LPGA star Nelly Korda publicly questioned TMRW Sports' decision to establish a new indoor women's golf league this week. Instead, she argued, TGL should look to integrate LPGA players into the existing TGL competition alongside their PGA counterparts.
Speaking with Golfweek as she prepares for the new season, Korda characterized the choice to create the WTGL as a separate entity as a "missed opportunity." The former world No. 1 suggested that combining men's and women's competitors would be a transformative moment for professional golf.
Korda went on to suggest that competing for identical prize purses would break historical ground. She also expressed surprise that other players have yet to voice similar concerns about TGL's segregated structure.
Co-founded by golf legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TMRW Sports revealed plans for its WTGL offshoot earlier this month. The women's competition will utilize the same technology-driven simulator format that launched at Florida's SoFi Center during TGL's first season.
Multiple high-profile LPGA players have signed on to participate in WTGL's debut season, set for this winter. The roster includes reigning No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul, along with established stars like Lydia Ko, Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Brooke Henderson, Rose Zhang, and rising star Lottie Woad.
Korda's name has been conspicuously absent from these announcements.
Regarding her potential participation, Korda indicated she remains undecided while evaluating scheduling demands and operational details. Her primary focus currently centers on preparation for the LPGA season, which kicks off this week with the Tournament of Champions.
While Korda balanced her critique by saying the WTGL offers valuable opportunities, she maintained that an integrated league would have more impact on expanding the pro women's golf's reach.
The Australian Open is raising the bar for 2026, with the first Grand Slam of the tennis season boosting its total prize pool to a record $74.9 million — a 16% increase over the 2025 tournament.
Top-finishers in both the women's and men's competitions will now receive checks worth $2.79 million — 19% more than 2025's champions — while a player exiting in the main draw's first round will earn approximately $101,000, a 14% year-over-year increase.
The annual competition has long been a pioneer in promoting equal pay, following the US Open's 1973 move by becoming the second Slam to guarantee a 50-50 breakdown between the WTA and ATP in 2001.
"This 16% increase demonstrates our commitment to supporting tennis careers at every level," said Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley in the governing body's Tuesday announcement. "From boosting qualifying prize money by 55% since 2023 to enhancing player benefits, we're ensuring professional tennis is sustainable for all competitors."
"This investment strengthens tennis's foundation, ensuring the sport's long-term health and commercial growth," added Tiley. "By supporting players at all levels, we're building deeper talent pools and more compelling storylines for fans."
How to watch the 2026 Australian Open
US star and world No. 7 Madison Keys will look to defend her trophy when the main draw of the 2026 Australian Open kicks off at 7 PM ET on Saturday, January 17th.
Live coverage of the season's first Slam will air across ESPN platforms.
Angel City bid farewell to two NWSL legends on Sunday, sending club mainstays Christen Press and Ali Riley off into retirement in style following the LA team's final home game of 2025.
"This sport has grown and blossomed in my 14 years as a professional," Press told the 19,000-strong crowd during the post-match retirement celebration. "This community and club marks all of the work my teammates and I did over a decade to fight for equity, progress, and opportunity for the next generation."
"It's always been about the people to me, and you made it worth it to come back to say goodbye," outgoing ACFC captain Riley told her teammates. "As I look around, this is truly a city of angels."
Both Southern California products and international football icons signed with their hometown expansion side prior to Angel City's 2022 debut, going on to face similar injury struggles in recent years.
"With my injury, I had accepted that it was probably the end of my career, that I would finish my days as a soccer player in the gym alone," Riley said after taking the pitch for the last time, referencing the nerve condition that sidelined her for much of 2024 and 2025. "I'm going to sleep in my boots. I can't believe I got on the field."
"It was a really long journey," Press said. "Thank you for making me feel like the most loved player in the whole world."
Now eliminated from playoff contention, Riley and Press will suit up one more time in their pro soccer careers, taking the pitch for Angel City's November 2nd regular-season finale against the hosting Chicago Stars.
Soccer's biggest names are giving Christen Press her flowers, praising the former USWNT forward's decorated career following the announcement of her impending retirement on Wednesday.
"Thank you CP23 for leading the way!! ACFC was our dream, and your commitment to the game and the club has transformed our community," USWNT '99er and Angel City investor Mia Hamm tweeted.
