelly Korda                                  1.4                               4.0                          5.4

                                     

 

Crazy how much Emma Raducanu made for a year where she achieved nothing on the WTA Tour.

 

A lot of sponsors were expecting her to be the next big thing in 2022.

[Argonne69]

Looking at the 2023 schedule, a few things came to mind.

 

Back to back majors again? Oy. 

 

'Nice to see them back in the Phoenix area.

 

Wouldn't it make more sense to fit the Lotte in on the way back from Asia? 

 

With the International Crown on the other side of the country the week before, and the Founders Cup is likely going to be short of the top players.

 

The Bank of Hope should see a better field now that it's not bumping up against a major.

 

Four consecutive weeks in Europe makes sense. The Trust and/or ISPS is going to be shorted though with two majors in there. Top players are going to skip one of them most likely.

 

[18majors]

 

Mollie Marcoux Samaan, more in tune with what's going on:

YEAR-END MESSAGE FROM COMMISSIONER MOLLIE MARCOUX SAMAAN

 

"Of course, we know we still have much work to do to reach our goals. In 2023 and beyond, we at the LPGA will continue to spend every waking moment growing the professional game so that the greatest female players on the planet can live their dreams and provide fans and partners with the best experience in sports. In the process, we will passionately advance and elevate opportunities for girls and women on and off the golf course."

[AKL Kiwi]

5 hours ago, 18majors said:

 

Mollie Marcoux Samaan, more in tune with what's going on:

YEAR-END MESSAGE FROM COMMISSIONER MOLLIE MARCOUX SAMAAN

 

"Of course, we know we still have much work to do to reach our goals. In 2023 and beyond, we at the LPGA will continue to spend every waking moment growing the professional game so that the greatest female players on the planet can live their dreams and provide fans and partners with the best experience in sports. In the process, we will passionately advance and elevate opportunities for girls and women on and off the golf course."

I am surprised the sponsors are putting up more prize money in the US with the appalling coverage the Golf Channel give the ladies. All tournaments outside the USA we get direct feeds with more hours of coverage and commercial free so if other countries can do it why can't the USA? It's a paid service not free live streamed and I would be happy to pay more if the coverage improved. 

[Titleist_PT23]

My thoughts on the schedule were:

-Swap the Lotte with Wilshire.  One would have to zig back after going to TX, but it would keep Hawaii-CA-Nevada in a row (combined with the next change).

-Swap Founds with Match Play

-Meijer is in a bad spot (logistically)

-Two majors in a row odd but not sure what to do

 

[postfold]

4 hours ago, agolf1 said:

-Meijer is in a bad spot (logistically)

 

It is definitely less than ideal to have that be the only tournament in the month of June that's not being played in the state of New Jersey, but so it goes. 

 

I assume it is where it is because it's in the traditional slot of Father's Day weekend, up against the men's U.S. Open.  Hard to imagine a lot of other tournaments really want that weekend.  Plus it's a well supported event with a solid purse, so if the people running it wanted to keep it in June I'm sure the LPGA would try to make that happen.

[postfold]

I just skimmed back a couple pages, so sorry if this was already posted, but the LPGA social media had a couple posts earlier this week about In Gee's art exhibition in Seoul.  So talented!

 

 

[18majors]

A graphic presentation of 2023 schedule:

 

 

 

 

[18majors]

 

Mollie Marcoux Samaan, again, went ahead with tournaments she's yet to sign sponsors; Greater Toledo LPGA Classic and Portland Classic.

 

She went ahead with 3 tournaments without sponsors in 2022, and was successful to find sponsors in time.

[18majors]

 

The 2023 schedule originally looked weak at the beginning of the year; but LET's Saudi Ladies International changed that.

 

With a purse of $5.0 millions and open to 50 women players ranked inside Rolex Top-300, it's essentially one additional LPGA tournament in disguise.  Also, the schedule is perfect, the week before Honda LPGA Thailand and 4 weeks after Hilton TOC.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by 18majors

[woahnelly]

3 hours ago, 18majors said:

 

The 2023 schedule originally looked weak for the beginning of the year; but LET's Saudi Ladies International changed that.

