Dubai: Winning in her last tournament before retirement, Iben Tinning didn't exactly walk off the course at last weekend's Omega Ladies Masters quietly.
When cornered by Gulf News to say what parting words of advice she'd like to offer women's golf and the Ladies European Tour in particular, she said: "It needs some more money at these events, this one [the Omega Ladies Masters] is doing well but I want all events to be like this."
"We're not playing for any money, we're getting more tournaments but we're not getting any money and it's a bit unfair."
Prize difference
It came after another senior pro Trish Johnson said "that we can't afford not to play on the US LPGA," in reference to the difference in prize-money between the two tours.
This year the total purse in the LPGA was Dh99 million more than in the LET, with 11 million euros (Dh53 million) on the LET and $41.4 million (Dh152 million) on the LPGA.
Johnson said: "You can win tournaments on the Ladies European Tour and still not earn a living. I've won twice this year with two seconds and once you take off taxes and expenses you're still only earning 20 grand (Dh117,000)."
Alexandra Armas, the Executive Director of Ladies European Tour, acknowledged these concerns and said there was a target to get all tournament payouts averaging at the same level as the Omega Ladies Master's 500,000 euro (approximately Dh2.5 million) mark by 2015.
At the moment LET events average at Dh2.1 million whereas the mean payout in LPGA events stands at Dh5.6 million — but consider the LPGA played 24 events to the LET's 25 this year and that the LET payouts are heavily buoyed by the Evian Masters, British, Swiss Opens and the Omega Ladies Masters payouts.
Armas said: "Prize money has grown consistently over the past few years as has the number of tournaments so the gap has definitely got smaller between the LPGA and LET — they are a lot more established than us at the moment but it is getting closer and realistically we are getting closer to players being able to make a living on the European Tour."
"It's not been an easy past few years in terms of sponsorship with the recession hitting all areas of sport but we've sustained our number of tournaments and we haven't been as hard hit as the LPGA."
Armas added: "A lot of factors drive the prize fund, media coverage, good quality golf and those elements combined make it more interesting for sponsors, which then invest in sport, which drives the prize fund, which then generates more players." The quality of golf and rise of talent was said to be at its best by Armas while the growth of tournaments in traditional and new markets like China and India was said to be growing the game substantially.
