Mollie Marcoux Samaan is resigning in January as LPGA commissioner, a surprise announcement Monday after record growth in prize money along with criticism the LPGA wasn't gaining in popularity during the surge in women's sports.
Marcoux Samaan is leaving on Jan. 9, three weeks before the LPGA begins its 75th season. Liz Moore, the chief legal and technology officer, will be interim commissioner until a search committee hires a new one.
Marcoux Samaan did not cite a specific reason for resigning except to mention spending more time with her three children. She will serve the third-shortest stint among nine LPGA commissioners dating to 1975, behind only Jim Ritts (1996-99) and Bill Blue (1988-90).
“With the LPGA positioned for continued growth, it’s time for me to have more time to cheer on our three amazing children as they live their dreams while I continue to pursue my passion for building leaders, uniting communities and creating value through sports, particularly women’s sports,” Marcoux Samaan said in a statement.
The LPGA said prize money increased by more than 90% under Marcoux Samaan, a big part of that the major championships. The five majors had a combined prize fund of $23.4 million in 2021. Next year, the majors combine to offer at least $47.8 million in prize money.
She announced the end of her tenure a week after the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship awarded $4 million to the winner, Jeeno Thitikul, from an $11 million purse.
“Since joining the LPGA in 2021, Mollie has been instrumental in solidifying our position as the global leader in women’s professional golf, realizing record growth in player earnings and fan engagement,” said John B. Veihmeyer, chairman of the LPGA board. “Mollie has been a steadfast advocate for equity in the sport and has worked tirelessly to expand opportunities for women and girls through the game.”
The LPGA said the average earnings for the top 100 players topped $1 million this year, compared with an average of just over $570,000 in 2021.
Women's sports across the landscape has seen a spike in money and interest, though Marcoux Samaan was criticized for the LPGA not getting enough attention behind remarkable story lines this year. Nelly Korda tied an LPGA record with five straight wins, and Lydia Ko won Olympic gold to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, and then won another major at the Women's British Open at St. Andrews.
The Americans also won the Solheim Cup, but not without a transportation mess on the opening day at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia when there were not enough buses for spectators and many of them waited hours before they could get in, missing the opening tee shots that typically feature packed grandstands and raucous cheering.
Marcoux Samaan pointed to growth in defending her job when some of the criticism was raised at the season-ending tournament.
“I focus every day on trying to support the athletes, to try to grow the tour, and to try to make this the best place in the world to play and to give additional opportunities to girls and women. So I feel like the statistics really speak for themselves,” she said at the Tour Championship.
“I think we’re experiencing enormous growth. That’s really what my job is.”
Along with huge increases in earnings, Marcoux Samaan announced full subsidized health care for the LPGA for the first time in its history. She also was behind stipends for missing the cut and domestic travel in a bid to make sure players were adequately compensated.
Official prize money for the LPGA in 2025 is $127.5 million.
Terry Duffy, the chairman and CEO of CME Group, signed a two-year extension of the LPGA deal. In an interview with Golfweek, he gave Marcoux Samaan high marks.
“I don’t know how you could not give A++ to where the tour is at today under her leadership,” Duffy said. “I run markets. I don’t care if you’re running a business at a hardware store or an exchange or professional golf, there’s ebbs and flows to everything in life and everything in business. ... If you’re worth more today than you were 10 years ago or three years ago, you’re doing the right things.”
Marcoux Samaan was the ninth commissioner — and second female commissioner — when she left her role as athletic director at Princeton. Marcoux Samaan replaced Mike Whan, who took over in 2010 when players revolted and ousted Carolyn Bivens.
Whan brought high energy and a big personality during his 11 years, making him the longest-serving LPGA commissioner in history.
The LPGA board will work with an executive search firm to conduct a global search for the organization’s next commissioner.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
FILE - LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan speaks to the gallery after the final round of the LPGA Ford Championship golf tournament Sunday, March 31, 2024, in Gilbert, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Three hostages held by Hamas were released Sunday after 471 days in captivity as part of a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. A gradual release of dozens of captives over the next several weeks has been agreed on.
The truce and release of hostages sparked hope and trepidation among Israelis. Many fear that the three-phase deal could collapse before all the hostages return, or that they will arrive in poor health. Others worry that the number of captives who have died is more than predicted.