"On the field, a champion. Off the field, a leader and inspiration to so many. 155 caps, 64 goals, 2 World Cups, and a lasting impact in our sport that goes well beyond the numbers," echoed US Soccer CEO JT Batson.
"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky. Congrats on your perfect career. ily," posted Press's wife, fellow retired USWNT star Tobin Heath.
While injury struggles kept Press off the international field under current head coach Emma Hayes, the USWNT boss still complimented the 36-year-old's work on and off the pitch during her Wednesday press conference.
"I remember watching Christen Press play for the first time — I went to a Stanford game — and I remember thinking, 'Who the hell is this kid?,'" Hayes said, citing Press's attacking versatility. "She could smash the ball into the top corner like nobody I know."
"What people don't really see with that generation of players is what they've had to endure to get to where they are," she continued, spotlighting the last roster's fight for equal pay. "They've had to sacrifice themselves, or put themselves in a place that positioned everybody else in a better place."
"I think it is time for my family to move on to our next chapter," said Press herself. "We're going to be a part of this game forever, but it's time for it to look different for us."
Retired USWNT superstar Alex Morgan hit up Alex Cooper's Call Her Daddy podcast this week, talking motherhood, soccer stardom, and the fight for equal pay.
"Fast forward to 2019, and we were owning our s—t," she said, referencing the USWNT's long fight to achieve financial equity. "We're going to win, we filed an equal pay lawsuit against US Soccer, we know that winning [the World Cup] is going to help our case, and we are the best."
"We likely won't reap the benefits of what we're fighting for, but our kids will," Morgan recalled thinking. "I hope my daughter knows nothing other than equal."
Morgan also opened up about life as a high-profile soccer celebrity, discussing how she juggled becoming a new mother while also navigating her playing career for both club and country.
"It was very difficult because there was no rules — there was no standard for moms in the NWSL, or even on the national team," she said. "I was trying to be a great mom, and I was trying to be a great soccer player, but I was also now having to write new rules and advocate for all moms in the future in soccer."
How to watch Alex Morgan on Call Her Daddy
Wednesday's Call Her Daddy episode featuring Morgan is currently available to download on all podcast platforms and can be watched on YouTube.
Sportico released its 2025 tennis prize money tracker late last week, and three of the annual cross-tour rankings' Top-5 earners hail from the WTA.
With $8.21 million in total 2025 earnings so far, newly minted Wimbledon winner Iga Świątek came in third behind ATP Tour giants Carlos Alcaraz ($10.63 million) and Jannik Sinner ($9.04 million).
Just behind Świątek sit reigning US Open champ Aryna Sabalenka ($7.13 million) and 2025 French Open winner Coco Gauff ($5.95 million) in fourth- and fifth-place, respectively.
Even more, a total of six women's tour standouts occupy slots in the Top 10, with Mirra Andreeva ($4.15 million), Madison Keys ($3.96 million), and Jasmine Paolini ($3.79 million) joining the previously trio in that upper echelon.
The gender parity on the list is a direct result of the fact that all four of the sport's Grand Slams boast equal prize money between the men's and women's competitions — a shift that began with the 1973 US Open and saw full adoption across the quartet of tennis majors with the 2007 Wimbledon Championships.
Now approaching two decades of Grand Slam equal pay, pro tennis players enjoy one of the highest in-competition earning potentials across all women's sports.
This year's tennis prize money rankings are far from locked in, however, as the 2025 US Open steps into its second round on Wednesday — with a record-setting $90 million total purse on the line to boost players' spots on the list.
Should world No. 1 Sabalenka defend her title — or if No. 2 Świątek or No. 3 Gauff emerges victorious in the season's final Grand Slam — a WTA player could launch herself to the top of the 2025 earnings list.
Legendary USWNT attacker Tobin Heath officially announced her retirement from soccer on Thursday, nearly three years after playing her final professional match.
"Over New Year's, I actually came to the full acceptance that I wasn't going to be playing," the 37-year-old explained on her podcast, The RE-CAP Show.
In her 13 years with the senior national team, Heath — widely regarded as one of the most technical players in US history — earned two World Cup titles (2015, 2019) and three Olympic medals (gold in 2008 and 2012, and bronze in 2021).
