The financial chasm between the LPGA and PGA Tours reached unprecedented levels as the 2026 season got underway, with Thailand's rising phenom Jeeno Thitikul becoming the latest example of golf's glaring gender pay disparity. The 22-year-old's $7,578,330 in earnings as the LPGA's top money winner in 2025 would have placed her a distant 20th on the PGA Tour's money list - a sobering statistic that underscores systemic inequities in professional golf's economic structure.
Scottie Scheffler's historic PGA Tour campaign made the contrast even more jarring. The world's top-ranked male golfer amassed $27,659,500 across 20 starts - nearly four times Thitikul's season earnings and more than the combined totals of the LPGA's top three players. "Playing some of my best golf," Scheffler remarked after his record-shattering season, which included four victories and 18 top-10 finishes. The Texan's single-season haul surpassed the career earnings of all but a handful of LPGA veterans.
Even Nelly Korda's extraordinary 2024 season - when she became just the third woman in LPGA history to win seven times in a single year - couldn't narrow the financial divide. Korda's $6.8 million in earnings that year was still eclipsed by Rory McIlroy's $8.1 million payday for his lone victory at The Players Championship. The Northern Irishman's TPC Sawgrass check alone exceeded what 19 of the LPGA's 20 tournament winners earned for their victories in 2025.
"Were seeing historic performances from women golfers," LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan told reporters during the season-opening event, "but the financial recognition still lags behind." The commissioner's comments came as the tour celebrated Thitikul's $4 million payday at the CME Group Tour Championship - the largest single-tournament prize in women's golf history. "This victory changes everything for me," said the young Thai star after her season-ending triumph, which accounted for more than half her annual earnings.
The CME Group's landmark purse increase to $11 million in 2025 represented progress, yet also highlighted how rare seven-figure payouts remain in the women's game. For context, the PGA Tour hosted 24 events with purses exceeding $11 million last season, including eight with $20 million or more. The average LPGA purse of $2.5 million pales in comparison to the PGA Tour's $20 million average, creating a multiplier effect that impacts players at all levels.
The trickle-down effect of these purse disparities creates compounding disadvantages for LPGA professionals. While Thitikul's earnings would rank 20th among PGA players, the 100th-ranked PGA Tour pro still outearned the LPGA's 10th-highest money winner. "The gap affects everything from equipment sponsorships to retirement planning," noted 13-time LPGA winner Stacy Lewis, who has been vocal about pay equity issues. "When you're fighting for purses that are a fraction of what the men play for, it impacts every financial decision in your career."
Industry analysts point to media rights valuations as the primary driver of the earnings gap. The PGA Tour's $7 billion media deal with CBS, NBC and ESPN dwarfs the LPGA's television contracts, which were last negotiated in 2021. Sponsorship revenue tells a similar story - while the LPGA has added new partners like Mizuho and Kroger in recent years, corporate investment still lags far behind the PGA Tour's blue-chip roster. "Corporate partners are starting to recognize the value," Marcoux Samaan said, pointing to the tour's growing international audience and engagement metrics.
The divide becomes even more pronounced when examining career earnings. Thitikul's $7.5 million season pushed her career total past $12 million - an impressive sum that still wouldn't crack the top 200 on the PGA Tour's all-time money list. By comparison, Scheffler has already surpassed $60 million in career earnings before his 30th birthday.
As both tours expand their global footprints in 2026, with the LPGA adding events in Asia and the PGA Tour strengthening its international schedule, stakeholders are watching whether the women's game can accelerate its financial growth. The LPGA's new Aramco Team Series events and expanded partnerships with Asian sponsors show promise, but closing golf's gender pay gap will require systemic changes in how women's golf is valued by broadcasters, sponsors and fans alike. With young stars like Thitikul delivering world-class performances, the case for greater investment in the women's game has never been stronger.
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*Originally published on [golfnews.global](https://golfnews.global/article/lpga-prize-money-gap-hits-record-high-as-thitikul-s-7-5m-lags-pga).*