 

With a purse of $5.0 millions and open to 50 women players ranked inside Rolex Top-300, it's essentially one additional LPGA tournament in disguise.  Also, the schedule is perfect, the week before Honda LPGA Thailand and 4 weeks after Hilton TOC.

 

 

 

I don't want to bring up female LIV, but the Saudis were reported to get more involved in the Women's game. Many top players already have Aramco as a sponsor.  LPGA trumps the PGA easily in international talent so it won't be as crippling to them which means more golf + events year round for us to enjoy. Win/Win

[JungleJimbo]

On 12/18/2022 at 5:59 PM, iBanesto said:

 

Notice some other interesting names on the leaderboard:

• Albane Valenzuela
• Annabel Dimmock
• Genevieve Ling
• Sanna Nuutinen
• Celine Herbin
• Guilia Molinaro

 

Watching the journeywomen grinding toward a pro career/ Tour card = just as fascinating! e.g. Genevieve Ling (video Link below)

 

Edited December 25, 2022 by JungleJimbo

[iBanesto]

16 minutes ago, JungleJimbo said:

 

Watching the journeywomen grinding toward a pro career/ Tour card = just as fascinating! e.g. Genevieve Ling (video Link below)

 

 

I haven't watched much of G. Ling for a while.

 

She seems like a nice girl.

[18majors]

 

RIP, Ms. Whitworth:

 

 

[18majors]

 

On 12/10/2022 at 9:15 AM, 18majors said:

 

Monitoring Su Oh and Bianca Pagdanganan struggling at Q-Series; I can't help but think Mollie Marcoux Samaan needs to do everything in her power to double or triple LPGA purse as soon as possible.

 

LPGA membership is purely meritocracy, players either perform or they're out.  With hundreds of players have similar talent fighting to be the Top-100, it's a cut-throat business.  In this type of business, players need to earn lifelong income during a few good years.

 

The #50 player Ryan O'Toole earned $616,600, that's less than $500,000 after expenses.  It needs to be doubled to more than $1,000,000 so that an average top player can earn between $4,000,000 to $6,000,00 during their good years.

 

Meanwhile, a LPGA career isn't a glamorous one as it should be.

 

 

The best way to accelerate the purse growth is to set up the equivalent of PGA FedEx Cup.

 

I always thought that CME Group got too much publicity for a paltry $7.0 million purse they sponsored at the end of the year.  By comparison, Federal Express spent more than $100.0 million a year on PGA Tour for similar publicity:

 

1.   FedEx St. Jude Championship                                      $20.0 million
2.   FedEx Cup Bonus                                                           $75.0 million
3.   Other contribution                                                          > $5.0 million

Chevron is already a Major LPGA Championship sponsor, but they can do a lot more:

 

1.   Increase the purse for Chevron Championship from $5.0 million to $10.0 million
2.   Establish Chevron Cup with a $50.0 million bonus pool for Top-30 players after CME Tour Championship

                    Winner                                                                      $10.0 million

                    #2                                                                              $6.0 million

                    #3                                                                              $4.0 million

                    #4                                                                              $3.0 million

                    #5-10                                                                         $2.0 million

                    #11-20                                                                        $1.0 million

                    #20-30                                                                       $500.0 K

 

Chevron is an obvious choice because the company has money and already a sponsor.  But there are other choices like Exxon or Occidental Petroleum.

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by 18majors

[iBanesto]

 

[Lobby]

Tesla should get off their a** and sponsor a tourney. A major

[JungleJimbo]

1 hour ago, iBanesto said:

 

Google-Translated article "At the first pitch ceremony: Hinako Shibuno at local softball tournament (2022-12-26)":

 https://news-golfdigest-co-jp.translate.goog/news/lpga/article/152887/1/?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

More related news: Google-search for "渋野日向子" ソフトボール

==> Question: Can anyone help decipher the original Japanese from a related article here pls? The google-translation seems iffy/imperfect? perhaps @No_Catchy_Nickname , @Supermilo, @Soloman1 or @Christen_The_Sloop?

