What is the financial Comparison between Ladies Golf and Men’s Golf

By Eva Lowndes, 1st year  

Table of Contents

• Why I chose this topic
• Global goals
• Financial Comparison between the LPGA and the PGA tour
• Financial Comparison between the DP world tour and the LET
• A stats comparison between Rory McIlroy and Lydia KO 
• My Field research on the playing ability of the ladies who played the Irish open in Dromoland Castle vs  The male players who played in Mount Juliet in the Irish Open 
• Why is there such a big pay gap between the men's and the women's game
• What can be done to reduce and eliminate the inequality in the game at a global level
• How elite amateur golf in Ireland compares between men and woman. 
• Conclusions
• Reflection
• References

My opinion on the topic

• I chose this topic because I really enjoy playing golf as you can see from the picture of myself in my home club New Forest and I find this topic very interesting. This topic is very important to me because I want to have a career in golf, so I need to learn more about the inequality in this game. This topic is important and not many golfers know the huge difference between the men and women's game. I'm sure that most golfers know there is a difference they just don’t know they extent of it.  

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• In the game of golf there is a high inequality in men and women professional events prize funds. 

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• The women's game prize funds is under $90 million for the season and the men's game get over $400 million prize funds. For example, Rory McIlroy won $18 million US dollars when he won the FedEx cup, but Lydia Ko won $2 million US dollars when she won CME Group Tour Championship, this is the highest prize funds of the LPGA tour ever had. The men's game gets more publicity such as being on both TV and online. They make more money from this, and I feel that they make most of their money from TV rights.

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• I think this issue of inequality should become more equal.

This is a picture of myself at my home club New Forest in Westmeath

Global Goals

• In the golfing industry there is a major gap in the earning that lady golfers earn in compared to their male counterparts.  This project is my way of voicing my support for equal pay for equal work in competitive professional golf. 

Financial comparison between the LPGA and the PGA tour  

• Total prize money on the PGA and the LPGA tours 
• PGA:$427 million    LPGA:$85.4 million 

This shows that the men professional players are living more luxury and expensive lives while the women are living more modest lives. I observed this when I went to the ladies Irish open, and the ladies were using battered golf bags and older equipment compared to the men.

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• In the final of each tour there is a major prize difference
• Men's Fed EX cup is $18 million, and the ladies CME tour championship is only $2 million.

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• The Prize money for the US Open championship is $3.15 million
• The Prize money for the US women's open is $1.8 million 

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• The top earner on the PGA tour in 2022 was Rory Mcilroy  with $44.8 million 
• The top earner on the LPGA tour in 2022 was Lydia Ko with $4,364,403

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Financial comparison between the DP world tour and the LET

• Total prize money on the DP world tour and the LET

    -DP world tour: $144.2 million         LET:$29 million 

This shows that the men on the DP world tour are living more luxury lives than the women on the LET.  the DP world tour are not as high with their prize funds as the PGA tour 

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In the final of each tour there is a major prize difference 

Men's race to Dubai bonus is $5 million and the winner get $2 million. In the women's race to costa del sol the bonus $250,000 and the winner gets $125,000

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The top earner on the DP world tour is Rory McIlroy with €5,546,161.08

The top earner on the LET is Linn Grant with €848,142.14. Linn Grant is also the only lady to win on the DP world tour where both the men and woman played an event together.

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A stats comparison between Rory McIlroy and Lydia Ko 

Stats reference from the LPGA tour instagram account

Rory McIlroy and Lydia Ko have a very similar scoring average McIlroy's is 68.67 and Ko's is 68.99 even though they have a very similar average McIlroy earned $44 million and Ko earned  $4 million. This shows the PGA and the LPGA have such an inequality. Lydia ko had more top 10 and top 5s but still earned a lot less.

My field research between the Ladies Irish Open and the Men's Irish Open

• I attended both the KPMG Ladies Irish Open in Dromoland Castle and both the Horizon Men's Irish Open in Mount Julliet. As I have a big interest in the game, I recorded some stats at both events. I stood at a par 3 hole at both events and recorded the scores from 30 players. Of the 30 players I viewed from each the results were very close to each other 

Blue = Birdies 

Red = pars

Green = bogeys

A players aims to have a par or birdie on a hole

Why is there such a big pay gap between men's and ladies' golf

• The biggest reason for the pay gap is TV rights as the PGA tour has just stated a $6 billion dollar deal with NBC, CBS and ESPN and that is just for the USA alone and the PGA tour gets over 90% of its revenue from TV rights compared to a much smaller deal for the LPGA tour.  A lot of this comes down to a greater demand to watch the PGA Tour and NBC, CBS and ESPN then control the supply to the market. 
• Also sponsors will pay more for the PGA tour as more people watch it on TV hence more exposure for the sponsors. This is mirrored on the DP world tour but in a smaller scale.

