2024 AIG Women’s Open – Syndication Server

2024 AIG Women’s British Open prize money payouts for each LPGA player at St. Andrews

A record purse was awarded Sunday at St. Andrews.

Lydia Ko has done it again.

The newly-minted LPGA Hall of Famer was dominant down the stretch Sunday, capturing her third major title at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews. Ko won by two shots over World No. 1 Nelly Korda, No. 2 Lilia Vu and No. 6 Ruoning Yin for her first major championship victory in more than eight years.

With the win, Ko will take home the top prize of $1,425,000, an increase from the $1,350,000 doled out a year ago.

Here’s the prize money payouts for LPGA players from the $9.5 million purse at the 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews.

Prize money payouts

Position	Player	Score	Earnings
1	Lydia Ko	-7	$1,425,000
T2	Lilia Vu	-5	$641,546
T2	Ruoning Yin	-5	$641,546
T2	Nelly Korda	-5	$641,546
T2	Jiyai Shin	-4	$641,546
6	Ariya Jutanugarn	-3	$344,457
T7	Akie Iwai	-2	$254,960
T7	Casandra Alexander	-2	$254,960
T7	Mao Saigo	-2	$254,960
T10	Angel Yin	-1	$172,856
T10	Linn Grant	-1	$172,856
T10	Pajaree Anannarukarn	-1	$172,856
T10	Nanna Koerstz Madsen	-1	$172,856
T10	Lottie Woad (a)	-1	$0
T10	Alexa Pano	-1	$172,856
T10	Jin Hee Im	-1	$172,856
T17	Anne van Dam	E	$130,519
T17	Atthaya Thitikul	E	$130,519
T17	Jenny Shin	E	$130,519
T20	Albane Valenzuela	1	$116,750
T20	Charley Hull	1	$116,750
T22	Momoko Osato	2	$98,605
T22	Georgia Hall	2	$98,605
T22	Ashleigh Buhai	2	$98,605
T22	Linnea Strom	2	$98,605
T22	Celine Boutier	2	$98,605
T22	Andrea Lee	2	$98,605
T22	So Mi Lee	2	$98,605
T29	Paula Reto	3	$73,966
T29	Minami Katsu	3	$73,966
T29	Julia Lopez Ramirez (a)	3	$0
T29	Sarah Schmelzel	3	$73,966
T29	Yui Kawamoto	3	$73,966
T29	Rose Zhang	3	$73,966
T29	Alison Lee	3	$73,966
T29	Hyo Joo Kim	3	$73,966
T37	Wichanee Meechai	4	$49,152
T37	Grace Kim	4	$49,152
T37	Ayaka Furue	4	$49,152
T37	Sei Young Kim	4	$49,152
T37	Nasa Hataoka	4	$49,152
T37	Hye-Jin Choi	4	$49,152
T37	Nicole Broch Estrup	4	$49,152
T37	Carlota Ciganda	4	$49,152
T37	Ally Ewing	4	$49,152
T37	Amy Yang	4	$49,152
T37	Leona Maguire	4	$49,152
T37	Esther Henseleit	4	$49,152
T49	Arpichaya Yubol	5	$33,102
T49	Weiwei Zhang	5	$33,102
T49	Kristen Gillman	5	$33,102
T49	Haeran Ryu	5	$33,102
T49	Caroline Inglis	5	$33,102
T49	Gaby Lopez	5	$33,102
T55	Haruka Kawasaki	6	$26,906
T55	Xiyu Lin	6	$26,906
T55	Lee-Anne Pace	6	$26,906
T55	Lexi Thompson	6	$26,906
T55	Mi Hyang Lee	6	$26,906
T60	Lily May Humphreys	7	$20,608
T60	Narin An	7	$20,608
T60	Gabriella Cowley	7	$20,608
T60	Shannon Tan	7	$20,608
T60	Alexandra Forsterling	7	$20,608
T60	Marta Martin	7	$20,608
T60	Shuri Sakuma	7	$20,608
T60	Louise Rydqvist (a)	7	$0
T60	Nuria Iturrioz	7	$20,608
T60	Stephanie Kyriacou	7	$20,608
T60	Patty Tavatanakit	7	$20,608
T71	Manon De Roey	8	$15,088
T71	Emma Spitz	8	$15,088
T71	Johanna Gustavsson	8	$15,088
T71	Maja Stark	8	$15,088
T71	Peiyun Chien	8	$15,088
T76	Morgane Metraux	9	$11,500
T76	Emma Grechi	9	$11,500
T78	Bailey Tardy	10	$10,923
T78	Ela Anacona (a)	10	$0
T78	Auston Kim	10	$10,923
81	In Kyung Kim	11	$10,491
82	Ursula Wikstrom	12	$10,203

