Mollie Marcoux Samaan is stepping down as LPGA commissioner, ending a three-and-a-half year run under which the LPGA Tour saw dramatic purse increases.
Marcoux Samaan will step down as of January 9, 2025, according to the LPGA. Once she resigns, Liz Brown, the LPGA's Chief Legal Officer, will assume the interim commissioner role. The LPGA Board of Directors will begin an extensive executive search for Marcoux Samaan's replacement.
The ninth LPGA commissioner, Marcoux Samaan took the job in May 2021 after Mike Whan left the organization to ultimately become the CEO of the United States Golf Association.
Under Whan's leadership, purses and tournaments grew substantially, with Whan bringing the organization back from the brink of disaster after the short tenure of Carolyn Bivens. Whan introduced concepts like the Founders Cup, designed to pay homage to the LPGA's history dating back to its 13 founders, and the Race to the CME Globe, a season-long points concept. Marcoux Samaan was tasked with taking Whan's gains and further extending them. Despite some losses, she and the LPGA scored a lot of wins in her tenure.
In her time as commissioner, the five LPGA Tour majors dramatically increased their prize money, aided in part by an arms race Whan sewed by finding a presenting sponsor for the US Women's Open to drive the purse to $10 million. AIG's previous commitment to growing the AIG Women's Open purse to higher levels was also key in the dramatic escalation of major purses. The other majors have, in short order, followed suit. The season-ending CME Group Tour Championship and title sponsor CME Group took it a step further in creating a $4 million first-place prize in the season-ending 60-player event.
Several new sponsors, including JM Eagle, FM Global, Cognizant, Maybank, Dow and Mizuho Americas, have injected money into non-major events, helping increase overall purses week to week. Several long-term sponsors, including Lotte, Meijer and Walmart, have followed suit and invested more in prize money at their events. However, Cognizant has since moved its significant sponsor dollars to the PGA Tour's event in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., instead of spurring a similar bidding war up and down the schedule. The long-time LPGA event in Toledo, Ohio, lingered on life support and will now become a dual Epson Tour and Legends of the LPGA stop. The Portland event has been stuck in purgatory for several seasons.
In a big win, the players now have fully subsidized health care, and there are travel stipends and some income for players who miss cuts. Unfortunately, Smuckers ended their 30-year sponsorship of the LPGA's child-care.
The first day of the Solheim Cup turned into a PR nightmare when transportation services failed to get fans from off-site parking to host venue Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia on time. A poor response from up top at the star stained what ultimately turned out to be a fantastic finish.
Marcoux Samaan struggled to communicate and demonstrate to her constituents -- players and sponsors, alike -- what her long-term goals were for the tour and a vision that would capitalize on the rapidly increasing investment across women's pro sports. Marcoux Samaan invested significantly in LPGA staff, increasing headcount by 35 percent, and in content production to help get tournament footage and player content in front of more viewers.
With some 10 recognizable LPGA players choosing to walk away from the Tour on a full-time basis this season, there's a need and opportunity to create familiar faces and build new stars. A new website has made quick improvements to see more players hitting more shots during a tournament. Harder to fix is finding better TV time in a crowded golf landscape, particularly with the PGA Tour's umbrella of events getting so much space on Golf Channel. Investments in coverage on ESPN+ were an indication that the LPGA knows it can reach more fans, though how best to do that is a future challenge.
Marcoux Samaan resigns despite her contract running through 2026. Like Marcoux Samaan, her successor will encounter wins and losses, too. The next commissioner will have so much to tackle, just like Marcoux Samaan did, but a central goal will be defining, explaining and getting buy-in for a long-term vision as the LPGA celebrates its 75th anniversary and starts thinking about what the organization will look like when it reaches its 100th anniversary.
