LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan lost her job after failures with Solheim Cup parking hanging during the event.
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The last 12 months had it all – crazy winning streaks, great new champions, a major weekly arrest (!) and more. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are looking at the most memorable moments from 2024.
no. 15 – Charley Hull goes viral
no. 14 – LIV, CEO of the LPGA say goodbye
Long before the topic of parking entered the fray, the LPGA had pegged the 2024 Solheim Cup as a reputation-altering event.
For good reason, too. The 2023 repeat of the Solheim Cup, held in Andalucia, Spain, featured perhaps the most thrilling finish in the Cup’s history – a final-day comeback for the Europeans, marked by hometown hero Carlota Ciganda’s finish to beat Nelly Korda and the Americans. Korda followed up that experience with the best season of her professional life, winning every event she played in for the better part of six months and establishing herself as the sport’s much sought-after dominant force. Now, with the state’s focus shifting to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club near the nation’s capital in 2024, the stakes are set. The Americans and Europeans were ready to lock horns, and the LPGA faced a golden opportunity to show it could attract the attention of the world of professional sportsnot to mention providing a much needed benefit to Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan.
And then the sun rose on the morning of the first day, and the liquid escaped from the event like a needle pricking a balloon. The first ball stands, a universal indicator of the energy and power of a match event, sat half empty. The first matches of the tournament week ended with limited fanfare. And then, just as disappointment set in among those expecting a spectacle, news came from miles away, where thousands of fans were stranded since before dawn in the tour parking lots.
Eventually, the golf world learned that the LPGA had botched logistics, failing to line up enough shuttle buses to get fans to the golf course until after the tournament had begun. We learned a little about the specifics, incl HOWexactly, a tour with a logistical playbook already written — RTJ Golf Club hosted four PGA Tour events and a Presidents Cup before Solheim — failed to properly account for two of golf’s biggest tour problems: people and parking.
Surveillance was costly. The LPGA had lost the faith of at least some fans, and the players weren’t far behind. All the transport buses in the world for the next two days of competition were not enough to save that first, critical mistake. Reputation is earned in drops and lost in buckets.
A little over two months later, Marcoux Samaan resignedleaving the largest women’s professional golf tour after just three years in the post. Liz Moore, the LPGA’s chief legal officer, became interim commissioner in her place. The Solheim Cup parking fiasco was not the only one The reason for Marcoux Samaan’s departure, but there was no doubt he played a part.
Marcoux Samaan left her post dramatically increasing earnings for LPGA professionals, increasing purse sizes and achieving expanded broadcast deals with broadcast partners such as ESPN. But her legacy was quickly and perhaps irrevocably linked to the missteps that plagued her time in office: not addressing the pace of the game, struggling to build stars at a time of explosive growth for women’s sports and, of course, Solheim Cup.
Now the LPGA heads into another important offseason with a completely clear plan. The track is clear for a new chief executive with a new vision to reshape the future before the women’s sports boom overtakes golf.
The LPGA has a chance to rewrite its reputation once again. This time, with the Solheim Cup serving as a prologue.