Newly minted Hall of Famer Lydia Ko wins 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews

What a two-week stretch it has been for Lydia Ko.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — Lydia Ko walked over to husband Jun Chung and tenderly put her hand on his cheek by the practice putting green. The couple, still looking like newlyweds, seemed about as relaxed as two people could be with a major championship on the line.

After hitting a few practice putts, Ko walked over to the falconer who’d been onsite all week and chatted about the magnificent creature whose job at the Old Course was to ward off pesky seagulls. Meanwhile, over on the nearby 18th green, 2023 AIG Women’s British Open champion Lilia Vu tried to get up and down for birdie to force a playoff at 7 under.

When Vu’s best efforts failed, Ko broke down in tears on the nearby practice putting green. Two weeks after winning the Olympic gold medal in Paris, playing her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame in the process, the 27-year-old ended a major championship drought that dated to the spring of 2016. Now a three-time major winner, Ko became only the third woman to win a major at the Home of Golf, joining Lorena Ochoa (2007) and Stacy Lewis (2013).

“I don’t think there’s a word in the dictionary that can explain what just happened,” said Ko, who held off a who’s who cast of players, including World No. 1 Nelly Korda, who doubled the par-5 14th and bogeyed the Road Hole to finish two back with former No. 1s Jiyai Shin and Ruoning Yin.

After Ko birdied the 72nd hole to take the clubhouse lead, Ko’s older sister and manager Sura noted everything looked golden in the Auld Grey Toon. Relentless wind wreaked havoc on the field all week, and rain chucked down late Sunday as the group of stars battled down the stretch.

But as Ko wrapped up a two-stroke victory that not an hour before looked destined for a playoff, the sun broke through as one of the game’s most popular players continued a fairy-tale run of the ages.

When asked during the closing ceremony where a victory over the Old Course ranks in her career, Ko said, “That’s kind of like saying ‘Do you like your mother better or your father?’”

The crowd roared.

This was the most unlikely major title for Ko to claim, given that she’d only had two top-10 finishes at the Women’s Open over the course of her career and had only recently learned how to embrace the quirkiness of links golf. There were times this week when Ko found she could do nothing but laugh at the absurdity of shots hit in wind so blustery it was tough to stand.

Ko was still a teenager when she won the ANA Inspiration, now Chevron, eight years ago. It was so long ago, in fact, the only thing she remembers about the day is holding her nose as she jumped into Poppie’s Pond.

Now a 21-time winner on the LPGA, Ko has been brutally honest in recent years about the valleys of her career. Even this week, she recalled a time last year in Portland when, after missing a cut, she couldn’t taste the barbecue she was eating with Sura because there were so many tears. She felt lost.

That’s why when the two sisters embraced in Paris and in St. Andrews, it was so emotional.

“I was emptied out so much in Paris,” said Sura.

