Doug Ferguson/ Related Press
Mollie Marcoux Samaan is resigning in January as LPGA commissioner, a shock announcement Monday after document development in prize cash together with criticism the LPGA wasn’t gaining in reputation through the surge in ladies’s sports activities.
Marcoux Samaan is leaving on Jan. 9, three weeks earlier than the LPGA begins its seventy fifth season. Liz Moore, the chief authorized and know-how officer, will probably be interim commissioner till a search committee hires a brand new one.
Marcoux Samaan didn’t cite a particular motive for resigning besides to say spending extra time together with her three kids. She’s going to serve the third-shortest stint amongst 9 LPGA commissioners relationship to 1975, behind solely Jim Ritts (1996-99) and Invoice Blue (1988-90).
“With the LPGA positioned for continued development, it’s time for me to have extra time to cheer on our three superb kids as they stay their desires whereas I proceed to pursue my ardour for constructing leaders, uniting communities and creating worth by way of sports activities, notably ladies’s sports activities,” Marcoux Samaan mentioned in a press release.
The LPGA mentioned prize cash elevated by greater than 90% beneath Marcoux Samaan, a giant a part of that the main championships. The 5 majors had a mixed prize fund of $23.4 million in 2021. Subsequent 12 months, the majors mix to supply no less than $47.8 million in prize cash.
She introduced the top of her tenure every week after the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship awarded $4 million to the winner, Jeeno Thitikul, from an $11 million purse.
“Since becoming a member of the LPGA in 2021, Mollie has been instrumental in solidifying our place as the worldwide chief in ladies’s skilled golf, realizing document development in participant earnings and fan engagement,” mentioned John B. Veihmeyer, chairman of the LPGA board. “Mollie has been a steadfast advocate for fairness within the sport and has labored tirelessly to increase alternatives for girls and women by way of the sport.”
The LPGA mentioned the typical earnings for the highest 100 gamers topped $1 million this 12 months, in contrast with a mean of simply over $570,000 in 2021.
Ladies’s sports activities throughout the panorama has seen a spike in cash and curiosity, although Marcoux Samaan was criticized for the LPGA not getting sufficient consideration behind exceptional story traces this 12 months. Nelly Korda tied an LPGA document with 5 straight wins, and Lydia Ko received Olympic gold to qualify for the LPGA Corridor of Fame, after which received one other main on the Ladies’s British Open at St. Andrews.
The People additionally received the Solheim Cup, however not with out a transportation mess on the opening day on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Virginia when there weren’t sufficient buses for spectators and plenty of of them waited hours earlier than they might get in, lacking the opening tee pictures that sometimes function packed grandstands and raucous cheering.
Marcoux Samaan pointed to development in defending her job when among the criticism was raised on the season-ending match.
“I focus day by day on attempting to help the athletes, to attempt to develop the tour, and to attempt to make this one of the best place on the earth to play and to offer extra alternatives to women and girls. So I really feel just like the statistics actually converse for themselves,” she mentioned on the Tour Championship.
“I believe we’re experiencing huge development. That’s actually what my job is.”
Together with enormous will increase in earnings, Marcoux Samaan introduced full backed well being take care of the LPGA for the primary time in its historical past. She additionally was behind stipends for lacking the lower and home journey in a bid to ensure gamers have been adequately compensated.
Official prize cash for the LPGA in 2025 is $127.5 million.
Terry Duffy, the chairman and CEO of CME Group, signed a two-year extension of the LPGA deal. In an interview with Golfweek, he gave Marcoux Samaan excessive marks.
“I don’t understand how you would not give A++ to the place the tour is at right now beneath her management,” Duffy mentioned. “I run markets. I don’t care in the event you’re working a enterprise at a ironmongery store or an change or skilled golf, there’s ebbs and flows to every little thing in life and every little thing in enterprise. … Should you’re price extra right now than you have been 10 years in the past or three years in the past, you’re doing the appropriate issues.”
Marcoux Samaan was the ninth commissioner — and second feminine commissioner — when she left her function as athletic director at Princeton. Marcoux Samaan changed Mike Whan, who took over in 2010 when gamers revolted and ousted Carolyn Bivens.
Whan introduced excessive power and a giant character throughout his 11 years, making him the longest-serving LPGA commissioner in historical past.
The LPGA board will work with an govt search agency to conduct a world seek for the group’s subsequent commissioner.
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