Google Translation: "Hinako Shibuno [to Start?] in Thailand in February ...Everything is tattered. I have to start from scratch" ("渋野日向子2月にタイで始動「全てボロボロ。イチからやらないと」", 2022-12-25)

https://news-golfdigest-co-jp.translate.goog/news/lpga/article/152885/1/?car=ranking_sidenavi_dayTour&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc 

Extract from the google-translation: "The US tour will start the new season with the "Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions" (Lake Nona G&CC, Florida), which will open on January 19th, where the previous year's winners will participate. Shibuno will participate in the second round, " Honda LPGA Thailand" (Siam CC, Thailand), which will start on February 23rd. The tour will continue for the next two weeks with matches in Singapore, China and Asia."
 

..."I have to do everything from scratch. Everything is in tatters. The driver's fairway keeping is good, but the accuracy (of the club) below the driver is lacking. Leveling up there is desperately needed. Irons, wedges, Putters... everything," she said, citing every club as a challenge."
 

 

 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by JungleJimbo

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

53 minutes ago, JungleJimbo said:

Google-Translated article "At the first pitch ceremony: Hinako Shibuno at local softball tournament (2022-12-26)":

 https://news-golfdigest-co-jp.translate.goog/news/lpga/article/152887/1/?_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

More related news: Google-search for "渋野日向子" ソフトボール

==> Question: Can anyone help decipher the original Japanese from a related article here pls? The google-translation seems iffy/imperfect? perhaps @No_Catchy_Nickname , @Supermilo, @Soloman1 or @Christen_The_Sloop?

Google Translation: "Hinako Shibuno [to Start?] in Thailand in February ...Everything is tattered. I have to start from scratch" ("渋野日向子2月にタイで始動「全てボロボロ。イチからやらないと」", 2022-12-25)

https://news-golfdigest-co-jp.translate.goog/news/lpga/article/152885/1/?car=ranking_sidenavi_dayTour&_x_tr_sl=ja&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc 

Extract from the google-translation: "The US tour will start the new season with the "Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions" (Lake Nona G&CC, Florida), which will open on January 19th, where the previous year's winners will participate. Shibuno will participate in the second round, " Honda LPGA Thailand" (Siam CC, Thailand), which will start on February 23rd. The tour will continue for the next two weeks with matches in Singapore, China and Asia."
 

..."I have to do everything from scratch. Everything is in tatters. The driver's fairway keeping is good, but the accuracy (of the club) below the driver is lacking. Leveling up there is desperately needed. Irons, wedges, Putters... everything," she said, citing every club as a challenge."
 

 

 

 

 

Well, in regard to the section you quoted, the Google translation isn't bad. I'd go something like this:

 

"I've got to work on everything from scratch. My whole game's a mess right now. My rate of fairways hit with the driver is good, but I'm lacking precision with every club below that. I really need to improve that part of my game. That means irons, wedges, putter...everything.

But the most important thing is to get down to Kyushu and play some golf with No Catchy Nickname and friends." 

 

Something like that.

[JungleJimbo]

8 minutes ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

 

Well, in regard to the section you quoted, the Google translation isn't bad. I'd go something like this:

 

"I've got to work on everything from scratch. My whole game's a mess right now. My rate of fairways hit with the driver is good, but I'm lacking precision with every club below that. I really need to improve that part of my game. That means irons, wedges, putter...everything.

But the most important thing is to get down to Kyushu and play some golf with No Catchy Nickname and friends." 

 

Something like that.

thanks @No_Catchy_Nickname! I imagine Hinako Shibuno would be a fun golfing partner!

..p/s: Your reply reminds me of this tweet i saw recently!
 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by JungleJimbo