Minjee Lee has shared some advice for LPGA Tour Commissioner Craig Kessler ahead of the CME Group Tour Championship.
Lee is one of many top players competing in the season-ending event at Tiburon Golf Club this week.
The LPGA Tour has continued its development this year, but there remains plenty of room for improvement in 2026 and beyond.
Lee has now named her biggest problem with the Tour, which she wants to be solved under Kessler’s leadership.
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Minjee Lee wants the LPGA Commissioner to fix slow play
Slow play has been a controversial issue on the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour recently, with several players showing their frustration.
Charley Hull even recommended that players should lose their Tour cards if they are found to be playing slowly three times.
Minjee Lee became the latest to weigh in on the debate on Wednesday, and she had a fairly positive outlook.
“I feel like we’re not waiting as much on our rounds as a whole,” she explained. “I think sometimes there are a few holes that are reachable and are going to be a little bit slower, but there haven’t been holes where we have been waiting two or three groups backed up.
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“So I definitely think as a whole, all the players and the groups have gotten definitely quicker. And I think in terms of our whole rounds as a whole, it’s gotten shorter. A lot of times it’s under five [hours] now, so I think that’s great.”
However, despite saying the pace of play has improved recently, Lee still wants it to be the “highest thing” on Kessler’s to-do list.
“I still think pace of play is the highest thing on Craig’s list,” Lee added. “I think it’s hard to be quicker as a whole, with the field size sometimes. We are definitely going to be quicker when we play in Asia because of the smaller fields and the flow of the courses.
“I think definitely when we have bigger fields, it’s going to be a little bit slower, and that’s just maybe the name of the game. I don’t know if we can really make it that much quicker.
“The Tour and the players, we’re trying to be as quick as we can in terms of keeping it entertaining and fun for our fans to watch. I think the next step is to get a lot of people out to watch us live. So hopefully we continue to do that and get a little bit quicker over time.”
What former LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux said about slow play
Former LPGA Tour Commissioner Mollie Marcoux commented on the slow play problem before the Tour Championship last year.
She pledged to deal with the issue after listening to complaints from multiple players with the suggestion of a “pace of play committee.”
“Yeah, I think it’s clearly an issue,” Marcoux said. “I’ve heard that from players. Obviously, our staff wants to speed up. I think we’re all in this together.
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“So we’re going to form a pace of play committee in the off-season that includes all these stakeholders and put our best thinking forward to figure out how we can speed things up for our players’ performance and also for the fans.
“I think everybody is invested in this and has to be committed to making some change there. So, yeah, we totally recognize it. We hear it.”
The committee did come up with some new policies, which were introduced in February, but they clearly did not have a significant impact.
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