As women s sport experiences unprecendented growth the LPGA Tour hopes to follow suit

SINGAPORE – Record Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) viewership driven by Caitlin Clark, attendance highs in English football’s Women’s Super League and the WTA’s tennis events boasting a global audience of 1.1 billion.

Women’s sport has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down as interest increases.

Professional services firm Deloitte predicted global revenues of US$1.28 billion (S$1.73 billion) for women’s elite sport in 2024, the first time the figure surpassed US$1 billion.

In golf, the LPGA Tour, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2025, aims to capitalise on the popularity of women’s sport, having made progress over the years.

Players that The Sunday Times spoke with at the HSBC Women’s World Championship this week believe that the organisation is riding on the trend, citing improvements such as larger prize purses and initiatives that benefit players.

New Zealand’s Olympic champion Lydia Ko, 27, said: “It’s a very exciting time for women’s sport, and hopefully we can capitalise on that kind of momentum, a trend that we are going in, and I do feel like we are moving in that direction.

“We have a great leadership team that is going to carry us that way and I hope that’s going to be the case for not only while I’m playing but the generations that are coming ahead.”

The three-time Major champion pointed out that players are now playing for more money. Golfers on the tour compete for a record fund of about US$130 million, compared to US$118 million the year before and over twice the US$61.6 million on offer a decade ago.

Excluding Majors, the 2025 schedule has 11 events with a purse of at least US$3 million, up from only two in 2022.

This season, 24 events will also offer travel stipends, free accommodation