Dan Rapaport says exactly what women’s golf is missing right now as Nelly Korda’s ranking drops

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The Women’s Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl brought an end to the major championship season last weekend.

Miyu Yamashita held off Charley Hull and Minami Katsu with an impressive final round performance to win her first event outside of Japan.

Minjee Lee explained after the tournament that the number of quality players on the LPGA Tour is much higher than it was a decade ago.

Women’s professional golf is trending in the right direction, but Dan Rapaport has pointed out one problem holding the sport back.

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Dan Rapaport says what women’s golf needs to gain popularity

It’s great to see that the women’s game is so competitive, with many players in with a chance of winning on any given week, but there is an obvious downside.

The lack of repetitive winners makes it more difficult for superstars to emerge, with Nelly Korda perhaps the only dominant force in the sport, albeit she is no longer world number one.

The other issue is that many of the top players do not resonate with the American audience. For whatever reason, the United States are not producing elite female golfers.

“They need stars,” Rapaport explained. “They don’t really have any. Nelly Korda’s reign as the number one player in the world is over. Jeeno Thitikul is now number one in the world. I am sure she is very famous in Thailand, but she does not have a lot of name recognition here.

“We talk about the ones who won the majors this year: Mao Saigo, Maya Stark, Minjee Lee, Grace Kim, and Mijo Yamashita. Some of the names that jump off the screen just did not perform at the major championships this year.

“They need stars, and I think everyone was trying to pull for Charley Hull to win for that reason; she is a star. But they need some of the bigger names to start winning tournaments.

“We had Beth Anne on last week, and she said that a lot of the best players in women’s golf are from Asia and are very, very popular in Asia, but they are just not in the United States.

“The United States are the big market, and we live in the US, so we need some American stars to start winning major championships.”

The top five American players on LPGA vs PGA Tour compared

The following table illustrates the difference between the representation of the United States on the LPGA and PGA Tours in 2025.

There are only five American players in the top 25 of the Women’s World Golf Rankings, including Korda at number two, compared to 14 in the men’s rankings.

Indeed, Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) is the only player in the top eight on the OWGR not from the United States.

Women’s golf would surely benefit if young American golfers, such as Yealimi Noh and Auston Kim, developed into stars in the foreseeable future.