2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports

$1 billion USD. This is the number of total revenue which Deloitte predicted women’s sports would surpass in 2024. And although the year has yet to conclude and the numbers have yet to be tallied, it certainly feels as if women’s sports have taken a step forward. In the last 11 months Coco Gauff continued her rise to the top of women’s tennis while releasing another edition of her signature shoe with New Balance. Gymnast Simone Biles took over the 2024 Paris Olympics and Caitlin Clark emerged as the new superstar of the WNBA. Meanwhile in golf, Nelly Korda dominated the LPGA Tour culminating in the season ending CME Group Tour Championship where a record-setting $4 million USD was awarded to the eventual winner Atthaya Thitikul.

Golf is among the fastest growing women's sports, a phenomenon which has been accelerated by the post-pandemic boom. In 2023 the LPGA reported that investors were seeing 400% ROI in media value, while the Wall Street Journal reports that participation in golf among women is up 45% since 2019. These growth factors put a spotlight on the LPGA in recent weeks as it wrapped up the 2024 season.

Overall, a few key developments can be pinpointed, some of which are representative of the momentum behind women’s sports as a whole.

The Caitlin Clark Effect

The WNBA star’s foray into golf began in earnest during the summer of 2023 when she joined Ludvig Aberg and Zach Johnson for the John Deere Classic pro-am. At the time, the Iowa native was still a rising senior at the University of Iowa but was already well recognized as a burgeoning star with numerous accolades like the AP Player of the Year, the Honda Sports Award, the John R. Wooden Award and Naismith College Player of the Year.

18 months later Clark’s profile has only continued to rise after a near spotless rookie year with the Indiana Fever, a season in which the team set new attendance records. And although the Fever couldn’t get past the first round of the playoffs, Clark has been enjoying a thoroughly deserved offseason break in the best manner possible: playing golf.

After jokingly announcing her intention to “become a professional golfer” in the offseason, the LPGA took the initiative to invite her to play in the pro-am at the ANNIKA where she linked up with world number one Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam herself. Although Clark didn’t tee it up a week later at the CME Group Tour Championship (she was playing in the RSM Classic Pro-Am as it so happened), her crossover with the LPGA created a feeling of unison at the elite level of women’s sport.

Four Million

Much was made of the $4 million USD first place prize in the lead up to the CME Group Tour Championship, and rightfully so. It was the highest prize in women’s golf history, surpassing even the first place haul for winners of the men’s Masters Tournament, PGA Championship and Open Championship. This can be credited to the tournament’s title sponsor CME Group, a global trading platform. The tournament’s $11 million USD total purse was a staggering 450% increase from the $2 million USD pot only 10 years ago.

We had the opportunity to ask Annika Sorenstam and Lydia Ko about this landmark.

Said Sorenstam: “It's an incredible purse. This is really showing what the [CME Group] thinks of the value of the tournament and the players. It’s a significant week in a lot of ways. As you know, we have all these other other awards. But when you're talking about a purse of this magnitude, anybody can now pass Nelly on the money list who has won 7 times this year. So yeah, there's a lot at stake this week for sure.”

Ko, meanwhile, commented: “Terry [Duffy] and the whole CME Group has really gone above and beyond to even get to this point today. They started with the $1,000,000 USD race, the CME Globe, around the time of my rookie year. And every year he's elevated not only this event, but I think he has pushed a lot of our other partners to say, ‘You know what? Women's golf deserves this.’ And when I talked to Terry, and his team, their passion and belief for the women's tour and for the LPGA is just immense. And he's thinking, ‘Okay, it's $4,000,000 now, but how can we make this even better for them? How can we grow this opportunity even bigger?’”

Despite the landmark achievement for women’s golf, it should be noted that prize money still lags far behind the men’s game. For comparison, take LPGA top dog Nelly Korda’s counterpart Scottie Scheffler. The two-time Masters champion won seven times in 2024, the same amount as Korda, yet his $29.2 million USD winnings totaled 86% more than Korda’s $4.4 million USD.

Rolex LPGA Awards

Swiss watchmaker Rolex’s support of golf has been well documented. And thanks to the signature green clocks its presence at key moments throughout the calendar is always noted. The CME Group Tour Championship was no exception.

The week began with the season ending Rolex LPGA Awards which date back to 1966 when the Rolex Player of the Year was first introduced. Subsequent additions included the Rookie of the Year Award and most recently the ANNIKA Major Award. Similar to how the LPGA Hall of Fame works, all of these awards are given out based on a points system which removes any potential for subjectivity.

And while the awards aren't new to anyone who follows the tour, some may not be aware that the Rolex Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, ANNIKA Major Award winner and all First-Time Winners are gifted commemorative watches from the Swiss timekeepers. It’s a testament to how much Rolex values women’s golf and the LPGA who they’ve sponsored since 1980. There’s only one other sport, the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA endurance racing competition, where winners are honored with commemorative timepieces.

The 2024 awards dinner, which was streamed on Peacock and hosted by commentator Tom Abbott, felt particularly poignant as Lydia Ko was honored for qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Home. Despite having promised herself that she “wasn’t going to cry,” the 27-year-old who represents New Zealand in the Olympics was brought to tears as she watched a compilation of her season which crescendoed with a gold medal in Paris. LPGA greats Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez were on hand to seal off the ceremony.

"To have events like the Rolex Awards dinner where we give out these really prestigious awards that the women work their whole lives for in a beautiful setting is really special," LPGA Tour commissioner Mollie Marcoux told us. "I think it really says, okay, we've worked so hard for all of this and we get to this point and we put our best foot forward at the end."

Although there still remains a lot of work to be done to create an equitable playing field for the world's brightest female athletes, it's important to recognize the process that has been made.

"I think where we are right now is that we're proud of where we are in this moment and the work that our team has done to get us here," added Marcoux. "But I think we have to be driven for growth. And I think we have a really good strategy ... There's a lot of work to be done, but I think the team's ready for it. I think we've built it to this point and now we're ready to take the next stage of growth."

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2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports

2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports

2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports

2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports

2024 Was the (New) Beginning for Women's Sports