The source of professional golf’s latest renewal? AI … and an Apple TV remote.

In the 1741 edition of Poor Richard’s Almanaca 35-year-old Benjamin Franklin, writing about the character of Poor “Richard Saunders”, spoke of the fruits of wisdom.

“At 20 will reign Will, at 30 is Wit;” Franklin wrote. “And in 40 Judgment.”

Two hundred and eighty-five years later, 40-year-old LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler hopes Franklin’s words stand.

Above any job title or talking point, Kessler’s age is the most apt analogy for the battle he hopes to wage as the LPGA’s newly minted chief executive. As one of the youngest executives of any major sports league on earth, Kessler enters the LPGA with the reliable ability to drag the tour to the bleeding edge of innovation and growth. But at 40, he hopes to navigate these changes without damaging the business of golf as it has always been: TV rights and title sponsorships and hospitality tents and goodwill.

That’s Kessler’s biggest advantage and most genuine threat as LPGA leader: He’s old enough to remember the good old days — and young enough to know what’s coming after them. Now, in a moment defined by systemic upheaval, it’s Kessler’s job to decide what stays and what goes.

And the best way to understand that struggle? Kessler says it starts in the living room.

“In my generation, you turned on the TV and if you didn’t like what was on, you waited until the first half or the last half of the hour to watch the next episode,” Kessler told GOLF.com Monday during a media day promoting next month’s Hilton Vacation Tournament of Champions. “I have three boys — they’re 6, 8 and 10. I’ve seen the way they consume content and it’s very different from my generation. They sit there with an Apple TV remote and if they don’t like something, within six seconds, they hit it and move on to whatever they want to watch.”

It was in those six seconds that Kessler came to understand the world of women’s golf. If the previous generation of athletes was defined by those who would wait for the end of the clock, then other The generation will be represented by those who will not wait until the end of MINUTE.

“Seeing how the next generation of LPGA athletes are consuming media and entertainment has been absolutely fascinating to me,” Kessler said. “We’re thinking about winning our share of the attention economy, and we’re making the right moves in the right way to succeed.”

Kessler is not alone in this sentiment. The “attention economy” has been adopted by many in the sports leadership class in 2025 as a recognition of the times. We’re living in an age of mass distraction, when multi-billion dollar social media companies are funded on the premise of endless scrolls and engaged time. The shift can best be understood in economic terms: Now, for the first time, people are not the customer but the product; the more attention gained, the bigger the profits.

For sports leagues competing within the “attention economy,” the downstream shifts have been just as tectonic. For the sports leaders of the modern era, the ultimate currency is not trophies or victories, but seconds of earned attention, and the competitors are not “other leagues”, but Internet giants such as TikTok and Instagram. The old way of doing business is still pretty valid – in its lowest form, sports TV deals and sponsorships are selling a captive audience – but the wave of new media options has also created a whole new way of doing business.

This presents an unusual opportunity for sports organizations like the LPGA, which are not only associated with our traditional understanding of attention as “hours on network television”. For Kessler’s LPGA, watch out can means an expanded television rights partnership with a major partner (Kessler’s biggest win as commissioner to date is a great partnership with FM to offer expanded LPGA television hours in 2026). But it could also mean growth in a social media world whose algorithms are primed to promote individuals who live interesting lives, visit beautiful places and interact with famous people — three things prevalent almost every week on the LPGA.

“I think the most critical topic is giving fans a chance to understand our athletes, both inside the ropes and outside the ropes,” Kessler said. “Fans want not only to watch their favorite athletes compete, but also to understand who they are as people. What do they do in their free time? What do they eat? What do they watch? Who do they hang out with? What do they wear? And some of the biggest sports stars have found a way to trim and show their competitive side and also their real-life personalities.”

If you’re sensing a theme in Kessler’s thinking, you’re right. The ideas he hopes to implement on the LPGA aren’t exactly beamed from a StarLink satellite via ChatGPT; they are adapted from the old school sports marketing playbook for modern times. And in a world where an audience can be built and cultivated without the help of a major television network, Kessler’s ideas reflect a flexibility to win at any cost.

Will these ideas make a significant difference in the business of women’s professional golf? It’s too early to tell. The original rules governing sports popularity haven’t changed — big stars compete on big stages in events that matter — and the LPGA still has its work cut out for those goals.

But these are unusual times in professional sports. Large audiences have never been cheaper, easier or more accessible to reach in human history. Soon, AI-generated content could lower the barrier even further—and yes, Kessler has ideas for that, too.

“I think AI will feed the desire more than ever before for human connection,” he said. “Events like the Tournament of Champions feed perfectly into our innate desire that has evolved over millions of years for human connection.”

There is little debate that the LPGA requires a clear vision and good judgment.

The 40-year-old leader in women’s golf certainly has the former. What about the latter?

Well, maybe poor Richard can testify.

You can contact the author at james.colgan@golf.com.

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