Ahead of the CME Group Tour Championship, Minjee Lee has provided input for LPGA Tour Commissioner Craig Kessler.
This week, Tiburon Golf Club is hosting the season-ending event, with Lee among several top players taking part.
While the LPGA Tour has shown continued growth this year, there are still a few things that could be improved heading into 2026 and beyond.
Lee has now highlighted her biggest issue with the Tour, which she hopes Kessler can address during his time in charge.
Minjee Lee wants LPGA Tour Commissioner to tackle slow play
Pace of play has been a talking point on both the PGA and LPGA Tours, with more players beginning to speak out about it.
Charley Hull even went as far as to suggest that players should lose their Tour cards if they are penalised for slow play three times.
Lee also spoke up about the issue, and she took a more measured view, pointing out that things are not as bad as they once were.
“I feel like we’re not waiting as much on our rounds as a whole,” she said. “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.
“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 now, so I think that’s great.”
Despite acknowledging recent improvements in the pace of play, Lee emphasised that it should remain the ‘highest thing’ on Kessler’s to-do list.
“I still think pace of play is the highest thing on Craig’s list. 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
Slow play on the LPGA Tour had already been noted by Mollie Marcoux in 2023.
The previous commissioner announced plans to tackle the issue, including forming a ‘pace of play committee’ in response to player complaints.
She said: “Yeah, I think it’s clearly an issue. I’ve heard that from players. Obviously, our staff wants to speed up. I think we’re all in this together.
“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.”
New policies were rolled out by the committee earlier this year, but there has not been much sign of real progress.
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