Ko’s husband Jun was sad he couldn’t go to Paris and soaked up every second of St. Andrews. He picked up the game during Covid, and his passion for golf rubbed off on Ko, who agreed to tee times on their honeymoon and even caddied for him last year in an amateur tournament. Jun had his own tee times this week, playing Kingsbarns and Dumbarnie Links after spectating duties were over. He even took a tour of the R&A museum.

When Ko had an early tee time this week, Jun, who works for a tech start-up company in San Francisco, was up at 4 a.m., stretching alongside her. With a late tee time Sunday, Jun said they slept in and then watched some Kiwi golf influencers they like on YouTube to kill time.

“What I admire a lot about her is her grit,” said Jun. “I’ve never seen such a strict routine.

“I work in tech, and I see CEOs a lot of times… the grit she has doesn’t compare to anything I’ve ever seen.”

Coming down the stretch in driving rain and wind, Ko showed that Hall of Fame grit when she hit a stunning 3-wood into the Road Hole that set up a par-birdie finish that couldn’t be beat.

The last time the LPGA was in St. Andrews, a bespectacled Ko won the Smyth Salver for low amateur honors as Lewis claimed the title. So much life has transpired since that moment. So much growth.

This will likely be the last time Ko competes at the Home of Golf, and it’s appropriate to wonder how many more major starts are on the horizon for one of the best to ever play the game.

With a 5:50 a.m. flight on tap for Monday morning, Ko hadn’t planned much in the way of celebrations. They’d talked about having Thai food Sunday evening, but she worried the restaurant might have closed.

“Most of the time, I eat a burger after Sunday’s round,” she noted, “so there’s a high chance I’m going to do that.”

These days, it’s the company that matters most.

Photos: LPGA’s IK Kim announces retirement at St. Andrews

The charitable Kim isn’t sure what’s next.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — IK Kim, the second player to retire this week at St. Andrews, kept the news to herself until the night before the final round. The 36-year-old called her parents, her coaches, and her best friend to let them know that Sunday’s round over the Old Course would be her last on the LPGA.

“They really tried to talk me out of it,” said Kim, noting that even the first-tee starter, Alastair Scott, implored her to come back.

After the round, a teary-eyed Kim shared the news with her good friend, R&A chief Martin Slumbers. They’d played together in a pro-am back in 2018, the year after she’d won the AIG Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns. Kim didn’t know who Slumbers was at the time but has grown to admire the way he has stewarded the Royal and Ancient, particularly when it came to women’s golf and environmental efforts. Kim told Slumbers years ago that she wouldn’t retire until she played Muirfield, the historic club she’d only read about.

“When I did, I felt so satisfied,” she said of the 2022 championship, “and at the same time, I wasn’t sure what I want to do with my life.”

So she carried on.

The shy and cerebral Kim, now in her 18th year as a professional golfer, didn’t pause when she walked over the Swilcan Bridge this morning. Media officials convinced her to come back hours after her round had concluded to talk about a career that included seven victories and one of the most painful short misses in the game’s history at the 2012 ANA Inspiration.

For a long time, Kim’s career was defined by a 14-inch putt. She hired mental coaches, including Vision54 and a sports psychologist who worked with NASA. She couldn’t escape questions about the putt that cost her a major title. Even strangers would cry in front of her about it. Understandably, she wasn’t sure how to react to that.

But she learned over the years to be more compassionate toward herself. A brave Kim came over to the U.S. by herself as a teenager without knowing any English. She’d convinced her father that she’d have more fun competing in America.

After a few short months she’d won a USGA championship, dusting Inbee Park 5 and 4 in the final match of the 2005 U.S. Girls’ Junior.

With the help of her host parents, rapper 50 Cent and American reality television, Kim’s language barrier began to crumble, and three years later, she won her first title on the LPGA.

In 2010, Kim made headlines when she donated her entire winner’s check, – $220,000 – from the 2010 Lorena Ochoa Invitational. She gave half to the Lorena Ochoa Foundation, which focuses on education for the underprivileged, and half to an American charity.

