Nelly Korda has been the dominant force in the women’s game in 2024, but who is leading the overall money list on the LPGA Tour?
Golf is almost finished in 2024 but as schedules get wrapped up and tournaments come to a close, one of the sport’s most significant debates ceases to end and is starker than ever.
At this stage in October, the women’s game’s best player Nelly Korda leads the LPGA Tour money list having earned just over $3,676,930 across 14 events.
While this is a sum the majority of humans can’t imagine having let alone tangibly holding, Korda’s figure would be good for 46th place in the PGA Tour money list of 2024, dwarfing Alex Noren’s measly earnings of $3,649,210.
This is but a fraction of Scottie Scheffler’s monstrous bank balance of $29,228,357 across 19 events. There is disparity and then there is a cavern, and it seems the LPGA Tour and the women’s game in general are being sucked in as the men’s side continues to pump millions in year upon year due to financial warfare being waged between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League. Billions in some cases.
Does Korda, the World No.1 who has won six times this year including a second major title, deserve marginally more prize money than Max Greyserman and Austin Eckroat? If you can’t answer that question, maybe ponder who moves the needle more in the sport yet has been identically enumerated.
Due to the aforementioned in-fighting between the men’s US circuit and LIV, the game has entered unprecedented times with unprecedented sums of money, so not only is the disparity between genders even greater, the women’s game is yet to properly benefit, with the one dim but significant beacon light coming in the form of the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour.
While good golf is still handsomely rewarded in the women’s game, the quality of the likes of Korda, Ko and Vu is presented in a minnow-like fashion when it comes to prize money compared to the men, which cannot continue and shouldn’t be the case. Either the constant upward flow in the men’s game must stop, or the women’s game must receive a larger, overdue piece of the pie.
