The Birdie Buzz – LPGA News (September 29, 2025)
Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Birdie Briefing. This is your Birdie Buzz your quick hit of women’s golf news. I’m Marie and this week we’ve got everything from a canceled tournament that turned into a
community win to Craig Kessler’s latest attempt at a Venn diagram, Lexi Thompson opening up about money and balance and Michelle Wie West dropping some takes only she could get
away with. Let’s dive in. So first up, the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship. You might remember the pictures, Mother Nature might have won out that time, but the LPGA
and Walmart really turned it into something worth talking about. So let’s finish up the coverage of that tournament. So I had mentioned in my last episode about the prize fund, we knew that Walmart was going
to be giving out some of the money, but we didn’t know how much or how they were going to do it. So the rule is to pay out 50 % of the money in a canceled tournament like this. If you’ll remember, the prize for the Walmart tournament was supposed to be $3 million. So of course, that’s $1.5 million. But Walmart stepped it up a bit, and they did $2 million of the payout. So most of that, the $1.5 million went to the top 65 players, and it followed the standard
LPGA distribution formula. That means the winners got 15%. So $225,000. second place $141,000 and third place $100,000 and so on. The remaining $500,000 of that two million that Walmart distributed was split evenly
amongst all 144 players in the field, which gave everyone $3,500. So even though the rain canceled the golf, Walmart and the LPGA really made a way to make
it a little bit better. I love that the payout went beyond the rule book. I think $2 million total with money for every player in the field is really just, that’s
really doing the ladies a solid. So I have to say good job Walmart and the LPGA. Another good thing that happened in the midst of all the rain, remember that the
tournament was gonna be kind of a foodie destination. There was that thing called the Bite Experience. Well, they had already created or started creating a lot of that food for the Bite Experience, 8,000 meals just for that Sunday, to be exact. And so instead of letting the food go to waste, they gave it to the wider community. They made it the food available to employees and volunteers of the event, but also local
churches, homeless shelters, food banks, first responders, and more. At no cost to them, I guess a dozen. meals went to a local family whose father had just passed away that night before. I mean, really a lot of feel good stories coming out of the tournament considering that it
was so short and not a lot of golf was actually played. So I think it’s lovely that instead of a washout, the story really turned into something
about fairness and the community. I think the bite meals feeding families and shelters shows just how tournaments can still
deliver impact to the community that they’re in even without a final leader. So a great story, a great conclusion to a tournament that I look forward to watching next
year. Okay, so the second story I want to talk about is Craig Kessler. He’s back with a new vision for the LPGA. And yes, he is still talking about Venn diagrams and he’s now literally drawing new
circles. So there was an article in the Sports Business Journal, SBJ. It’s an article from September 25th by Mike Mazio. I guess Craig Kessler was honored as one of the 40 under 40 by SBJ. They had a game changers conference this past week and Craig Kessler was in one of these
sessions, was being interviewed by Angela Stanford whose name might sound familiar because she is serving as the US captain for the Solheim team cup that will be competing next year
in the Netherlands. So they’ve already announced the team lead. We don’t know who’s on the team. That won’t be decided for quite a while. But yes, we know that Angela Stanford will be the captain. So kind of a soft interview if he’s being interviewed by her, but that’s fine. These conferences are like that. So Craig said that a lot of people have approached him to say that the tour isn’t American
enough, I would personally disagree. But I guess, you know, it is true that of the 25 winners this year, 21 have been
international or not American. I think that says more about what Americans need to do to invest in women’s golf and less
about an inherent problem in the tour. But that’s not the point. Kessler said… that yes, I hear their concerns, but he’s going to lean into it. He pointed out that a lot of sports leagues are trying to figure out how to find more of
an international or global audience, and He already has it with LPGA. So he has a new Venn diagram. If you are wondering what this Venn diagram business is about, well, he had an old diagram
that he talked about. It was in a Golf Week article from early September. In his old diagram, there were just two different circles. One was the best athletes, one was the interesting athletes, and he wanted to focus on the
ones or create more people in the middle. He said that the women had a duty to become more interesting, You can go back and listen
to the podcast. was from two weeks ago, now in this SBJ Game Changers Conference, has a new diagram. So don’t worry, there’s another circle. So again, in one circle, we still have the best players based on performance. In our second circle, we still have the most marketable players. And then now there’s a third circle. And that is the circle of those who are willing to lean in and do their part to create