As an ambassador for the Special Olympics, she donated $100,000 to help expand golf’s presence in the games.

The charitable Kim isn’t sure what’s next, but, as a woman with many interests, it won’t be hard for her to find something else that’s fulfilling.

“I’m most proud of the hard work that I’ve put into,” said Kim. “I wasn’t the most talented or the most gifted, but I loved the game. I was willing to travel anywhere to play golf and learn the game, and I wanted to thank all the girls here. I’ve learned so much from them.”

Kim teared up as she talked about the relationships she’s made on tour. She’d had a good cry session with former No. 1 Yani Tseng earlier in the day.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone,” said a heartfelt Kim. “My career has been a lot of up and down, but you guys made it all beautiful.”

• • •

Here’s a look back on IK Kim’s career in photos:

Magical Sunday in store at St. Andrews, where Lydia Ko’s legendary run continues at Women’s British Open

Sunday in St. Andrews will be a generational battle.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Jiyai Shin won her first AIG Women’s British Open 16 years ago. At age 36, she’s the winningest player left in the field on the Old Course, where she leads defending champion Lilia Vu by one stroke, World No. 2 Nelly Korda by two and the LPGA’s newest Hall of Fame member, Lydia Ko, by three.

Sunday in St. Andrews will be a generational battle. Shin has won more than 60 titles worldwide. She left the LPGA at the peak of her game in 2014, taking her talents to Japan, where she’s now won 30 times. Her career began close to home on the Korean LPGA, where she won 21 times, and kicked into another gear when she won 11 times from 2008-2013.

A rookie on the LPGA in 2009, Shin set goals for the next decade, but reached them all in short order. She struggled to find her next step and motivation.

That’s when she decided she needed a change, and joined the Japan LPGA to be closer to family. She worried about disappointing her fans, but then she met new fans.

AIG: Leaderboard | Photos

“I had a great decision,” said Shin, who wants to be a mentor to younger players the way so many were for her all those years ago.

South Korea’s Jiyai Shin smiles on the 17th tee on day three of the 2024 Women’s British Open Golf Championship on the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images)

Count Ko, 27, among those who look up to Shin, marveling at her 6:30 a.m. practice round earlier this week and the way she pushed herself in the gym.

It was Shin who played alongside Ko when she won the Canadian Women’s Open at age 15, a dozen years ago.

“I think that takes not only a lot of work ethic but passion towards the game in what she does,” said Ko, who called Shin’s decision to leave the LPGA in her prime courageous.

Ko comes into Sunday’s final round a little lighter than most, given that she played her way into the Hall by virtue of a storybook victory at the Paris Olympics. That’s not to say she isn’t still “greedy” about wanting to win more, but there’s certainly nothing left to prove.

“It’s definitely nice to know that I can go back to my room, and even if I have a bad day, there’s a gold medal, you know, waiting for me,” said Ko, who smiled and then quickly added, “and my husband.”

Korda closed with a birdie to stop the bleeding on a back nine that included two bogeys and a double. She led by as many as three on a sunny but windy day at the Home of Golf but dipped to third after a disappointing 75.

A victory at the Old Course would change the narrative on what’s been a challenging summer for Korda, who won six times in the first half of the year, including a major.

The last player to win seven times in a season, including multiple majors, was Yani Tseng in 2011. The last American player to do so was Kathy Whitworth in 1967.

Tseng’s 2011 British Open victory at Carnoustie was the last time a player won in back-to-back years in this championship. Vu has a chance to pull off the same on Sunday as she vies for a third career major title.

Lilia Vu of the United States tees off on the 14th hole during Day Three of the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews Old Course on August 24, 2024, in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

After managing to avoid the bunkers in the first two rounds, the 2023 LPGA Player of the Year had to take her medicine on the back nine Saturday.

“I was definitely a brat about it,” said Vu, “because I thought I hit a good shot, and then it happened to roll in.”

She credited her caddie for getting her mind right.

