"A double-edged sword" - Lydia Ko highlights the catch to expanding women’s golf viewership

Lydia Ko recently said that the effort to increase women’s golf viewership can be a 'double-edged sword.' She argued that more viewership meant more hiring and more expenditure, which would have an effect on the budget.

The 23-time winner on the LPGA Tour recently teamed up with popular golf influencers Luke Kwon and Taco Golf for a golf session on YouTube. During the fun golf session, Kwon asked Lydia Ko some interesting questions about the game.

One of the questions was about increasing women’s golf viewership, for which the LPGA Hall of Famer had an interesting perspective.

"I feel like it's a double-edged sword," she said. As of now, we don't have enough budget for cameras and all of that to have more coverage, right? But we need more budget to hire more cameramen, get more airtime, and expand to network TV.

"Also, I think if you don't put in the money to get that, then we're not going to have as much exposure. So, it's a double-edged sword in the sense that we need to invest to do it, but if you don't have the budget, it's really hard to just make it happen. Put that money in. I hope we can kind of continue that ride beyond that with them," she added.

She also mentioned that while the situation had improved in recent times, there was still a long way to go.

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Is Lydia Ko competing at the FM Championship 2025?

Lydia Ko hits her tee shot at the 18th hole during first round play at the CPKC Women's Open (Image Source via Imagn)

Lydia Ko is not playing at the FM Championship 2025, this week's LPGA Tour event. She was last seen competing at the CPKC Women's Open last week, where she tied for fifth.

Ko will next compete at the Kroger Queen City Championship pres. by P&G, which will be played from September 11 to September 14 at TPC River's Bend in Maineville, Ohio. Notably, she is the defending champion here after posting a five-shot win over Jeeno Thitikul last season.

Although not as per expectations, Lydia Ko has had a decent season so far. She has missed just one cut in eleven starts and posted three top ten finishes. She has had six top 25 finishes, including four top tens. She also won her 23rd LPGA Tour title at the HSBC Women's World Championship earlier this year.