entertaining stories. And then he said they’re going to work ruthlessly. That’s a quote. with those that are in the center of those three circles to create superstars out of them. I just want to pause there. I hate the phrase work ruthlessly. it’s just a crazy way to talk about creating a sustainable business model for these
athletes. I think that, I don’t know, I’ll get into it in a little bit, but he did say that he might
create different stars. using this ruthless work in Asia the US Europe, and I think that makes sense. I think there’s huge markets in Asia already for the JLPGA and the KLPGA, Japanese and
Korean LPGA. The JLPGA has crazy fans. Those tournaments look like they’re amazing. I can see why those Japanese players don’t want to come join the LPGA where they might win
big money and be playing on a bigger stage, but the fan experience and I think sort of the sponsorships they can get if they play in the JLPGA or KLPGA, I think
that’s a lot bigger. So, you know, on one hand, I love that Kessler’s openly leaning into LPGA’s global nature
and that he wants to build superstars by, you know, combining performance markability and willingness to engage. I think that’s nothing wrong with it, but there are questions. So what happens to players that aren’t in the sweet spot? Who determines who are those players that are interesting? Does ruthlessly working with a select few risk sidelining other people? And what happens to those players then? How can they convince you that they are interesting enough? And really, is being interesting really something you can demand of athletes? Or does that kind of miss the whole organic magic of women’s sports specifically? So I don’t know, it’s bold, it’s a little ruthless, and it really leaves me wondering
who’s gonna get left out of their circles and is being interesting really something that you can script? I guess time will tell. Let’s move on to our next story, onto Lexi Thompson. She’s been candid lately about stepping back from the tour for her mental health and the
numbers tell part of the story. So she had an interview with Vanessa Welch on Empower’s YouTube channel. She talks about how stepping back from the LPGA tour has been important for her mental
health. She’s learning how to have better balance in her life. know, obviously Lexi Thompson was a star very young in her life. I believe she’s only 30. And she did talk about how she said, I don’t think she ever used the word retirement, but
other people used that word for her and then caused a lot of confusion because she has played a good number of events this year. But. you know, she did talk about how that was not her intention. She just really needed to sort of step back for her mental health and it’s okay to take a
day off. It’s okay to prioritize things above golf. I think that’s very healthy. I love that for her. She’s so young. She has so much life ahead of her. I think there’s a lot that she can still do. It was also interesting just kind of looking at, you know, or thinking about how Lexi
Thompson was so young, but already retiring. And I looked at it for 2024, there were 13 players that retired from full-time competition
and six of them, so about half were 34 or younger. I think it really begs the question of whether this is a trend, why the LPGA doesn’t hold
on to players as long as they did in the past, or even when you compare it to the PGA who seems to have players that play for decades. So. I really liked that Lexi was honest about stepping back for her mental health. And I think it highlights generally a trend about players retiring younger. And that’s telling, I think it tells us something about the grind of the tour and sort of
the financial reality. And speaking of financial reality, in her interview, she talked about, how she earned
$682,000 this year. which for her is a lot less than normal. So I know that’s a lot of money. But if you think about what’s her normal and she’s been playing at a really high level for
over decade, I think it was really something that I wanted to look into a little bit more. If you’re interested in sort of the overall money rankings, you are in luck. You can just go to birdiebriefing.com under the rankings. addition to the Rolex rankings and the race to the CME rankings, we also have an LPGA
money rankings. So Lexi with her almost $700,000 is 46. She’s made the 46th amount of money this year on tour. The top three, you’re interested, Minjee Lee is number one. She won a major, of course. She won $3.6 million so far this year. It’s not over. Jeeno Thitikul who has won one tournament has not won a major but has scored in the top
10. I don’t have the stat in front of me but a lot. And you earn more obviously if you’re in the top 10. So she’s earned $3.1 million. So she’s in a solid second place position for the earnings. And then third place is everyone’s favorite Japanese rookie maybe Miyu Yamashita. She of course also won a major and has been playing exceedingly well and she has earnings
of $2.8 million. for this year so far. And then I looked to see sort of what that threshold was for when the earnings for the
year so far were under $100,000. I think $100,000 is a nice salary. A lot of people would be happy with, especially as a 24-year-old or however old these
players are. And it’s the top 120-ish earners so far this year have made $100,000. So yes, those top earners are doing amazing, but You know, a mid-career star like Lexi only made $682,000 this year. It’s respectable, absolutely, but it’s not like generational wealth, especially for
