The LPGA is looking for its breakthrough moment.
With new commissioner Craig Kessler at the helm, the LPGA is entering a whole new era where it plans to elevate the product and increase viewership. in an effort to compete in the constant attention wars who have consumed pro sports.
Kessler has only been on the job for half a year, but he’s already made some significant changes that signal things will be different for the LPGA moving forward. it orchestrated a seismic new TV broadcast deal to ensure that every round of the tournament can be seen live on the Golf Channel or CNBC. He brought in Saudi Golf as a sponsor for a new tournament with a $4 million purse. He moved the Chevron Championship to Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston and is beginning to rework the schedule to maximize its value.
Kessler has big visions and, so far, has demonstrated the ability and willingness to do things that his predecessors either couldn’t or wouldn’t. The 2026 season is a massive one for the LPGA and the Kessler era. It could serve as a springboard for the massive growth that players and executives envision, leading to the breakthrough women’s golf has been waiting for.
A key season begins in late January, with five key players and five questions shaping a season that could be the start of a slow build to the moment Kessler and the LPGA envision.
Craig Kessler’s next move
We’ll start with Kessler.
As mentioned, he’s hit the ground running since taking over, and it’s clear that his opening act crowd was just the beginning.
At the CME Group Tour Championship in November, Kessler further described his approach to positioning the LPGA to capture the attention it seeks. That starts with the television broadcast deal, which has already been improved, but also requires raising the profile of the LPGA’s biggest stars, on and off the ropes.
Enter: WTGL, a women’s simulator league that was announced this week by the LPGA and TMRW Sports, which owns TGL.
Kessler said he started hearing from players about the possibility of a women’s TGL before he officially took over. Mike McCarley of TMRW Sports said that while the focus is now on getting WTGL off the ground, there is interest in LPGA players sharing the stage with PGA Tour stars in a crossover event. While the LPGA looks to reach a wider audience, the WTGL provides an avenue for a younger and more diverse audience.
“I think it means so much,” Lexi Thompson said ESPN’s Matt Barrie of the creation of WTGL. “It just brings a whole different fan base to the game of golf. I think that’s what’s needed. It’s faster golf, all those shots, hitting the screen. I think the fans just get more involved and see the personalities of the guys, and now the women. I think it’s just amazing for the game of golf in general.”
From a new television deal at WTGL, Kessler has already received some notable changes as he looks to elevate women’s golf to the space it deserves. His next moves will be just as important as his first.
The return of Nelly Korda
A year after winning seven times, Korda went winless in 2025 despite stats that suggested her game was mostly up to par.
“It’s definitely been an interesting year I’d say,” Korda said at the CME Group Tour Championship. “There’s been good ones; there’s been really good shots; there’s been shots that I don’t know what happened. Overall I’d say it’s just kind of golf. Going off last year, it’s always going to be hard to back that up.”
Korda had a chance to win the US Women’s Open but was unable to beat eventual champion Maja Stark on Sunday at Erin Hills. She would drop to second in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking and would not be able to compete in any of the final three events of the year. And yet, despite a goose egg in the 2025 win column, Korda, the LPGA’s biggest star, didn’t look at it as a failure. It was just the ebb and flow of one the sport won and lost at the best odds.
“It’s honestly a fine line,” Korda said. “Sometimes it comes down to one shot. It’s like a lip putt outside and you don’t get your momentum. It’s just such a fine line when it comes to golf.
“I don’t necessarily think I’m a worse golfer or a better golfer. I would say maybe last year a few other things were going my way. That’s golf. I’m never going to have a regret party and I’m never going to be like, oh, why is it at this split or why did I get that bad swing. And good breaks and sometimes not.”
But as the LPGA enters a pivotal season after a season dominated by parity, how Korda bounces back — and potentially re-emerges as a dominant force in the women’s game — will be vital. The depth of talent on the LPGA is evident. You don’t have a season with 29 unique winners and only two repeat champions without him. But as the LPGA looks to build on its progress, having one or two dominant stars who can reach a wider audience it is at least necessary, if not essential.
“As a tournament and even from a fan perspective, yeah, it’s nice to have someone like Nelly who was so dominant last year,” Hall of Famer Lydia Ko said. “It gets you a lot of attention, especially with her — in Nelly’s case, being an American player. It gets a lot of different attention. Even if you don’t play golf, you know who Tiger Woods is. Like having a figure like that is, yes, very important, but at the same time, just one level of play between the No. 1 player and the C00 rank. Not much different.
“It’s a double-edged sword in the sense that you want the depth and the talent because you just want to see the whole game grow, but at the same time, if I were to point to somebody, it’s a lot easier to trade one person than 30 people.”
How will Nelly Korda return in 2026? This could be the defining question of next season.
The story of Jeeno Thitikul
While Korda was heading for a winless 2025, Thitilkul dominated the season in every way that mattered except one.
The 22-year-old won three times, finished in the top three eight times and scored 14 top 10s. She won the Player of the Year award and the Vare Trophy, breaking Annika Sorenstam’s record for the lowest scoring average in LPGA history along the way.
Thitikul did it all in 2025, including eclipsing Korda as the No. 1 in the World, in addition to her first title win. She entered the weekend at the KPMG Women’s PGA as one of the top contenders, but saw Minjee Lee slip past her on the weekend in Frisco. Thitikul had the Evian Championship in hand on Sunday before Grace Kim stole it away in a playoff.
In a year that was defined by parity, Thitikul was the dominant force. She has a chance to back it up in 2026, break into a major stage and become one of the faces of the LPGA.
Charley Hull’s potential breakthrough
Charley Hull is one of the needles of the LPGA. Crowds flock to her when she’s on the court. Her popularity has grown over the past few seasons and rivals Kordas.
As mentioned above, the LPGA needs stars and it needs them to win on the course and put themselves out there. Kessler praised Hull for being one of the LPGA’s top stars who is willing to branch out of golf.
“I’m just being myself,” Hull told GOLF. “I think it’s great to be invited (to the UK state dinner). I’ve had a pretty good year and it’s been lovely. I think it’s a good thing for women’s golf that people are accepting it and, yeah, I’m just being myself.”
But the 29-year-old Hull is still waiting for her big breakthrough moment. She has eight career wins, including three on the LPGA, but has yet to win a major championship. Hull has four career runners-up in majors, including the 2025 AIG Women’s Open, where she Sunday’s charge came short, and Miyu Yamashita walked away with the trophy.
Hull is a star. She is a tremendous talent who hits it long and has the kind of personality the LPGA needs to reinforce more. But can her results begin to match or surpass her growing popularity? The answer will be important for the vital season ahead.
Emergence of the new (or old) star.
The 2025 season saw amateur star Lottie Woad have a summer to remember.
Woad won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, failed to win the Evian Championship and then turned professional and promptly won the Scottish Open.
As the LPGA looks for new stars to build on, Woad would appear to be a prime candidate.
So would Rose Zhang, who has cut back on her schedule as she works to complete her communications degree at Stanford. The schedule change and a neck injury led to a season on the “war bus” for Zhang. But she played well in the FM Championship at TPC Boston and plans to finish her degree in March, which should set her up for a full-time return to the playing schedule.
Zhang, a two-time winner on the LPGA Tour, won her first start as a pro and quickly became one of the Tour’s most popular players after a stellar amateur career. Splitting time between professional golf and her studies has been hard on her game, but Zhang should hopefully re-emerge around the start of the 2026 major season as her balancing act comes to an end.
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