Some 250 people were kidnapped during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered 15 months of war. Around 100 hostages still remain in Gaza, after the rest were released, rescued, or their bodies were recovered.
Hours before Sunday's ceasefire, which many hope is the first step to end the war, Israel announced that it had retrieved the body of Oron Shaul, a soldier who was killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war and whose remains have been held by the militants since then.
Here's a look at the three hostages to be released Sunday:
Romi Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That morning, Gonen's mother, Merav, and her eldest daughter spent nearly five hours speaking to Gonen as militants marauded through the festival grounds. Gonen told her family that roads clogged with abandoned cars made escape impossible and that she would seek shelter in some bushes.
Then she said words that continue to echo in her mother’s head every day. “Mommy I was shot, the car was shot, everybody was shot. ... I am wounded and bleeding. Mommy, I think I’m going to die,” she recounted Romi as saying, in a press conference a few weeks after the abduction.
At a loss for what to do, Merav Gonen tried to convince her daughter that she wasn’t going to die, to start breathing and treat her wounded friends. According to Merav, Romi's last word during the call was a shriek of “Mommy!” as approaching gunfire and the men’s shouts drowned out everything.
Then the phone shut off. Israeli authorities identified her phone's location in Gaza.
Over the past 15 months, Merav Gonen has been one of the most outspoken voices advocating for the return of the hostages, appearing nearly daily on Israeli news programs and traveling abroad on missions.
“We are doing everything we can so the world will not forget,” she told The Associated Press on the six-month anniversary of Hamas' attack. “Every day we wake up and take a big breath, deep breath, and continue walking, continue doing the things that will bring her back.”
Emily Damari is a British-Israeli citizen kidnapped from her apartment on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, a communal farming village hit hard by Hamas' assault. She lived in a small apartment in a neighborhood for young adults, the closest part of the kibbutz to Gaza. Militants broke through the border fence of the kibbutz and ransacked the neighborhood.
Damari's mother, Mandy, said she loves music, traveling, soccer, good food, karaoke and hats. Kibbutz Kfar Aza said that Damari was often the “glue that held her close-knit friend group together” and she was always organizing gatherings of friends around the best barbecue corner in the entire kibbutz.
“I hold on to that sliver of hope that I still keep in my heart that she is surviving, in spite of her suffering,” Mandy Damari said in front of Damari's burned apartment last January. “I am desperate, angry, and terrified for her life.”
Doron Steinbrecher is a veterinary nurse who loves animals, and a neighbor to Damari in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
At 10:20 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2023, Steinbrecher called her mother. “Mom, I’m scared. I’m hiding under the bed and I hear them trying to enter my apartment,” her brother, Dor, recalled. She was able to send a voice message to her friends. “They’ve got me! They’ve got me! They’ve got me!” in the moments of her abduction.
That message was key in helping her family understand that Doron had been kidnapped.
Steinbrecher was featured in a video released by Hamas on Jan. 26, 2024, along with two female Israeli soldiers. Her brother said the video gave them hope that she was alive but sparked concern because she looked tired, weak, and gaunt.
In total, militants killed 64 people and 22 soldiers, and kidnapped 19 people from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 7. With the return of Steinbrecher and Damari, there are still three members of the kibbutz held in Gaza: American-Israeli Keith Siegel, 65, and twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27.
Oron Shaul was a soldier killed on July 20, 2014, during fighting between Israel and Hamas. His body and that of another soldier, Hadar Goldin, had been held by militants since then despite a public campaign to return them by their families.
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of the captives, called the Shaul family an “inseparable part” of the group.
Militants still hold the bodies of Goldin as well as two Israelis who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015 on their own.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
A girl walks past a graffiti, calling for the return of the hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7 , 2023 Hamas cross-border attacks in Israel, in Kfar Saba, Israel, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A woman reacts as people gather in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the first day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, where three hostages are set to be released from captivity in the Gaza Strip, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A display of yellow chairs representing hostages held in the Gaza Strip, and a banner reading "now!" in Hebrew, are seen in Tel Aviv, Israel, on the first day of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as three hostages are set to be released from captivity, Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
