The Nations Dominating Ladies’ Golf

Source: Statista

Female golfers from South Korea have been a major success on the international stage for many years. A look at Ladies Professional Golf Association career earnings shows that South Korea is in fact the only country which can give the U.S. a run for its money on its home turf. Being based in the U.S., the LPGA Tour is the international home of women’s professional golfing, giving U.S. players a home advantage.

While female U.S. golfers racked up combined career earnings of more than $550 million, Korean players achieved $224 million, ahead of third-placed Sweden with only $73.6 million. Japan and Thailand are two more Asian nations in the top 8 of the most successful countries for Ladies’ golf.

Womensgolf.com credits the setting off of a women’s golfing craze in South Korea to Se Ri Pak, the Korean who won the U.S. Women’s Open in her rookie year in 1998. It therefore took South Korean female golfers less than 25 years to achieve 50 percent of the earning of their U.S. counterparts, who started the LPGA Tour in 1950. In the past 10 years, female Korean golfers won the LPGA Player of the Year award four times and Rookie of the Year award seven times. Golfing legend Se Ri Pak appears in rank 9 of the all-time most successful players on the tour with career earnings of $12.6 million. Inbee Park, who started on the tour in 2007, ranks fourth with $16.7 million earned.

The Highest-Paid Female Athletes

Source: Statista

Naomi Osaka is the highest-paid female athlete in the world. Forbes had announced that the 22-year-old Japanese-American had overtaken tennis legend Serena Williams as the highest-earning female in May, but finally dropped the full list of top-paid female sports stars this week.

With total earnings of around $37.4 million, Osaka also broke the record for the most money ever earned by a female athlete in a year set by Maria Sharapova in 2015, when the Russian tennis player made $29.7 million.

Tennis players absolutely dominate the list of female top earners in sports, while the men’s top ten is a mix of different disciplines, including tennis, soccer, basketball, golf and American football. Male and female sports superstars, including Osaka and Williams, earn the most money through endorsement deals, not prize money, making public appeal just as important for high earners as athletic ability.

Osaka, who competes for Japan, was able to secure major endorsements ahead the Toyko Olympics, originally scheduled for 2020. This made her the world’s third best-paid tennis player after Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in 2020 and the second highest-earning when only counting endorsements. In the co-ed ranking of the world’s highest-grossing athletes, Osaka comes in 29th, followed by Williams in rank 33.