Looking forward to a new era of women’s golf — Shannon Tan wins LET Order of Merit

The LPGA Tour season-long Race to the CME Globe is over, and Jeeno Thitikul solidified her place as the LPGA’s Rolex Player of the Year thanks to her dominant win at the 2025 CME Group Tour Championship. One more tournament—the crossover event with the PGA Tour, the Grant Thornton Invitational—remains before the short offseason and preparation for the 2026 schedule.

There are plenty of things to look forward to in 2026, like another Solheim Cup, this time on European soil, and a few new tournament venues. But the change I’m most excited about is the LPGA Tour’s new broadcasting coverage partnership with FM, Golf Channel and Trackman.

It’s going to be thrilling to see every round of golf in 2026 broadcast live. This provides so many more opportunities for folks to discover the joy of LPGA Tour golf. I can’t wait to see every hole-out and long putt live, and I can’t wait for others to see this entertainment too. I’m also excited for more “walk and talk” player interviews on course, especially ones like this:

“Starting in 2026, fans will immediately see and feel the difference: more cameras, better technology, richer storytelling and more ways to appreciate the unbelievable skill of our players, fully live,” LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler said in the press release announcing the partnership.

Kessler is right when he says there is “unbelievable skill” to be acknowledged and appreciated. The more LPGA golf is broadcast to multiple audiences, the more people will see the beauty of their game. You’ve heard this many times here at Golf Thursday: the LPGA Tour has had the most different winners on tour this season than any other. The tour is dripping with talent, new and old; you never know who’s going to win. Sure, you have your big-name players, but there are new challengers, often rookies, that come to play as well. It’s a nail-biting finish almost every week, and audiences will have a great time experiencing it live.

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We’re inching closer to equity in the women’s game, and this is a solid first step.

I hope the Grant Thornton Invitational next week will be a bit of a preview for the kind of coverage we’ll see in 2026. That event is always a riot; players from the LPGA Tour and the PGA Tour combine forces into incredibly-named teams and see who can best the field. The Grant Thornton is played at the same course as the CME Group Tour Championship, so the LPGA players who just competed a few weeks ago are bound to put on a show.

Just the fact that the Grant Thornton Invitational exists is good for the women’s game. The mixed event draws fans from the PGA Tour. Even if the LPGA doesn’t gain lifetime fans because of the tournament, it attracts eyes that wouldn’t otherwise turn to women’s golf. The Grant Thornton is the perfect offseason tournament to end a great year on tour and boost us into 2026.

See you next week for that preview, golf fans.

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This week in women’s golf

LET News

Players honoured at 2025 end of season awards

Tan scoops another title with 2025 Players’ Player of the Year accolade

Shannon Tan wins 2025 Order of Merit title at LET season finale

Nadaud wins maiden LET title at 2025 Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España presented by Oysho

Huang targets LPGA Q-Series after Saturday surge in Spain

Tan and Rhodes locked again as thrilling Order of Merit comes down to final day

Battle on the bubble heats up in Malaga

Five at The IX: LET wraps up season, Shannon Tan wins the LET Order of Merit after tight battle with Mimi Rhodes

On Sunday, Nov. 30, the Ladies European Tour (LET) wrapped up its 2025 season with the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España presented by Oysho. While Nastasia Nadaud closed out the season as the final winner of 2025 with her first LET title, Shannon Tan took the 2025 LET Order of Merit as the player to finish at the top of the LET standings. Tan, who finished T-16 in Malaga, was also voted the LET’s Players’ Player of the Year. The win secured her victory in a season-long battle with LET rookie Mimi Rhodes for the Order of Merit honor. Here are some quotes from the final tournament of the 2025 LET season from LET.com.

Shannon Tan on the incredible season she’s had:

“It’s been a great season. Comparing this year to last year, I think I’ve improved quite a lot and with it being my second year on Tour I have learned a lot from last year as well. This wouldn’t have happened without all the people who have been there throughout my whole career. I want to thank my parents, my coach, my manager and my caddie Simon—who has been great this year—and to the LET and everyone who makes all the tournaments possible. I’m really thankful for everything.”

Tan on being the first player from Singapore to win the LET Order of Merit:

“It means a lot to be the first person from Singapore to win the Order of Merit on the LET. Hopefully, that gets juniors back home to try out golf and more will come through and play professionally as well. It’s always great to have one person that’s done it and it shows that it’s possible. It pushes me to do my best and I want to be a role model for everyone back home.”

Nastasia Nadaud on her wild ride to her first LET title:

“I don’t really know what to say! It’s been so intense all week, I’m really happy with the outcome. It’s been a rollercoaster week, but it’s insane. I don’t have the words for right now. All week I had pretty weird shots to play from the trees and missing fairways, I hit amazing shots as well. I had a really hot start and was five-under through five holes. My putting has been really good all week and it has saved me a lot of shots. It’s been really intense.”

Nadaud on using past experience to boost her to the top:

“I think the previous experiences [of finishing second] really helped me. First in Belgium, I had a really stressful shot out of the rough and I stressed out. The same at La Sella, it was stressful and I didn’t know how to handle that. This time I had a stressful back nine from 13 to 16 and I knew how to handle that much better in my head and my game of golf as well.”

Nadaud on working with Michele Thomson as her caddie:

“It has been an amazing run of events with Michele since she started with me in Houston. She has really helped me with my self-confidence with my mental game and my golf game of course. She brings so much confidence for me, I really love that.”