Across her 181 USWNT caps, the 2016 US Soccer Athlete of the Year logged 36 goals and 42 assists, making her final appearance for the States on October 26th, 2021.
At the club level, Heath spent seven seasons with the Portland Thorns, helping the team to NWSL Championships in 2013 and 2017, as well as the 2016 NWSL Shield.
While her career also included European stints with the Première Ligue's PSG as well as WSL sides Manchester United and Arsenal, Heath ended her pro run with the 2022 NWSL Shield-winning Seattle Reign, playing what would be her final soccer match on August 14th of that year.
Injury ends Heath's soccer career
The end of Heath's career is not what the creative, nutmegging winger anticipated.
"I thought I was literally going to be peeled off the field," Heath told The Athletic on Wednesday.
However, a 2022 serious left knee injury left Heath unable to play soccer — even at a casual level — ultimately forcing her retirement.
"I tried f---ing everything to get back, I spent tens of thousands of dollars and [had] two surgeries, one crazy surgery," Heath said on her podcast. "And the whole time I believed I was going to get back."
"Football is a 360-degree sport, and I can't do it," she told The Athletic. "So that part is the hardest part. The actual playing of soccer is gone."
Heath still working to lift up women's soccer in retirement
Despite coming to terms with the end of her on-pitch career, Heath isn't leaving the world of soccer anytime soon, helping lead the newly launched World Sevens Football and joining FIFA's technical study group for the men's Club World Cup.
Elevating football — particularly the women's game — is a pursuit that began for Heath with the Portland Thorns.
"[Portland] showed what women's sports could be," she explained. "I was dreaming of the world that I wanted to create."
The 2019 World Cup run then solidified that mission, with the USWNT adding a fourth star to their crest while also facing a pressure-cooker of expectations amid political tension and a contentious fight for equal pay.
"You can't feel what we felt...and not believe that you're doing something so f---ing important for the world," said Heath.
"You feel that responsibility — and that's what it is — and you want to keep carrying that responsibility as far forward as you can."
US tennis star Jessica Pegula defeated Sofia Kenin 6-3, 7-5 at the Charleston Open on Sunday, winning her first clay court title in the tournament’s first all-US final since 1990.
The victory marks Pegula’s second of the season, with the 2025 Miami Open finalist overtaking fellow US star Coco Gauff in the No. 3 spot in the newly updated WTA rankings — matching her career high.
"I was playing a lot of matches over the previous couple years, and I was just burnt out," Pegula told reporters afterwards. "So I'm just really happy that this year I feel so much fresher, so much better, and I think the results are kind of showing this early in the year."
Equal pay heads for Charleston Open
Charleston organizers also announced on Sunday that the Open will provide equal prize money to both the men’s and women’s pools starting with next year's edition, becoming the first standalone WTA 500 event to level the financial playing field — and doubling the winner’s approximately $1,000,000 purse in the process.
The move follows a 2023 WTA announcement outlining a pathway to equal pay, with the goal of achieving purse equity across combined WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2027 and single-week WTA 1000 and 500 events by 2033.
"People often assume there's equal prize money across the board, but it's really only at the Slams, and maybe one or two of the 1000-level tournaments," Pegula explained. "So just starting that trend toward better equity is huge for us. It's amazing."
The NCAA is leveling the playing field, with Women’s March Madness teams in line to receive their first-ever prize payouts based on tournament performance — a mechanism the men’s tournament has enjoyed since 1991.
Sparked by 2021's landmark NCAA gender equity review, the NCAA will distribute a total of approximately $15 million to individual conferences based on how many games their teams play, with each March Madness performance "unit" worth about $113,000.
This year's inaugural $15 million purse represents 26% of the competition's $65 million media rights valuation — putting it proportionally on par with the percentage allocated to the men's fund.
That overall prize pool will jump to $20 million in 2026 and $25 million in 2027, before switching to a successive 2.9% increase per year.
"We are all playing in the same March Madness," said UNC Greensboro head coach Trina Patterson, whose No. 16-seed Spartans will face No. 1-seed USC in the first round on Saturday. "The treatment for the men and women should be equal. We get a unit!"
