A day before the first tee time of the CME Group Tour Championship, LPGA Tour Commissioner Craig Kessler engrossed the media with a “peek behind the curtain.” Kessler dove into the tour’s business updates and answered questions about its future. Fairway to Green is honored to be one of the first to share those with you, our readers.
With the big news about the media rights deals yesterday and the 2026 schedule release today, Kessler’s press conference was an anticipated one. He opened with the four pillars he’s tied to his vision for the LPGA Tour – building trust, fans, visibility and strengthening the tour’s financial foundation – and then shared the below flywheel with the press.
“Here’s how we think about our flywheel – it starts with improving the product,” said Kessler. “That includes broadcast quality, predictability, building connections between fans and players. When we’re successful at that it leads to two things. The first, stickier fans and then second, it gives us the ability to run a fan acquisition strategy and drive new eyeballs towards the LPGA.”
“If we’re successful in doing that, there are three really wonderful outcomes,” continued Kessler. “The first is ideally we drive incremental demand to host our tournaments, which drives up purses and our athletes will benefit from tremendously. Second, it helps with our media rights. Third, it helps draw interest from official marketing partners.”
As the former COO of the PGA of America and having earned his MBA from Harvard Business School, Kessler’s experience and expertise is a powerful combination for the LPGA. The flywheel was a dead giveaway that he had attended business school, as was his ability to direct the media’s attention to his key elements – the broadcast, schedule, buildings stars, TV rights and internal talent. Kessler touched on each aspect.
“On the broadcast yesterday, we had a seminal moment in the LPGA’s history when we announced that next year 100% of our rounds will be covered live,” Kessler said, acknowledging the new partnership with FM, Trackman and Golf Channel.
“Just pause on that for second,” Kessler later added. “It’s a 75-year-old organization. These athletes have earned the right to be shown live on TV, and it’s finally going to happen.”
Major winner Minjee Lee applauded the media deals, saying, “Television partnership is everything really. Essentially, we’re entertainers, so if we don’t have TV times, live TV times or the slots are when a lot of people are watching TV, it’s hard to really build the tour the way we want to build it.”
“On schedule, hopefully you’ve heard us talk about routing, courses and purses,” continued Kessler. “We are ruthless on all three of those fronts.”
Nelly Korda commended the efforts being made to the schedule, saying “I love the beginning of the season. I think having a West Coast swing at the beginning of the season is great. Where I would love to see improvements obviously is the majors. I feel like they’re really bunched up.”
Korda continued, “But I would say it’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint. I think if we continuously make small improvements it’s going to get there. You can’t snap your fingers and for it all to be done. I’ve seen major improvements in our scheduling as well.”
Kessler’s approach to elevating the women on tour to become global superstars is thoughtful and deliberate. “On stars, here’s how we think about stars at the LPGA. Think about a Venn diagram with three circles,” said Kessler. “You have the best players, you have the most marketable players and you have the ones who are actually willing to lean in and do the work. It’s the handful of players at the center of that Venn diagram that we are going to invest our resources against in order to create global superstars and TV rights. This is one of the lifeblood elements of the LPGA.”
Kessler later added, “Our job is to find the right holistic balanced set of stories to tell so that our fans get excited week-to-week. If we are reliant on one person whether it’s a star or a celebrity to carry the weight of the Tour on their backs, I think we’ve missed the boat. What last week [at The ANNIKA] proved is that there’s so much magic happening on the LPGA and we have to bring all of it to life.”
As for TV rights, we already know about Golf Channel and U-NEXT, but we can expect a new deal to be announced soon with Korea. In regard to the U-NEXT deal with Japan, Kessler commented, “This is the largest international streaming deal we’ve had in the history of the LPGA.” Kessler shared that he sees potential in Asia that he hopes to tap into.
Last but certainly not least is the internal talent at the LPGA Tour, which employs over 200 people working behind the scenes to bring Kessler’s vision to life. “Talent is critical for any organization in order to thrive. Let me be clear about one thing. All of the good news we’re sharing now and that we shared yesterday is the product of an incredible team effort,” said Kessler.
In this vein, three new hires have been made to the tour’s senior leadership. Monica Fee was named the Chief Sales and Partnerships Officer; she brings experience from LIV and CAA Sports. The tour also brought on two new board members, Deborah Majoras – the former chair of Federal Trade Commission – and Sean Bratches – a veteran of ESPN and one of the brains behind Formula 1’s Drive to Survive hit on Netflix.
Lauren Coughlin and Lindy Duncan have been elected to the board for 2026 as Player Directors to represent the interests of the players. They have taken over from Gemma Dryburgh and newly retired Elizabeth Szokol.
Duncan shared, “Our last player meeting was awesome. I think [Kessler is] really passionate and very focused on specific things. What I hope to bring is kind of the same energy.”
After sharing his vision and business strategy, the media asked Kessler his next steps.
“I think I mentioned earlier wanting to be an organization that people are proud to partner with, and one of the characteristics of that is we have to do what we say we will do,” answered Kessler. “So, the first priority is executing on all of the good news that we’ve already announced…And to be clear, I don’t expect us to be perfect out of the gates. So, executing on what we said we would execute against, priority No. 1. Right behind that is building deep connections between fans and athletes, building superstars.”
Trust is also an important element that Kessler emphasized, especially with the players. “Building trust to me is one of the time-intensive things a leader can do. It takes a long time to get there and about a second to lose it. It’s precious and very, very delicate,” said Kessler. “Our entire leadership team spends hours a week because that’s the most important ingredient if we’re going to unlock the LPGA’s potential.”
Additionally, Kessler shared that players have volunteered to lean into the LPGA Tour’s initiatives, and while the leadership team is still figuring out what that looks like, there are some initial ideas. “If we ask you to be a global superstar, lean in,” said Kessler. “Show up in culture everywhere you can. If we ask you to do walk-and-talks, not just you but your caddies, try it.”
Korda will undoubtedly be one of those global superstars. “I’m so excited for the LPGA. I’m so proud of the people behind the scenes putting that together. It’s just going to be super exciting to see what the future has in store for the LPGA,” said Korda. “I think the girls and the product out here, we really deserve it. I’m excited to see what everyone thinks about it.”
Kessler and his team have their work cut out for them, but it’s been refreshing to see so many improvements in his first three months on the job. That momentum is crucial to the tour’s growth and chance to thrive in a saturated sports market. Is Kessler the mover and shaker women’s golf has been waiting for? We certainly hope so.
Fairway to Green’s Kelly Okun caught up with Kessler after the press conference and asked why he’s so passionate about doing this for the tour and its players.