What can be done to reduce the inequality in the game at a global level

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• The LET and LPGA need to promote their event more especially on social media and try to attract more sponsors to increase viewing figures and prize money.
• The LPGA and the LET also need to use the fan base especially on Instagram that lady golfers have and use their accounts also to promote when events are on and when tickets are on sale etc. See below for examples on player accounts that could be used. Also, players need to get more active on social media to help build themselves as a brand

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What can be done to reduce the inequality in the game at a global level

• Major promotion in South Korea and Japan as golf is a major sport there and especially ladies' golf. This would attract potential TV rights and major sponsors as Golf in Korea and Japan is only slightly behind America in viewing figures. Also, nine of the top thirty in the ladies' world rankings are from Korea or Japan.

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• There needs to be more events where both men and woman play together.  This will help promote the ladies' game to a wider audience and they will see how good the players are and help create more fans of the ladies' game.  Increased attendances at the ladies' events will help increase the prize money and help players get sponsors and more income.

What can be done to reduce the inequality in the game at a global level

• More media channels need to follow what Sky Sports have done.  sky sports have broadcasted women's golf for 25 years and are broadcasting all the major ladies golf events.
• As well as putting golf on their channel, they also put in on their YouTube channel for free.

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• As YouTube in a major source of entertainment more famous golf Youtubers could promote ladies' golf.  Golfer Rick Shiels has done collaborative videos with women's golfers such as Anne Van Dam which helps promote the women's game as he has over 2 million followers on YouTube

How elite amateur golf compares in Ireland for both men and woman

• In Ireland amateur golf is run by Golf Ireland.  The amateur game in Ireland is very fair between men and women, and boys and girls as both are supported equally.  For Boys and girls there are golf Ireland development panels which I am a part of.  This give elite coaching for six three hours sessions for €60 for a boy or a girl who is the required standard. 
• There are lots of competitions for men, women, boys and girls which is fair, and they are in all four provinces.
• Both men, women, boys and girls can represent their country at international level and get funding towards international events and funding to help a new professional compete overseas. All are treated fairly from financial and sporting aspects.

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Conclusion

To conclude 

• Financial comparison between the PGA and LPGA with their total prize funds – PGA is $427million and the LPGA is $85.4 million 
• Financial comparison between the DP world tour and the LET. DP world tour is$144.2 million and the LET is $29million. 
• The playing comparison between the men and women professionals is very even as you can see from my research. The only difference is that the men can hit the ball further.
• My opinion is still the same that there is a big pay gap between the men's and the women's game, but the gap is starting to closing year by year and hopefully by 2030 there is no pay equality in the pro golf industry.
• I also think more exposure of the LPGA and LET will help increase viewing figures and prize funds as TV rights seem to be the key to the pay inequality

Reflection

While doing this project I improved my research skills and improved my ability to create a presentation. I learned more about the inequality of men and women in golf at a global level. I learned that the LPGA and the LET prize funds are slowly closing the pay gap. I hope that by 2030 the gap will finally be closed and in February 2023 for the first time both men and woman were paid equally in golf in the Aramco Saudi lades event and the men's Saudi International event.

Thank you

Thank you for taking the time to read my project.

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC.

References

• https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/28/mcilroy-storms-from-6-back-to-win-fedex-cup-and-18-million.html#:~:text=Rory%20McIlroy%20rallied%20from%20six,one%20birdie%20in%20a%2073.
• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/sports/golf/lgpa-chevron-pga.html#:~:text=The%20disparity%20in%20earnings%20between,golfers%20are%20living%20more%20modestly.
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Ladies_European_Tour#:~:text=The%20table%20below%20shows%20the,the%20tour's%2044%2Dyear%20history.
• https://www.lpga.com/statistics/money/official-money
• https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12230/12737310/dp-world-tour-players-given-pay-guarantee-in-response-to-liv-golf-threat
• https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2022/11/20/2022-race-to-dubai-bonus-pool-purse-winners-share-prize-money-payout-127568/#:~:text=As%20part%20the%20season%20finale,the%20%245%20million%20bonus%20pool.
• https://www.europeantour.com/players/rory-mcilroy-34024/career-record?tour=dpworld-tour
• https://irishgolfer.ie/latest-golf-news/2022/08/03/its-coming-home-irelands-famous-comeback-to-win-2021-home-internationals/
• https://www.skysports.com/golf/news/12176/12400819/sky-sports-celebrates-25-years-of-womens-golf-with-new-lpga-tour-and-let-rights-deal
• https://www.golfdigest.com/story/pga-tour-announces-nine-year-media-deals-with-cbs-nbc-and-espn