Among the LPGA pros criss-crossing the globe for starters is Alison Lee, right?
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There is, of course, a glamorous side to life at the top level of professional golf. Adoring fans. Endorsement Agreements with luxury cars and branded watches. Padding Pro V1s on immaculate, sun-splashed driving ranges – rocking carriages, masseurs and analytics move in tow.
But there is another side.
Canceled flights. Get wet. Living out of a suitcase. Long stretches away from family and friends.
First world difficulties for sure, but difficulties nonetheless, especially in the increasingly global world LPGA European and Ladies tournaments, and especially this time of year when weary players would be forgiven for forgetting what city, if not time zone, they are in. The LPGA Tour is in the midst of a month-long swing that takes pros from China to Korea to Malaysia to Japan. Meanwhile, over the same period, the LET schedule has moved from China to Taiwan, to India to Saudi Arabia, where the tournament is this week for an Aramco Team Series event at the Riyadh Golf Club.
Traveling is a struggle, not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Just ask the players at the Riyadh station, who earlier this week spoke openly about the challenges of their nomadic lifestyle.
“I don’t think there’s a girl out there who says she likes going to the airport every day and going to the tournament every week because it’s hard, it’s really hard,” said Alison Lee, who is ranked 34 in the world. ; after playing three of the LPGA’s Asian swing events, Lee is now playing making her fourth start in four weeks in four countries and two continents. “It’s hard on our body. Especially when we travel abroad and spend hours and hours on the road, packing, unpacking and a lot of time, many of us also travel alone. So if we’re going to the airport, we have two, three, four suitcases. Dragging it through the airport, slowly making my way to the next event, renting a car, going to the hotel room. It can get quite lonely at times.”
The difficulties of travel, of course, are not unique to the women’s game. But when it comes to stamped passports and accumulated frequent flyer points, the top female players are miles ahead of most of their male counterparts. Also, while there is a geographic flow or logic to the PGA Tour schedule (the season starts with a few events in Hawaii followed by a few stops in the American West before settling in Florida for a month, etc.), the LPGA is literally in the whole map.
Several events in Florida to open the season are followed by stops in Singapore, Thailand and China. Then it’s back to the US for a dizzying itinerary that takes players from Arizona to Hawaii to New Jersey. This year, in a three-week stretch in July, the tournament Ping-Ponged from France to Ohio to Calgary. Last year, my colleague, Claire Rogerscaptured the volume of the journey in an eye-opening video that has attracted 1.6 million views on X.
It’s no wonder that by the time players get to the fall, they’re spent.
Charlie Hullwho lives in England, played in Malaysia last week followed by Saudi Arabia this week. When on the road, she said in her wonderfully straightforward style, “I just want to go home.”
Hull, ranked 15th in the world, can be more selective than many LPGA pros about the events she plays, which gives her the luxury of following what she calls her “golden rule.” : never play more than two weeks in a row.
“Unless it’s in the UK,” she said. “Exactly, I can go from Evian to Britain to Scotland.” She added, “I turned pro when I was 16. Now I’m 28. I need to have some life in between.”
Yes, golfers—just like dentists, lawyers, and teachers—want life, too. When you see them strolling the freeways, grabbing gobbles on the practice green, or stretching their limbs in the fitness trailer, it’s easy to forget that all of those activities are theirs working. Avoiding or failing to do any of these tasks can lead to missed cuts, and stress about income and game status, and difficult conversations with spouses and friends, and … more stress. Things can turn around in a hurry.
Fifth-year LPGA pro Patty Tavatanakit grew up and played competitively in Thailand before playing on the UCLA women’s golf team. Now 25, she has two LPGA wins, including a major (2021 Chevron). When Tavatanaki was asked this week what keeps her motivated to continue spanning the globe in pursuit of golfing greatness, her candor was surprising.
“I’m already wondering if I really love golf, but I do it as a job,” she said. “What drives me to do what I do is probably to be successful. I really want to be successful, just by setting goals and trying to achieve them, no matter what. I feel like I lost it for a little bit over the last couple of years, I was just lost and like, why am I playing? And so, I set a good goal earlier this year and it kind of sparked some good feelings inside.”
Charley Hull is ‘smashed’. After the year that has passed, you can understand why
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That positive mojo translated almost immediately into victory. Tavatanakit won Saudi Aramco’s next LET event in February, clearing the field by seven, before winning the LPGA event in Thailand a week later. “I’m not sure how long I’m going to keep this up — definitely not, like in the next 20 years,” Tavatanakit said. “I have a timeline for what I want to do, what I want to achieve and I just want to get out.”
Tavatanaki’s early retirement plans are not an anomaly in the women’s game. Lydia Kowho is 27 and enjoying one of the best seasons of her career, has said she wants to hang up her top before she turns 30. Earlier this year, Lexi Thompson, 29, stunned the golf world when she announced she was calling it quits.
