Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the Commissioner of the LPGA Tour, has unexpectedly resigned. The LPGA Tour announced her decision on Monday, with Samaan officially stepping down on January 9, 2025. Samaan, who became the 9th Commissioner of the LPGA Tour in May 2021, was initially appointed for a five-year term set to run until the summer of 2026. However, she will leave the role after approximately 3 years and 8 months. The LPGA Tour’s Chief Legal and Administrative Officer, Liz Moore, will serve as the interim Commissioner.
Samaan, who previously served as the Director of Athletics at Princeton University, is only the second woman to hold the position of LPGA Tour Commissioner. She is widely credited with leading the tour during significant growth. Under her leadership, the LPGA Tour saw a more than 90% increase in total prize money, and players’ earnings reached historic highs. The average income for the top 100 players on the tour doubled, rising from $570,000 in 2021 to over $1 million in 2024. Additionally, Samaan focused on improving player benefits, including stipend payments for players who missed the cut, tour subsidies, and enhanced health insurance coverage for players.
Despite these accomplishments, Samaan faced criticism for her handling of the recent boom in the quantity and quality of women’s professional golf. Golfweek reported that while women’s sports were experiencing unprecedented success, the LPGA Tour struggled to capitalize fully on this momentum. The magazine pointed to several challenges, including losing key sponsors like Cognizant, slow-moving negotiations with Saudi Arabian investors, and a lack of transparency and indecisiveness surrounding the potential merger with the Ladies European Tour (LET).
In addition, two years ago, at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, Samaan faced backlash after LPGA Tour players failed to attend a key sponsor event. The event, attended by former U.S. presidents and major business leaders, had no LPGA players in sight. This prompted the chairman of CME Group to publicly express his disappointment with Samaan and the LPGA Tour leadership for failing to engage with key sponsors in such a high-profile moment.