someone who has played so well. So I think the gap between that sort of superstar money and that solid pro money is stark. It’s a big difference. I think it’s a conversation about the sustainability of the sport as an athlete,
especially for these young stars that are coming in. So something that’s worth keeping an eye on. know, we talk a lot about the different purse sizes. So I think this plays into it sort of how long people play and why they stop playing. So we’ll talk more about that in another episode. I think that’s worth a deeper dive. Our final story for today is about Michelle Wie West. She is retired, yes, but is she quiet? Never. And we love that about her. So obviously, Michelle Wie West was Another player like Lexi who started really young but retired in her early 30s. But she is still part of the golf scene. She’s not going anywhere. She’s in a partnership with Nike. Her Instagram is a good follow if that’s something that you’re in. But she was recently on the We Need a Fourth podcast. She talked about a few things that I just thought were worth talking about. There wasn’t a tournament this week, so, you know, kind of looking to see what was, what
else was happening in the LPGA world. She talked about how her daughter Makenna loves golf. Her daughter is, I think, just seven years old. Maybe she’s five. She’s really young. But she loves golf, and she will play for hours on end and get blisters on her hands. So maybe we’re going to have another little Wie West woman joining the LPGA. You may remember Michelle Wie West was the youngest player to qualify for a USGA amateur
championship at just age 10. That is crazy. My son is 11. I cannot imagine him playing professional sports. So really just amazing for Michelle Wie West to kind of have her daughter. And she says she’s not putting pressure on her. And I believe her. think Michelle Wie West knows more than most the difficulties. of being such a young star and all that pressure you put on yourself, know, see above, see
Lexi Thompson’s story. But I do think, you know, that doesn’t take away from someone loving the sport and wanting
to be really amazing at it. So if her daughter, it seems like if her daughter really wants to go for it, Michelle Wie
West would be there to cheer her on, which I love that. She also talked about how she hates slow, serious play. Michelle Wie. West talked about she likes dislikes when golfers overthink every shot or have a meltdown over a bad one. She talks about how ruins the rhythm and the vibe and just pick up your ball. I couldn’t agree more. I play golf, try to play golf once a week. I am not that good. I’ve only started playing this year. And sometimes you just got to pick up your ball or improve your lie. But speaking of improving your lie, she also talked about what she called the dumbest
rule, which I think is fine. I think we should talk about the dumbest. of a lot of things like the dumbest Venn diagram. No, I’m just kidding. But she also talked about how she wanted the USGA to scrap what she calls the dumbest
rule, which is where you have to play the ball where it lies. Even when it’s in a divot in the fairway. The USGA does point out that it’s hard to define what is a divot. So granting relief for ground under repair would be really complicated and slow down the
game, which is something Michelle Wie. West also doesn’t like. I would tend to agree that trying to define something like that would be really difficult and kind of slow everything
down. But I can definitely understand why that is called the dumbest rule. And if you’re just playing a casual game of golf, move that ball sister. You do not need to play it from the divot. If you got on the fairway from your tee shot or your second shot, just kick it a little
bit over. There’s no shame. So Michelle Wie West is still bringing the heat, calling out meltdowns for killing vibes
questioning rules, and giving us a peek into her daughter’s love of the game. I think she reminds us that golf’s future is shaped not just by the play, but by
personality, and she’s still one of the strongest voices out there. So thanks, Michelle Wie West, for keeping it real. And that’s your Birdie Buzz for the week. From payouts and policies to retirements and rule changes, the front page of Women’s Golf
is never dull. Don’t forget to check out birdiebriefing.com for deeper dives, rankings, and previews. Until next time, I’m Marie and this has been your front page snapshot of LPGA.
This week on Birdie Buzz, Marie recaps the week in women’s golf—from canceled tournaments that turned into community wins to big conversations about the future of the LPGA.
First, we close out coverage of the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship, where rain canceled play but Walmart and the LPGA still delivered a $2 million payout to players and 8,000 donated meals to the local community.
Then, LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler makes headlines with yet another Venn diagram—this time adding a third circle and promising to “work ruthlessly” to create global superstars. Marie breaks down what that means, and who might get left out.
We also hear from Lexi Thompson, who opened up about stepping back for her mental health, reflecting on the grind of the tour, her earnings this season, and what it says about the financial realities of professional women’s golf.
Finally, Michelle Wie West proves she’s still one of the game’s strongest voices, calling out slow play, questioning rules, and sharing her daughter’s budding love for golf.
From payouts and policies to retirements and rule changes, Birdie Buzz brings you the front page snapshot of women’s golf you won’t find anywhere else.