NAPLES, Fla. — LPGA Tour Commissioner Craig Kessler introduced the “flywheel” and talked about his “Venn diagram” Wednesday as he released the 2026 schedule and laid out a roadmap for how the tour can capture the boom in women’s sports.
There are 31 official events on the LPGA schedule, with prize money totaling just over $128.5 million, a record high. Fourteen tournaments raised prize money ranging from $100,000 to $2 million.
The LPGA also co-sanctioned a Women’s European Tour event sponsored by Saudi Golf. The Aramco Series at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas replaces the Match Play event and increases the purse from $2 million to $4 million. Kessler did not rule out the possibility of more races in the Saudi Aramco Series.
“When you start a partnership, it’s important to come out of the gate strong,” Kessler said before the season-ending CME Team Tour Championship. “If you execute well, a lot of amazing things can happen. This is no exception.”
Kessler, the former chief operating officer of the PGA of America, has been on the job for just 120 days and has been dynamic in meeting with players and sponsors and building a leadership team around him.
His first major move was a major upgrade to broadcast production in partnership with Mutual Insurance Company FM, allowing all North American championships to be broadcast live for the first time, along with a 50% increase in camera and lens tracking technology.
“It’s great for us to finally get the opportunity for live television, and for the people who are investing in our product,” Nelly Korda said. “I can’t wait to see where things go, but it all comes down to great leadership, and that’s what we really have at the LPGA.”
The broadcast upgrade is the first part of Kessler’s “flywheel,” which includes a schedule with better geographic traffic. The hope is to create more fans, which in turn will help secure media rights and marketing partners, leading to stronger cash flow to reinvest back into the product.
“No matter how you put it, we’re still a growth stock or a discount stock, if I were an investor considering becoming an LPGA partner, now would be the time to do it,” he said. “We haven’t reached a breakthrough moment yet. If there was ever an opportunity for me to do that as a company that wants to support an organization as remarkable as this one, now is the time.”
Time is running out since he took over this summer and the schedule has looked essentially the same as last year. He scheduled two Michigan tournaments in June in back-to-back weeks before the KPMG Women’s PGA event in Minnesota. Sooner or later Asia will see volatility again.
The long-term plan is to develop a schedule based on routes, golf courses and prize money.
“I hope the LPGA will soon be recognized as one of the best partners in all of sports,” Kessler said. “We walk the talk and that has to be taken into account when we achieve what we think is the best timetable.”
His Venn diagram – three overlapping circles – explains performance, personality and marketability, as well as a player’s willingness to market themselves and the tour.
Kessler said he has held two player meetings and said they need to do their part.
“Finally I asked, ‘Who’s in there?’ and almost everyone in the room raised their hands,” he said. “Now it’s our responsibility to actually make it a reality.”
The LPGA is coming off a most unusual season in which only two players — Jeeno Thitikul and Miyuu Yamashita — have won multiple times. Korda is winless after winning seven titles a year ago, but even her stellar season hasn’t helped the LPGA gain more traction.
There’s energy and optimism here, and Kessler is clear there’s still a long way to go.
“We compete in the attention economy. It’s not just competing against other sports,” Kessler said. “Anything that has the potential to capture fans’ attention, we’re competing against. So our job is to be different, to be interesting, and to capture fans’ attention in any way possible.”
