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Never mind that the PGA Tour will distribute
about $500 million to its players in 2019. Women's professional
golf is doing just fine, according to Davies.
At 55, the Englishwoman, who has more than 30 years on the tour,
remembers the days when only a couple of dozen elite LPGA
players made a decent living, while the vast majority scraped by
with barely enough to cover their expenses.
It is a different story now.
Last year 14 players had more than $1 million in official LPGA
earnings, while 101 players cracked six figures. That does not
take into account off-course earnings from sponsors and
commercial endorsements.
"I think we're doing great," Davies told Reuters ahead of next
month's U.S. Senior Open at Pine Needles in North Carolina.
"At the U.S. Women's Open this year, we play for $900,000 to the
winner. Alright, the guys are getting two million, but who
cares?
"If you'd told me back in my day when I was a genuine chance
that if you win you're going to get $900,000, I wouldn't have
believed you."
KEEP PLAYING
While Davies has 20 LPGA victories, including four majors, she
has not won since 2001, but finished in a tie for second at the
Founders Cup lat year and believes that she could win again,
which is why she plans to keep playing for as long as she can.
Davies still hits the ball further than many peers half her age,
flying it some 260-270 yards with her driver and sometimes not
even using a tee when she wants to hit a fade, but acknowledges
her short game often lets her down.
"If my short game was better I'd be really competitive," she
said. "But my chipping is not as good.
"And I don't hole as many putts as I used to, and these young
girls are phenomenal now so I've got my work cut out, but I'm
still trying."
It is what keeps her on the LPGA Tour, when she could be well
excused for choosing instead to tend to her vegetable garden at
home in Surrey and enjoying her career earnings of more than $9
million.
"If I start shooting 77-plus every round then obviously I'll be
gone," she said. "But while I can still shoot under par and feel
like I've got a chance, if I wake up on Thursday morning and
feel like I can win the event, I'll keep going."
It has been tough going so far this year with four missed cuts
in four starts, but at the 50-and-over senior level she is in a
class of her own.
Last year she won the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open by 10
shots over Juli Inkster at Chicago Golf Club and will defend her
crown at Pine Needles from May 16-19.
And, no matter what, will be back again next year.
"I want to play 20 more (Senior Opens)," she said. "I have no
plans to retire." (Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North
Carolina; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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