PGA of America Accused of Favoring Men’s Tour Over LPGA Players as Brandel Chamblee & More Weigh In

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship had a rocky start. On the first day, players in the last few groups took nearly six hours to finish their rounds. And fans and the media criticised them for slow play. Several hinted that the LPGA was not taking strict enough measures to improve the pace of play. However, the pace of play issue persisted on all days of the major. And now, everyone, including Mel Reid, is realising it wasn’t just players not able to maintain the pace. It was indeed a rather deeper, underlying issue on the LPGA, as highlighted by an LPGA veteran just a few hours ago.

Even before the announcement of the three-tier policy, which includes fines and two-stroke penalties for players clocking over the stipulated time, players had their opinions on the pace of play. “I’m quite ruthless. But my idea would be if you get three bad ­timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty. If you have three of them, you lose your tour card instantly,” Charley Hull suggested sometime last year.

Stacy Lewis was the first one to point out the issue of the course setup to blame for slow play. She said that the hole locations were tucked away in places which was almost inaccessible to players. LPGA veteran, Mel Reid, also joined in on the conversation. Speaking to the Golf Channel just a few hours before the final round concluded, “I mean you can look at it as slow play or setup. In my opinion, I think it is setup,” Reid expressed honestly.

“Pins were tucked, they were in funky positions. A lot of positions were front downwind, back into wind. I feel you can get away with it on the weekend. But when you’re trying to get 156 players trying to finish the first two rounds, you just cannot get away with it. We clearly saw that,” Reid also added that while the windy conditions were one of the challenges on the difficult course, officials clearly did not take it into account, given the unapproachable hole locations. Even Charley Hull had to change her opinion at Fields Ranch East this week, as she and others realised that it was not just the players but rather the course setup to blame.

And this is not for this week. Reid goes on to speak about golf course setups in general on the LPGA. She speaks of some alarming statistics, drawing a comparison between the LPGA and the PGA Tour. In 2024, in the under-70 scoring average, there were 3 players on the LPGA Tour, and in contrast, there were 87 players on the PGA Tour. “Is that scale or is that set-up? I think its set up,” Reid honestly declared. She goes on to take a jibe at the officials and confesses that “So there’s a very fine line between challenging and making the players look silly.” In the first round, the scoring average was 75.58, and on the second day, which is now being called the toughest day on the LPGA this year, the scoring average went as high as 76.012.

While Reid continued to give a logical explanation for the unfair differences in course setups, she received a lot of support from the rest of the golfing community, including Brandel Chamblee, who applauded her for speaking out the truth. Brandel Chamblee commented on her post, “👏👏👏”, which is now capturing attention and has everyone talking.

Golfing community backs Mel Reid’s claims

Alison Lee chimed in on Mel Reid’s fact-based claims against the poor mismanagement on the LPGA. “Say it louder for the people in the back,” Lee expressed. Reid even took out the driving statistics on both tours: “The driving average on the LPGA is 206 yards, 300 yards on the PGA Tour. 7 iron average, 115 yards on the LPGA compared to 180 yards on the PGA Tour.” So that’s a difference of 70 yards, and over 18 holes it’s almost around 1100 yards. Reid concluded that women should be playing the course 1100 yards shorter than the men.

And to these brilliant statistics, Jessica Korda, too, expressed her support for Reid. “She came with receipts,” Korda joined in. Although the difference should be based on driving averages. The LPGA sets up courses in ways that don’t match their intended play. This week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the women played at 6,552 yards. However, the men at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands played 6,796 yards. That’s just a 240-yard difference.

Karrie Webb, a 41-time winner on the LPGA, was glad that someone actually took the bold step to talk about the issue players have been facing for years. “Spot on @melreid Glad we finally got someone on TV talking the right way about this!!,” she quipped. Linn Grant, who is best for her 2023 Dana Open win, commented, “So freaking well said!!” 

Mel Reid took the stand for all the players on the LPGA with her words. Hopefully, her opinions will now push the officials to make some changes on tour.