March Madness teams get additional NCAA tournament perks
While the performance payouts are new this year, women's March Madness teams also receive perks like charter flights throughout the tournament, which can make all the difference for smaller programs eyeing an upset.
"Everyone is so excited about the experience. Going from the bus directly to the plane, everyone was so happy," March Madness debutante William & Mary head coach Erin Dickerson Davis told ESPN ahead of her No. 16-seed team’s First Four victory on Thursday.
Columbia junior Perri Page, whose No. 11-seed Lions defeated Washington in their own First Four matchup on Thursday, echoed Davis' sentiment, saying, "It was cool going to the charter, and we've been taking it all in."
"We've been enjoying the whole season," the forward added, noting "It's great we can make money for the school now."
"It should have always been that way. Women's basketball has been fighting for equality for a very long time," said Davis. "I've been in this business for many, many years. I played college basketball. It's a long time coming."
"You got to start somewhere, and I think we've been so far behind," added Columbia head coach Megan Griffith.
"This is more like the whipped cream. I think the cherry on top is going to keep coming — but it's really good so far."
Two-time World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and three-time NWSL champion Becky Sauerbrunn announced her retirement from professional soccer on Tuesday.
"This isn't the end. I'll be around. I love this game too much to leave it for good," the 39-year-old legendary USWNT center back wrote. "But for the first time in sixteen years I'm going to find a quiet moment and close my eyes for a bit."
Leading from the back
A titan on and off the field, Sauerbrunn's 16-year professional career is littered with trophies earned for club and country.
Sauerbrunn, who notably opened her senior national team account with a broken nose in her January 2008 first cap, leaves the international pitch with 219 appearances, making her the USWNT's 10th all-time most-capped player.
Across the three World Cups and three Olympic Games in which she competed, Sauerbrunn helped the USWNT to a runners-up finish in the 2011 World Cup before snagging back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019. In addition to 2012 Olympic gold and 2021 Olympic bronze, her US resume boasts eight straight Concacaf championships.
As part of a generation of players that founded the league, there has never been an NWSL season without Sauerbrunn logging minutes. The four-time NWSL Defender of the Year also earned annual Best XI selection seven times, more than any other player in league history.
Sauerbrunn began her 11 NWSL seasons with FC Kansas City, snagging a pair of championships in 2014 and 2015. She later spent two seasons with the Utah Royals before spending the last five on Portland's pitch, helping the Thorns to both the 2021 NWSL Shield and 2022 championship.
While executing her role as a fierce defender, the backline behemoth also served as captain of both the USWNT and Portland Thorns. A quiet leader, Sauerbrunn's calm, steady presence grounded her teams, anchoring them to trophy-lifting success.
A legacy of activism and equal pay
Though her on-field prowess is impressive, Sauerbrunn's true legacy can be found off the pitch, where the defender consistently tackles social justice issues. Along with combatting racial and gender inequities, Sauerbrunn's activism includes fighting legislation that bans transgender girls and women from competing in women's sports.
Most tangibly, however, is how she helped change the game for current and future USWNT players. In 2016, Sauerbrunn and four other USWNT athletes kicked off the fight for equal pay by filing a federal complaint against US Soccer.
One 2019 class-action gender discrimination lawsuit and years of litigation later, Sauerbrunn and her teammates secured a landmark settlement with the federation in 2022, cementing equal compensation for both the USWNT and USMNT as a contractual rule. As the president of the player's association, Sauerbrunn was one of the athletes to physically sign the historic agreement — a document that sparked similar battles for equality worldwide.
The end of an era
With her Tuesday announcement, Sauerbrunn adds to the wave of soccer stars officially exiting the professional game in 2024. She follows Portland teammate and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair in hanging up her boots, and joins USWNT standouts Alex Morgan, Kelley O'Hara, and Alyssa Naeher in retirement.
Still offering sage reflections, the captain told US Soccer, "I learned early on that we were all just renting our jerseys. That I got to wear the US Soccer crest once was an honor and privilege for which I’m forever grateful. The fact that I got to do it over 200 times is truly humbling."
Ultimately, Sauerbrunn leaves the game better than she found it, stepping off the field with no regrets.
"Of course I’d do it all again," she writes. "In a heartbeat.”