The LPGA’s crucial upcoming season? 5 things will determine it

The LPGA is chasing its breakthrough moment.

With new commissioner Craig Kessler at the helm, the LPGA is entering a brand new era as it plans to elevate its product and increase visibility in an effort to compete in the ongoing attention wars that have consumed professional sports.

Kessler has only been in office for half a year, but he has already made some significant changes that indicate things will be different for the LPGA in the future. He orchestrated a seismic new television broadcast to ensure every tournament round was seen live on Golf Channel or CNBC. He brought in Golf Saudi 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 has thus far demonstrated the ability and willingness to do things his predecessors could not or would not do. The 2026 season is a huge one for the LPGA and Kessler era. It could serve as a springboard for the tremendous growth that players and executives envision, leading to the breakthrough women’s golf has been waiting for.

A pivotal 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 has hit the ground running since taking over, and it’s clear that his opening set of moves was just the beginning.

At the CME Group Tour Championship in November, Kessler further outlined his approach to positioning the LPGA to attract the attention he seeks. That starts with the television broadcast deal, which has already been improved, but also requires increasing the visibility of the LPGA’s biggest stars, both inside and outside the ropes.

Enter: WTGL, a women’s simulator league 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 even officially took over. Mike McCarley of TMRW Sports said that while the focus now is on getting WTGL off the ground, there is interest in having LPGA players share the stage with PGA Tour stars in a crossover event. While the LPGA aims to reach a broader audience, the WTGL offers an avenue to a younger and more diverse audience.

“I think it means so much,” says Lexi Thompson told ESPN’s Matt Barrie of the founding of the 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 a screen. I think fans are just really getting more involved and seeing the personalities of the guys, and now the women. I think it’s just great for the game of golf in general.”

From a new television deal to WTGL, Kessler has already made some notable strides in his effort to elevate women’s golf to the space it should occupy. His next moves will be just as important as his first.

The recovery of Nelly Korda

A year after winning seven times, Korda remained winless in 2025, despite statistics suggesting her play was largely at the same level.

“It’s definitely been an interesting year, I would say,” Korda said at the CME Group Tour Championship. “There have been good moments; there have been moments of really good things; there have been moments of I don’t know what just happened. Overall, I would say it’s just kind of a wave. Last year it’s always been hard to back that up.”

Korda had a chance to win the US Women’s Open but could not beat eventual champion Maja Stark on Sunday in Erin Hills. She fell to second place in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and was unable to compete in any of the last three majors of the year. And yet, despite a goose egg in the 2025 win column, Korda, the LPGA’s biggest star, didn’t consider it a failure. It was just the ebb and flow of a sport won and lost by the narrowest of margins.

“It’s a fine line, honestly,” Korda said. “It comes down to one shot sometimes. It’s like sticking your lips out with one ball and not getting 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 a few more things went my way last year. That’s just the way golf is. I’m never going to have a pity party or be like, oh, why is it in this divot or why did I get that bad bounce. It’s just sport. That’s just the way they are. Sometimes you get a wave of good bounces and good breaks, and sometimes you don’t.”

But as the LPGA enters a pivotal season after one dominated by parity, how Korda bounces back — and potentially re-emerges as the dominant force in the women’s game — will be critical. The depth of talent on the LPGA is evident. Without this season, you don’t get a season with 29 unique winners and only two returning champions. But as the LPGA tries to work toward its breakthrough, having one or two dominant stars who can reach a broader audience is at least necessary, if not absolutely necessary.

“As a tour and even from a fan perspective, it’s great to have someone like Nelly who was so dominant last year,” said Hall of Famer Lydia Ko. “Definitely a lot of attention, especially with her – in the case of Nelly, because she is an American player. That attracts a lot of different attention. Even if you don’t play golf, you know who Tiger Woods is. Having such a figure is, yes, very important, but at the same time it’s just a level of play between the No. 1-ranked player in the CME rankings up to 100, I think the talent is not that 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 market someone, it’s a lot easier to market one person than 30 people.”

How will Nelly Korda bounce back in 2026? That could well be the defining question for the coming season.

Encore by Jeeno Thitikul

While Korda was on his way to a winless 2025, Thitilkul dominated the season in every way but one.

The 22-year-old won three times, finished in the top three eight times and had fourteen top ten numbers. 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.

Thitikul did everything in 2025, including eclipsing Korda as world No. 1, except winning her first major. She started the weekend at the KPMG Women’s PGA as a top contender, but watched Minjee Lee pass her during the weekend in Frisco. Thitikul held the Evian championship on Sunday before Grace Kim stole it from her in a play-off.

In a year defined by equality, Thitikul was the dominant force. She has a chance to back it up in 2026, break through on a big 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 is in the field. Her popularity has increased in recent seasons, competing with Kordas.

As noted above, the LPGA needs and needs stars to win on the course and place itself off the course. Kessler praised Hull for being one of the LPGA’s top stars who is willing to develop outside of golf.

“I’m just being myself,” Hull told GOLF. “I think it’s great that they invited me [to the UK state dinner]. I had a pretty good year, and it was fun. I think it’s a good thing for women’s golf that people are recognizing it, and yeah, I’m just being me.”

But 29-year-old Hull is still waiting for her big breakthrough moment. She has eight career victories, including three on the LPGA, but has yet to capture a major championship. Hull has four career second-place finishes in the majors, including the 2025 AIG Women’s Open, where her Sunday performance fell short and Miyu Yamashita left with the trophy.

Hull is a star. She is a tremendous talent who will stick around for the long haul and has the type of personality that the LPGA needs to strengthen even more. But can her results match or surpass her exploding popularity? The answer will be important for the upcoming crucial season.

The rise of a new (or old) star

In the 2025 season, star amateur Lottie Woad experienced a summer to remember.

Woad won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open, fell just short of winning the Evian Championship, then turned professional and immediately won the Scottish Open.

As the LPGA looks for new stars to build on, Woad appears to be a top candidate.

That includes Rose Zhang, who has reduced 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 struggle bus” for Zhang. But she played well at the FM Championship at TPC Boston and plans to complete her studies in March, which should allow her to return to a full-time playing schedule.

A two-time LPGA Tour winner, Zhang won her very first start as a professional and quickly became one of the Tour’s most popular players after a career as a star amateur. Splitting time between professional golf and her studies has been difficult on her game, but Zhang should hopefully reemerge around the start of the 2026 big season as her balancing act comes to an end.