With so few LPGA players 40 and over, is it time to lower the age limit for senior golf?

USA Today

18-03-2025

With so few LPGA players 40 and over, is it time to lower the age limit for senior golf?
There isn't a player on the LPGA more plugged into the landscape of tour golf than Stacy Lewis. And yet, even she was surprised to learn that she's one of only two active players on tour who are 40 and over. Alena Sharp, 44, being the second.
Brittany Lincicome, who turns 40 on Sept. 19, stepped away from full-time competition after 20 seasons at the end of last year. There has been talk of late, she said, about lowering the age limit of the Legends of the LPGA senior tour from 45 to 40.
The USGA has also been in conversation with several players about the age limit for the U.S. Senior Women's Open, which currently mirrors the men's senior at 50.
Right now, there is no consistency when it comes to defining senior golf for women.
'It doesn't make sense that the Legends age limit is 45, but then that (U.S. Senior Women's Open) is 50 and the Senior LPGA Championship is 45,' said 35-year-old Ashleigh Buhai.
'That's crazy. That needs to be changed.'
Senior golf has been a hot topic of late with Tiger Woods turning 50 at the end of this year, and Rory McIlroy giving senior golf a snub at the Players Championship.
'Something has went terribly wrong if I have to compete at golf at 50,' said McIlroy.
A number of over-50 players took issue with Mcllroy's comments, with Ernie Els calling his time on the PGA Tour Champions 'fulfilling,' and Bob Estes noting that many of his peers play not because they 'have to,' but because they still enjoy the competition and camaraderie.
LPGA players would love to simply enjoy the options that await McIlroy, who would rank 37th on the LPGA career money list, right ahead of LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer Beth Daniel, with the money he's made already in 2025 alone ($8,717,714).
It's worth noting Bernhard Langer has made more than $37 million playing senior golf, while Annika Sorenstam leads the LPGA's career money list with $22,583,693. The PGA Tour's no-cut Champions is the 'retirement' dream tour, while former LPGA players cobble together what they can each season.
'Since Covid, everything has been tight for us,' said Audra Burks, who currently serves as president of the Legends board. A full-field Legends tournament is 40 players, and several of the nine events listed on their 2025 schedule are unofficial team events and pro-ams.
The Legends of the LPGA has a licensing agreement to use the LPGA name, but, unlike the Champions, isn't actually under the LPGA's umbrella, though Burks said they'd like to be.
'We hope to someday, sooner than later, hopefully,' said Burks. 'But right now we're still considered a third-party tour.'
Lewis is actually hosting a new event in her native Toledo that will combine the Epson Tour and Legends players. She said they tossed around the idea of inviting players who are part of that tweener age – from 38 to 44 –for an exhibition.
'I think right now for us, 45 is the right age,' said Lewis of the Legends age limit.
Though there are plenty of interesting names that fit in that tweener range – Paula Creamer (38), Natalie Gulbis (42), Brittany Lang (39), Christina Kim (41), Lincicome (39), to name a few.
If the age limit on the Legnds goes any lower, Angela Stanford thinks they'll need to separate the field into two divisions and rebrand the tour.
The LPGA's list of players who retired last year was long and young, with Ally Ewing (32), Amy Olson (32), Maria Alex (34) and Emma Talley (30), walking away completely while Lexi Thompson, 30, simply slowed down to part time.
'Nobody's playing golf for 20 years anymore, in my opinion,' said Lincicome, 'and when they do, they're starting when they're like 12, it seems like, by the time they get up to 40, they're already retired.
'I could see myself playing a U.S. Senior Women's Open at 45, but 50? It's so far away.'
The average age of winners on the LPGA in 2024 was 25.5, with Bailey Tardy the oldest at 27 years, 7 months and 2 days. Most of last year, the media was on a retirement watch for Lydia Ko after she played her way into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Would the one-time prodigy even stay on tour until age 30, as she'd previously predicted?
Seven years ago, Stanford won the Evian Championship at the age of 40. Lewis thinks a player that old winning a major might not happen again on the LPGA for a long time – if ever.
Lewis said the LPGA has asked her what can be done to keep players on tour longer, and there's really no easy answer.
The talent pool has never deeper. The competition is longer and stronger, said Lewis, for starters. When she was the best player in the world, Lewis averaged around 258 yards off the tee, which put her in the top 20 on tour. That same average would put her around 90th on last year's list.
It's hard to keep up now, even for someone as fit as Lewis. And that's only a fraction of the story.
'The life is hard, like it really is,' said Lewis. 'The life is not for everybody. I think that's why very few make it to 40.'
Buhai works out at the same gym as 2024 U.S. Senior Women's Open champion Leta Lindley and knows first-hand how hard she works. She also believes Lindley was ready for the championship long before she turned 50.
'The arc of a woman's career is very different from 30 to 45,' said Amy Olson four years ago.
'If you have kids, your life looks very different to a man's. That's when they're peaking, and that's when you're stepping away.'
Olson, of course, is now pregnant with her second child and onto the next chapter of life. Her career arc is becoming the norm on the LPGA, where global travel makes a 15-year career feel more like 30.
The LPGA's senior circuit, founded in 2000 by 25 veteran pros, has yet to really find strong footing, and with the gap between full-time golf and senior golf longer than ever, one has to wonder how many of this next generation will endure the wait.
Is 40 the new 50 in women's golf?
It's certainly trending that way.