ORLANDO — The 2025 LPGA season kicks off this week with the Hilton Grand Holidays Event of Champions, a 32-player area with loads of star energy, hype, and fanfare.
However the daybreak of this new season additionally options loads of trepidation. Former LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan formally resigned earlier this month, and the board has not but chosen a brand new chief. As an alternative, Chief Authorized and Know-how Officer Liz Moore stays the Interim Commissioner, a task with a bevy of obligations contemplating the problems that plagued the LPGA in 2024. The Solheim Cup transportation gaffe involves thoughts, and so does the glacial tempo of play. However extra importantly, the LPGA has seen sponsors pull out of tournaments, a startling signal regardless of the overwhelming rise in reputation throughout ladies’s sports activities.
That’s why Annika Sorenstam, the best feminine participant of all time, ought to assume the position of Commissioner. However the 10-time main winner would by no means do it and mentioned so on Tuesday at Lake Nona Golf Membership when requested by SB Nation.
Nonetheless, Sorenstam is aware of what this place entails and what it takes to steer such a prestigious group.
“I feel while you look it’s essential to have any person that may talk. You need to talk with lots of people. You bought the gamers, media, companions, and followers. It’s a fancy job I feel for lots of causes, however I’ve little question they’re going to take their time and discover the fitting particular person,” Sorenstam mentioned.
“I feel ladies’s sports activities are an incredible place proper now. Lots of alternative. Lots of upside in so some ways. You speak to loads of the gamers week after week, you see what sort of nice athletes they’re and people. I feel it is going to be an thrilling job for any person that’s keen to take that on.”
If solely Sorenstam might take it on. She is likely one of the most distinguished folks in all of golf, not simply the LPGA. She empathizes with numerous points, resembling tv publicity, sponsors, and scheduling. Heck, one other reporter within the media middle even quipped that she ought to have assumed the position of LPGA Commissioner a decade in the past.
However Sorenstam is a mom at the start and didn’t need to decide to enjoying full-time. There’s a purpose why she stepped away from the LPGA virtually twenty years in the past now. But, she nonetheless has that drive to compete, in order that’s why she’s enjoying within the celeb division of this week’s Hilton Grand Holidays Event of Champions.
“It’s enjoyable for me to nonetheless have the ability to considerably compete,” Sorenstam mentioned.
“I do know we’re not in the identical competitors as them however I might be enjoying with some LPGA gamers. Simply to have a foot within the sport, I like that. As you understand I actually nonetheless benefit from the sport.”
Certainly, Sorenstam continues to like, help, and cherish the LPGA in any method she will be able to. She nonetheless believes in the way forward for the ladies’s sport, regardless of the problems the group has confronted.
“It’s an fascinating time for the LPGA,” Sorenstam mentioned.
“I don’t need to be the commissioner, however you probably have a crystal ball, all of us need to be seen and heard, whether or not that’s TV or any type of publicity. The extra, the higher.”
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Enjoying Via. Observe him on X @jack_milko.