Vu missed several months of competition earlier this year with a back injury and does all that she can to combat the cold. On Friday, she went back and forth from the cold plunge to the sauna and found the new routine helpful, along with plenty of hot chocolate.

Last year’s victory came at Walton Heath, a parkland course, outside London. The gritty Vu got a kitten to celebrate, naming him Walton. There’s already a second bribe from her father in play that if she wins another major, she can get a second cat.

She’s already thought about names, noting that she’d get a girl this time around and name her Andie.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand poses for a photo with her caddie and team during a Pro-Am ahead of the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews Old Course on August 21, 2024, in St. Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Ko, who gushes about her puppy Kai when asked, looks at what happened at the Paris Olympics as something that was too good to be true. Imagine then, how’d she’d feel about topping it off with a victory at the Home of Golf, snapping a major championship drought that stretches back to 2016.

Would she wave goodbye on the Swilcan Bridge? Ko, who has long said she wouldn’t play past 30, was asked about a walk-off retirement at the start of the week.

“I think you just have to listen to yourself,” said Ko. “The way Suzann (Pettersen) did it after holing that putt at Solheim, I mean, she couldn’t have finished her career on any more of a high.”

The same could be said for Ko, who could end her incredible career in the place where golf began. Doesn’t get more epic than that.

Sweden’s Linn Grant turns heads with high-top golf shoes at the Old Course

“They’re more comfortable than they look,” said Grant. “They’re very warm.”

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Linn Grant brought a new look to the Old Course this week with a pair of high-top golf shoes. The new Adidas x JAY3LLE is a collaboration designed by Johan Lindeberg and his daughter, Blue.

“They’re more comfortable than they look,” said Grant of the shoes that resemble something a boxer might wear. “They’re very warm.”

Linn Grant of Sweden plays a shot during Day One of the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews Old Course on August 22, 2024, in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Morgan Harlow/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

The futuristic high-top golf shoe, known as CodeChaos, features a buckle and tee holder. The new line is designed to encourage women to feel strong, powerful and bold on the course.

“They’re based off of a golf shoe that already exists,” said Grant, “and I’m very familiar with how they feel.”

Now a two-time winner on the men’s DP World Tour, Sweden’s Grant opened with a 5-over 77 at the AIG Women’s British Open.

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The Big Pickle: Stacy Lewis talks AIG Women’s Open with Grant Boone, Beth Ann Nichols

The U.S. Solheim Cup captain talks picks, LPGA Hall of Fame changes and the duff she hit off the first tee.

It’s a big week on the LPGA as the final women’s major championship of the year begins Thursday morning at The Old Course at St. Andrews. The 2024 AIG Women’s British Open is loaded with the best players in the game, including defending champion Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda, Jin Young Ko, Lydia Ko, Rose Zhang and Brooke Henderson, among others.

The last time the AIG Women’s British Open was held at The Old Course, Stacy Lewis took home the title. Lewis sat down with our Big Pickle co-hosts Grant Boone and Beth Ann Nichols to talk about the fun of St. Andrews and her role as the Solheim Cup captain.

Subscribe, comment and tell a friend. As the women’s game continues to gain momentum, “The Big Pickle” will be sure to keep you informed, enlightened and entertained on everything LPGA.

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Laura Davies planned to make historic farewell at St. Andrews, but has now decided not to play

Davies made the decision not to compete after hitting a tee shot in Utah, of all places.

Laura Davies made the decision not to compete at St. Andrews next month shortly after hitting a tee shot in Utah, of all places. The result of the tee shot wasn’t that bad, but the feeling of dread and uncertainty that preceded the strike was more than she could take.

After that first round at the LPGA Senior Championship at Copper Rock in St. George, Davies rang up her caddie and said that she wouldn’t be playing the AIG Women’s British Open. She’s competed in the past 43 consecutive British Opens and was set to make the Old Course her final LPGA tournament appearance.

