Rónán MacNamara in Riyadh
As prize money continues to rise in women’s professional golf, the stakes increase in tandem and this summer will be a marathon period for the top players in the sport.
This week, the likes of Leona Maguire, Lexi Thompson, Charley Hull, Georgia Hall, Carlota Ciganda, Linn Grant and Emily Pedersen have touched down in Riyadh for the Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by PIF where they will play for a record $5m prize purse, matching the men’s PIF Saudi International.
The prize purse is the largest on the Ladies European Tour this season while it’s also the largest pot outside of the five major championships and the CME Group Tour Championship on the LPGA Tour.
It’s a sign that women’s golf is growing as it begins to get the investment it deserves and with it comes a chance to cash in during a lucrative summer.
The top female players in the game already play a packed summer schedule with five major championships between April and September. The upcoming Paris Olympics in July present another golden opportunity to showcase the women’s game and the addition of the Solheim Cup returning to even years in September means the players will barely have a chance to breathe during this period.
Perhaps it’s a sign of the ever-elevating status of women’s golf that a sprinkling of top players have opted to skip this week’s $5m event in Riyadh Golf Club – including defending champion Lydia Ko – in order to prioritise scheduling. Previously it may have been unthinkable to pass up such an opportunity here.
Even the players who are here, are here to tune up and put in the hard yards in order to peak for the gruelling summer schedule which will include the Scottish Open and KPMG Women’s Irish Open for some Europeans.
Throughout the five majors, players will compete for prize funds ranging from $5.2 million to $12 million while the CME Group Tour Championship is worth a cool $11 million.
Peaking from April to September is the priority. If golf ever had a pre-season, this is it.
“It’s definitely a really busy year, especially in the summer, you know, you’ve got, the Olympics, the Scottish and British Open, which is obviously high up on our list to play in,” explained former AIG Women’s Open winner, Georgia Hall who is already all but sure of an automatic Solheim Cup spot.
“For me, I think I’ll really prioritise that time of year, I think I’ll maybe miss some events, the first half [of the year] or the next couple of months, I think I played a little too much last year, and I want to make sure that I have a lot of energy for the big events, because in the space of two months, you’re going to have five or six really big ones [events] so, I’m going to make sure that I’m trying to play my prime golf then and so I think I’ll take a few more off at the start.”
Danish star Pedersen, played almost 30 events last season as she battled to maintain her LPGA Tour playing privileges. She intends to play a reduced schedule in order to remain fresh for the summer.
“I played way too much last year, and played around 27 events, so I’m trying to pace myself more,” the 2020 Aramco Saudi Ladies International winner said.
“Obviously, if you could pick a point to peak in a season, it would definitely be those months. I think just luckily, I feel like in the LPGA schedule, we have a few more weeks off already in the schedule, but then I think I’m also going to try and take a few more weeks off, once it comes to summer around May and until the Olympics. Obviously, I still want to play the Scottish [Open] and still want to play the British Open. The European events are high up on my list, so I’m trying to be fresh and play well for those events.”
Maguire is making just her third start of the season and her priority for a long time has been on trying to land Olympic and major championship gold while continuing her stellar Solheim Cup record this year.
“The summer will be absolutely hectic that’s where you want to be playing your best golf, the first half of the year is trying to do as well as I can in every event but you’re fine tuning everything to get into working order by the time the summer rolls around.
“The good stuff last year was really good, and just trying to do that more even, especially in the majors, and week in, week out.
“So if I can bottle that for a bit more, obviously going to be a huge summer, a really busy summer with four Majors, Olympics, Solheim, and packed quite into a short amount of time. So I think everybody is going to be trying to peak at that point.
“So just making sure everything is ready to go by the time those summer months roll around, and put myself contention as much as I can leading up to that.”
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