Study highlights ‘shocking’ pay gap between top male and female pros

A study conducted by a golf travel company has highlighted the ‘shocking’ disparity in pay between the leading male and female professional golfers.

Findings by Golf Travel Centre have shown that the gap is at a high over the past five years (2014-18).

The figures show the top ten highest earners from each year, which were calculated by dividing each player’s overall official earnings by their total strokes.

This determined the average earnings per shot of each professional, with the results showing that, among the top ten men and women, the gap as increased to show that male golfers earn 82% more than their female counterparts per stroke – an increase of 7% on 2017.

Other key insights from the story were that women have only taken home 25% of the total £45.9 million prize money from major tournaments in 2018.

Across the four majors of 2018, the men in first place earned an average of £5,684 per shot while the women only earned an average of £1,662 per shot. This trend is consistent across the top ten places and the stark differences can be seen below:

“Although these conversations are becoming ever present within the media and the sport itself, the research has certainly proved to be quite shocking,” said a spokesperson for Golf Travel Centre.