LPGA and PGA America Team Up

Ladies Golf News: LPGA and PGA Partnership

America’s LPGA and PGA have agreed to work together and rebrand the LPGA Championship as the Women’s PGA. The event will officially be renamed the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. This will happen next year, and the name isn’t the only thing that will be changing. The purse, which currently stands at $2.25 million, will climb to $3.5 in 2015. This isn’t all the rebranded, transformed championship is bringing new to the table either, in fact they plan on bringing greater coverage for women’s golf in general.

In addition to the current Golf Channel, which televises Thursday and Friday play, weekend rounds will now be aired on US television network, NBC. Next year’s championship will be played at Westchester Country Club, which is just 35 minutes north of New York City. No permanent home has been given to the tournament, however the preference for KPMG is to lay in the New York area.

The partnership between LPGA and PGA is beneficial to all. The PGA of America has a total of 27,000 teaching members, who have now formed an alliance with the LPGA Teaching and Club Pro Division. LPGA commissioner, Mike Whan believes the alliance “elevates women’s golf and LPGA exposure”. This seems to be the direction in which LPGA and PGA want to go. The discussion actually began when Mike Whan called the CEO of the PGA in 2010, saying he wants to “do something together to promote women in the game”.

Mike Whan doesn’t believe that LPGA and PGA were in a strong enough position back in 2010 to have made a change, however in October 2013, when he made another phone call to the CEO of PGA, Pete Bevacqua picked up and said “I’m already thinking about it”.

We try to bring our ladies the latest news in the golfing world, so let us know what you think of the partnership in the comments below. Is this the right direction for the future of women’s golf?