It’s the only way a sporting legend like Davies should go out – on historic ground. Instead, golf fans have likely seen the last of Davies teeing it up on the LPGA.

“I just don’t think I’m good enough anymore,” she explained. “It would’ve been lovely, don’t get me wrong. … I wish I could’ve just stood up and said I’ll give it a go, I don’t care how bad I am. But I do care. That’s the trouble.”

Davies, 60, said that she immediately felt lighter after the decision was made and that it’s actually helped her golf on the senior circuit. She’s excited to head to Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh next week for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

The 150th Open — Dame Laura Davies of England tees off the first hole during the Celebration of Champions Challenge ahead of the 150th Open at St. Andrews Old Course. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

She’ll still be in St. Andrews in a month’s time to commentate for Sky Sports. The Old Course is her favorite course in the world. Amazingly, her first time there was in 2007 for the first women’s major ever contested at the Home of Golf.

Davies hit her first tee shot off No. 1 on Tuesday that week and promptly hit it left and out of bounds. She only played up the first and down the 18th that day.

“I did a Baker-Finch,” she said at the time. “I had people heckling me on the first tee as well, so it was a hard shot.”

Her first full round over the Old Course came during Wednesday’s pro-am.

On Thursday, Davies teed off just as eventual champion Lorena Ochoa was putting the finishing touches on a bogey-free 67. The Englishwoman found the fairway when it counted.

Davies played her first British Open as a 16-year-old amateur in 1980, long before the event became a major. She won the event in 1986 and, with the exception of 1983 when the event was not contested, has never missed an appearance. Past champions who are 60 and under are exempt into the championship. St. Andrews would’ve been her final exemption.

In 2020, Davies hit the first tee shot at Royal Troon to mark her 40th appearance but there were no fans in the gallery due to the global pandemic. Georgia Hall sent her a text message that jokingly said, “Don’t hold us up.”

If only everyone on tour carried on as quickly as Davies.

England’s Hall has called her a great friend and an idol.

“I kind of pulled up to the car park and you have your 2018 champion, so I have my space, and I look down and it’s Laura, 1986, and I had a joke with her that I was born 10 years later than that,” Hall once remarked, “and she found that funny.”

2007 Ricoh Women's British Open — England’s Laura Davies at the 2007 Ricoh Women’s British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland. (Kieran Dodds/AFP via Getty Images)

Last year at Walton Heath, Davies withdrew midway through the first round after suffering a wrist injury trying to escape a bramble bush.

That she won’t get a proper sendoff feels inadequate for a woman who who won 20 times on the LPGA and more than 80 times worldwide.

She’s the only player to have never missed an appearance in the event since it became a major in 2001. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame at St. Andrews in 2015 and took part in the R&A Celebration of Champions there two years ago for the 150th British Open.

Davies never imagined there would come a time when she didn’t want to play competitive golf. But everyone always told her that she’d know when she’d had enough.

“If someone’s never played top-level sport, it’s hard to explain where you go from a position of pure control and comfort and looking forward to your day’s golf to absolute terror,” she said, “and I’ve reached that point.”

2024 women’s major championship venues including St. Andrews

The best women golfers in the world will take on the Old Course next year.

The 2024 LPGA schedule was released Thursday morning and there are plenty of tournaments to look forward to.

There will be 33 official events with a record total prize fund of $118 million. In 2023, there were three events with a purse of $3 million or more. In 2024, there will be 10.

The first two events — Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions (Jan. 18-21), LPGA Drive On Championship (Jan. 25-28) — will be in Florida before a three-week stretch overseas.

The new Boston event — FM Global Championship (Aug. 29-Sept. 1) — will be the final tournament before the Solheim Cup.

However, let’s get to what the people really care about — the majors.

Here’s everything you need to know for the five major championships next year.

Laura Davies reflects on golf’s changing times and LIV Golfers: ‘They are easily replaced’

What does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current state of pro golf?

