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Tag: LPGA
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The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) announced today that its Board of Directors has elected Craig Kessler as the organization’s 10th Commissioner.
The appointment comes during the LPGA’s landmark 75th anniversary season, marking a pivotal moment of global growth and opportunity for one of the most enduring and respected leaders in women’s professional sports worldwide.
Craig Kessler becomes 10th LPGA Commissioner
Kessler was selected following a rigorous and comprehensive global search, led by the LPGA Board’s Search Committee and shaped by input from LPGA Tour athletes, partners, staff and key stakeholders.
“We set out to find a transformational leader with a deep appreciation for the LPGA’s legacy and a clear vision of what’s possible for our future,” said John B. Veihmeyer, Chair of the LPGA Board of Directors. “Craig is an inspiring and engaging leader, who brings a unique mix of executive leadership experience, deep relationships in the golf industry, and a genuine commitment to elevating women and girls through golf. The LPGA has never been more dynamic – and Craig is exactly the right leader to drive its next era of growth and impact.”
Kessler brings a broad and impressive range of experiences across sports, business, private equity and entrepreneurship. Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer of the PGA of America, where he oversaw all operations of the 30,000-member organization, including its non-profit foundation. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Buff City Soap, a fast-growing experiential retail company that expanded from 100 to 260 stores under his leadership. Earlier in his career, Kessler also served as Chief Operating Officer at Topgolf, where he helped scale the company’s groundbreaking blend of sports, entertainment and technology.
In addition to his executive roles, Kessler brings board-level experience with the National Golf Foundation, UT Southwestern hospital system, and the Dallas Mavericks Advisory Board. He began his career at McKinsey & Company and went on to leadership positions at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Providence Equity Partners. His track record includes evaluating investments and working alongside management teams to improve company performance – skills he now brings to one of the world’s premier women’s sports organizations.
“The LPGA stands at the intersection of world-class competition and global impact,” said Kessler, incoming LPGA Commissioner. “From young girls who are picking up a club for the first time, to the LPGA Professionals helping teach this great game to people around the world, to the incredible athletes competing on Tour—the LPGA is driving the future of golf. I’m honored to join this powerful movement and eager to help build what comes next—together.”
“This isn’t just about leading a sports organization – it’s about redefining what’s possible,” Kessler added. “This role is deeply personal to me – not just as a professional opportunity, but as a chance to make a difference in the world and create new opportunities for others. Golf changes lives. I believe in the LPGA’s mission, its members and its momentum. I can’t wait to get started.”
Kessler will officially step into the role on July 15, succeeding Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who stepped down in January 2025. Liz Moore will continue as Interim Commissioner until that time. Veihmeyer added, “Liz has done an exceptional job in the interim role, and we look forward to the many important contributions she will continue to make to the LPGA in the future.”
(Text provided by LPGA)
The LPGA Tour, together with the USGA, has announced a fundamental adjustment to its gender policy. The changes, which will apply from 2025, are intended to ensure a balance between inclusion and fair competition.
A Balancing Act Between Fairness and Inclusion
New, stricter gender guidelines will apply from the 2025 season. According to the LPGA and USGA, these are intended to preserve the sporting integrity of the women’s tour by excluding female athletes who have gone through male puberty. This change affects all of the organization’s elite tournaments, from the Epson Tour to the Ladies European Tour.
According to the organizations’ statements, the rules were developed in cooperation with the USGA and are to be based on scientific findings. The medical standards are strict: testosterone levels must be permanently below a certain limit and development must not have gone beyond Tanner Stage 2 – a threshold that lies in early puberty.
“The policy represent our continued commitment to ensuring that all feel welcome within our organization, while preserving the fairness and competitive equity of our elite competitions”, explained Mollie Marcoux Samaan, Commissioner of the LPGA Tour.
The Controversy Surrounding Hailey Davidson
The decision particularly affects Hailey Davidson, who qualified for the Epson Tour in 2025. As the second transgender golfer in the history of professional golf, Davidson seemed to be on the verge of a milestone – but the new rules make further participation impossible.
Davidson expressed her disappointment on social media and spoke of a step backwards. “I’m being penalized for something that doesn’t give me an advantage,” she wrote in a statement. Davidson emphasized that she is regularly outperformed by other players and criticized the lack of support from the golf community.
Golf in the Footsteps of Other Sports
With its new guidelines, the LPGA Tour is following a trend that can also be observed in other sports. Organizations such as World Aquatics and the World Athletics Council have issued similar regulations to ensure equal opportunities in women’s competitions. The realignment of the gender policy is a response to years of demands from the golf world. Players such as Amy Olson, former LPGA proette, had repeatedly called for a return to a “female-at-birth” approach. “I am very, very sad that women’s organizations have waited so long to change their gender policies,” said Olson. “There are people, human beings in the middle of these situations that it effects. I wish that it could’ve been dealt with before there was a face and a name involved.”
USGA CEO Mike Whan emphasized the importance of fairness as the basis for the decision: “It was all based on competitive fairness as the North Star. Right or wrong, let’s be able to look ourselves in the face and any competitor in one of our women’s events in the face and say if you’re in this event, nobody has a competitive advantage relative to their gender.”
