DENHAM, ENGLAND | The village of Denham, 18 miles west of London, boasts a Norman church, Tudor, Georgian and Victorian architecture, three pubs and a duck pond.
Short, therefore, of Hugh Grant and Miss Marple making an appearance, it could hardly be more quintessentially English, a quality that delighted its many European and American visitors last Wednesday morning.
After an unseasonally sunny stroll around the village green, those guests moved down a tree-lined avenue to The Buckinghamshire Golf Club, headquarters of the Ladies European Tour, to attend the launch of the circuit’s 2026 season.
It made for a wonderful contrast: the very English backdrop set against the tour’s ever more cosmopolitan nature. Proof of the latter quality was revealed by news that players from 47 different countries will be competing this year, which the LET believes makes it the most nationally diverse tour in golf.
It’s an impressive stat, one to set alongside the announcement that the combined prize purse in 2026 will be an LET record of €40 million (approximately $47 million) across 30 events – a striking contrast with 2017, for example, when there were a mere 15 tournaments and a prize fund of less than €11 million ($13 million).
So much of this growth – not to mention the capacity to withstand the challenge of COVID-19 – owes much to Alexandra Armas, who stepped down as the LET’s CEO in October last year. Discussing the Spaniard’s efforts, Liz Moore, chair of the LPGA-LET joint venture board, praised the passion and commitment of Armas, and defined the qualities sought in her successor by the committee Moore had headed.
“We focused on three main priorities,” she said. “The first was the ability to create deep relationships, and understanding for what those relationships have done, and will continue to do, to strengthen and grow the tour. Second was a commercial mindset – someone who was going to have a keen eye on the strength and the financial health of the organisation. Finally, there was a need for a global vision and an appreciation for the diversity of our tour.”
The day’s highlight was a presentation of research conducted by the Gemba Group on behalf of Sky Sports that has gleaned new insight about sports fans with particular reference to women’s as well as men’s sports.
From what Moore described as “an impressive set of applicants” the committee appointed Tom Phillips, who is currently director of Middle East for the DP World Tour and has been CEO of the Faldo Series, CEO of the Hong Kong Golf Association and also director of business development at Mission Hills China.
Talking from Qatar by video ahead of starting his new role in April, Phillips highlighted the LET’s proud history and exciting future, and spoke of “expanding its global reach and creating even more opportunities for women in the game.”
With similar aims in mind the focus of the launch then turned to this September’s Solheim Cup at Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands when the European team, skippered by the Swede Anna Nordqvist, will seek to regain the trophy.
The captain’s compatriot Eva-Lotta Strömlid, the LET’s head of client partnerships, stressed how critical every Solheim Cup is for the tour. “Successfully operated,” she said, “it will reap new partnerships, new sponsors and new tournaments.”
IMG has signed a deal to deliver the Solheim Cup for the LET through 2038 and Jill Lederer, vice president, golf, explained that sustainability is high on the agenda.
“The Netherlands has very strict regulations around carbon emissions and it’s been a challenge to reduce the event’s footprint,” she said before revealing that cycling to and from the venue will be on offer to an unparalleled scale for spectators, sponsors, guests and the media. (The players get a pass despite there being a precedent of sorts because Scotsman Brian Barnes cycled from the hotel to the course at the Greenbrier Resort in the 1979 Ryder Cup.)
Gemba Group's Ross Antrobus (left) and Sky Sports' Jason Wessely discus Sky's research.
COURTESY LET
After interviewing more than 2,500 fans across all age groups and sporting passions, the study revealed that 80 percent of U.K. sports fans are interested in at least one men’s and one women’s sport – a number that intriguingly disputes common wisdom.
Many women’s sports attracted distinct groups of fans (new and long-standing) yet the largest and most valuable audience is this viewer who follows both men’s and women’s sports. It is a demographic that tends to have a higher average income and spends more time and money on sports each month compared to those who only follow men’s sports. In addition they typically spend five hours more on sports content per month and are 10 percent more likely to be a paid subscriber for sports content.
A second key finding was that more fans of men’s sport, irrespective of gender, are committed to the sport they engage with compared to women’s sports fans: 59 percent of women’s sports fans were committed to at least one women’s sport against 93 percent among fans of men’s sports.
Presenting the study, Gemba’s Ross Antrobus argued that this commitment gap reveals that there is room to deepen women’s sports fandom by creating more compelling stories and increasing visibility.
This led to the finding that women’s sports fans struggle to locate content that reveals player personalities and backstories compared to men’s sports.
“If I’m watching a player, I like to invest in them and know their story,” said one 35-year-old female. “Then I feel like I can really support them.”
A thorny dilemma in golf is that for all but one week in every year, golfers deliberately eschew emotion, prompted by their psychologists and mind coaches.
Antrobus was joined by Jason Wessely, executive producer, Sky Sports Golf, who discussed how Sky have embellished their coverage with the findings.
In the first instance, he said, Sky are the largest women’s sport broadcasting investor in the UK and a key strategy for them for a number of years has been to treat the nine major championships as a collective and to be aware that the Solheim Cup is precious among all women’s sports in dragging fans to the screen.
A thorny dilemma in golf is that for all but one week in every year, golfers deliberately eschew emotion, prompted by their psychologists and mind coaches. That they release the hand brake in such dramatic and sensational style at every Solheim and Ryder Cup instantly provides that personality and relatable intensity viewers crave.
Wessely explained that Sky are aware of this riddle and take care to draw out the personality of players through interviews and videos.
He also cautioned the need, in the modern world, to protect players because while social media offers so much that is good for players and fans, it also gives others the platform to do bad.
He concluded by echoing the thoughts of Antrobus and highlighting improved discoverability in women’s sport. Put simply, if viewers know when, and on which channel, that sport is on, they watch more.
Top: Launch presenter Iona Stephen discusses an example of Charley Hull branding.