The swingin’ 60s? Well, maybe not quite.

“I’m not enjoying playing at all,” sighed Dame Laura Davies with a self-deprecating chuckle as she mulled over the state of her game at 60-years-young.

The 2024 AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews could provide a wonderful swansong for this decorated, celebrated champion but Davies herself won’t allow sentiment, and the prospect of a dewy-eyed, visor-doffing last hurrah over the Swilcan Bridge, to cloud her judgement.

“Next year will be the final one of my exemption, but at the moment I don’t think I can tee up,” reflected Davies, who was the guest of honour at the PGA in Scotland’s annual glass-clinking luncheon in Glasgow on Wednesday.

“I’m playing in a few senior events before then and if I show any signs of encouragement at all then I might play. But I don’t want to take someone’s spot. It would be lovely to walk over the bridge on the 18th but not at 35-over-par. It won’t be as much fun.”

About those who left for LIV

It’s all fun and games, meanwhile, in the wider world of golf at the moment. Jon Rahm’s colossal deal with LIV Golf – yes, you can roll your eyes again – has had the kind of earth-shattering impact you’d get with a nuclear weapons test.

So, what does this grande dame of the stick and ba’ game make of the current situation?

“It just goes to show that everyone has their price,” she said. “The trouble is for these players going to LIV is that there are guys going to fill their boots who are very good players. We’ve already got Ludvig Aberg coming through, another superstar in the making.

“And look at Cam Smith? Would anyone actually know how he is doing with LIV and that he was the Open champion before he went? Nobody really knows how he plays any more.

“Don’t get me wrong. If anyone offered me that kind of money, I’d be there. I’m not criticizing them, but they are easily replaced. Maybe people won’t think about Jon Rahm eventually?”

As for Davies actually sitting down and watching any of LIV Golf’s 54-hole product? She’d probably be more interested in gazing at a bucket of soot.

“I’m not interested in the three rounds or the shotgun start,” she added. “As a sports fan, I like 72-hole championship golf where you finish on the 18th, not the fifth. LIV is not for me.”

Davies was making hay in a different financial era.

Laura Davies and John Daly at the 1998 JC Penney Classic in Westin Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida. (Photo: Vincent Laforet/Allsport)

“My biggest check was $240,000 and that was at the JC Penney event with John Daly in 1999,” she reflected. “I think most of my checks on the LPGA were between $60,000 and $90,000 for winning. In the women’s game especially, it has all changed for the better and good luck to them. I’m not envious of these girls one bit as I love to see it.”

With 87 worldwide wins, including four majors, Davies has such a haul of silverware, her mantelpiece is probably the size of the Hoover Dam.

In the team environment, meanwhile, the Solheim Cup would always stir the senses.

“1992 at Dalmahoy is probably my best memory in Scotland,” she said of an against-the-odds European win over a star-studded American team.

“I still think it’s hugely underrated. If you look back over the last 50 years of sport, it’s one the biggest upsets. I think 10 of the U.S. players were all Hall of Famers. We were just a bunch of players who pretty much turned pro in the four or five years earlier and we beat them. Incredible.”

Pearls of wisdom

Davies continues to offer her pearls of wisdom as a broadcaster of both the men’s and women’s game. One wonders what Joey Barton, the former footballer and full-time crank who has made a series of withering, stone age observations about female football commentators, would make of it all?

“I’m a big fan of the fact that if you’ve been there and done it (in any sport) you can talk about it,” said Davies. “Trish Johnson, Dottie Pepper, Morgan Pressel. All the girls who do golf, they’re all multiple winners and major champions. It’s not at the power level of men’s golf but the pressure is no different. I don’t know why Joey would say something like that?”

After a rapid-fire chinwag, it was time for Davies to receive her PGA recognition award.

“I always loved being the certain of attention on the course … but not off it,” she said with a wry smile.