As LPGA Tour player Jessica Korda announced, there was a new addition to her and her husband Johnny DelPrete’s family last weekend.
Jessica Korda Welcomes Baby Greyson
Jessica Korda became a mother for the very first time with her newborn. According to her Instagram post, her son Greyson John DelPrete was born on Saturday, February 3rd. Last August, she announced her pregnancy on Instagram with a sign saying “Tee Time for 3, coming February 2024.” Jessica’s younger sister Nelly Korda, currently ranked second in the world, is also thrilled about her new role as an aunt. “I’m mostly excited just to see this new chapter in Johnny’s and Jess’s life. And I think it’s going to be really exciting,” says Nelly Korda.
Previously, Jessica Korda struggled with back problems. In May 2023, she last participated in a tournament, having to withdraw after the first round. Her best finish in six tournament appearances last year was a tied 18th place. She last won in 2021 at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, where she defeated Danielle Kang in a playoff.
Lydia Ko will probably have to put up a new wardrobe at home in Orlando – with all the trophies she brings home from the CME Group Tour Championship: the glass globe for winning the LPGA final tournament, the silver bowl of the Vare Trophy, the “Player of the Year” awards and everything else the 25-year-old was presented with at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples. “The winner takes it all,” ABBA once warbled. But despite the record check for two million dollars and a total of 4,364,403 dollars for three victories and a total of seven top-five finishes since the Amundi Evian Championship in July, the most successful prize money season of all time didn’t work out. Lorena Ochoa was “better” by $591 in 2007.
“She’s made peace with herself”
But money, as we all know, isn’t everything. Especially when the “main prize” is standing on the edge of the 18th green: Ko’s fiancé Jun Chung. “He makes me smile, motivates and inspires me to become a better person and a better player,” says the New Zealander. “Since she met him, she has made peace with herself,” confirms her sister Sura.
Lydia Ko and Jun Chung have been a couple for almost two years, writing letters to each other for six months until the Corona pandemic allowed the first real date. Meanwhile, Chung, who lives in San Francisco, is the son of a Hyundai manager, works in the finance department of the Korean car company and first had to Google his new pen pal’s golf career, had taken up golf himself. On December 30, the two will marry in Kos and Chung’s native Seoul.
But after that, not much will change, says Chung, who likes to stay out of the camera’s focus: “She’ll keep playing. I don’t want to get involved in that. I want ‘Lyds’ to give all she can in the time she has ahead of her at this top level.” In turn, she says, “Since I’ve been with him, I want to make better use of the time I have to work on my game. To then be able to really enjoy the time off. I feel like that helps me train better and focus more.”
Three “meager” years already count as a crisis there
Time is the key word in every sense of the word for change, for the development of exceptional golfer Lydia Ko, who began as a teenage sensation, won her first professional tournament at 14, became the youngest tour winner in LPGA history at 15 years, four months and two days at the Canadian Open in August 2012, was number one in the world amateur rankings for 130 weeks and won her first professional tournament at the age of 18. Before the age of 20, she had already won two majors and the silver medal in golf’s Olympic comeback, and now has 19 LPGA victories to her name.
With such a golfing career, three years, the period between July 2016 and April 2021, with only one tournament title and a drop to 46th in the world rankings, can seem like a sporting crisis: “When you’re not playing so well, you have these weaker moments that feel so long. All too often, she has linked her existence exclusively to the numbers on the scorecard, identifying herself by her results on the golf course, Ko admits self-critically and unapologetically.
Interviewer rendered speechless
As bluntly as she spoke in June about her menstrual cramps and their effects on her back muscles (“It’s that times of the month”) after asking for medical help during the round – which literally left the interviewer from the “Golf Channel” speechless.
Equally candid, she says Jun Chung has given her “a new outlook on golf and life”: “How he perceives me doesn’t depend on my performance on the course.” And that’s precisely why “above all, I really wanted to win the BMW Ladies Championship last month in both our motherland, South Korea, with him by my side.” Mission accomplished. If Rosamunde Pilcher had written this plot, the whole world would have called it kitsch.
“You played better when you were 15”
So be it. From Ko’s point of view, the balance in her life has never been better. Without the period of the so-called form crisis, “I probably wouldn’t have the attitude I have today,” she says after her first season of multiple wins since 2016. “I feel like I matured a lot during that time.” And then isn’t fazed by a “You played better when you were 15” comment from her mother Tina: “What am I supposed to do with that information?” After nine years on the tour, you act differently, you’re simply more experienced, more familiar with the processes and conditions.
“Experience is the reason why some players play successfully on the tour for 15, 20 years. They hit their balls and know what’s going to happen. That comes naturally over time. Experience is like having a 15th club in the bag.”
Lydia Ko
On and off the court – starting with training on “more different types of grass than you can name in the same breath,” grins the new world number two behind Nelly Korda. “I used to play up liberated because I was young and clueless. Today I’m freer because I’ve learned to take things as they come and deal with them.”
Soon to be youngest Hall of Fame member
No question, the former child prodigy has grown up. And will probably soon become even the youngest member “ever” in the LPGA Hall of Fame. Until now, or since 2016, this privilege has gone to Inbee Park, who had to turn 27 to become a member. Ko, meanwhile, is only two points short.