East Coast Women’s Pro Golf Tour

of shining a light on women’s developmental golf and creating playing opportunities for those players that Mark Berman started the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship, an event that debuted last October at World Golf Village. He had no idea it would lead to buying an entire tour. Further inspired by the players and their stories at the PXGWMPC, Berman recently launched the Eastern Women’s Pro Golf Tour.

There are currently only three developmental women’s tours in the United States and Berman purchased the Florida-based NWGA, a 16-year-old women’s tour, and quickly rebranded it the ECWPGT and is rebuilding it from the ground up. The EWPGT is designed to create a more economically viable pathway for women particularly in the Eastern third of the country where there currently exist no professional events at this level other than a handful of State Opens.

The EWPGT kicks off with its Winter Series at the Black Bear Golf Course in Eustis on January 17, and will be played mostly in Central Florida. The Official Money tour will begin in May and include stops in New England, the mid-Atlantic, the Carolinas, Atlanta and back to Northeast Florida. Said Berman, “We’re creating the events necessary in areas where the players are currently underserved, helping them to cut down on front end costs.” He added, “We are committed to running a tournament experience that demonstrates how valued and meaningful these players are as women and as athletes, while getting them ready for the next level.”

Travel costs eat up the budgets for developmental players who also pay their own entry fees. Berman balks at calling them “mini-tours,” citing the only thing mini about them are the purses. Most professional players below the LPGA level are self-funded and do not have big sponsor contracts like men at the same level receive.

While men and women have the same expenses, there are dozens of tours for men to play and with significantly larger purses. Berman explains that men can function like national companies being on the road for 12-14 weeks at a time, while pro women golfers are more like a regional business. The

ECWPGT creates a more regionalized approach that narrows the gap between the cost of playing and the earnings potential, a structure today which forces players to go on the road for weeks at a time with little chance of earning their money back.

For example, Jessica Porvasnik, the 2021 money winner on Texas-based tour WAPT, earned $23,000 during its official money season and an additional $25,000 or so by winning the PXGWMPC, traveling to State Opens and playing on the NWGA, yet she made just over $50,000 to barely break even in what was a very successful year. Porvasnik was one of many players with whom Berman spoke before buying the NWGA to make sure he was correctly seeing the financial challenges of a women playing professional golf on the eastern third of the United States. Porvasnik is now

on the ECWPGT Advisory Board which Berman will use to help guide the tour.

Jess McCallister, owner of golf industry marketing company, Digital Collective, joined the ECWPGT Advisory Board because she, too sees the challenges these women face and believes that the Tour’s vision can help shape that future. “This tour will draw a lot of players off the sidelines who are simply not playing and waiting for Q School, where they end up unprepared. There are so many good players who simply need the time and the opportunity to develop, and it’s important to expand that pathway.”

“The industry spent a lot of energy 12 or so years ago to attract juniors to the game to build the business pipeline, and here they come” Berman muses. His daughter, Hannah, a high school graduate of 2016, played D1 college golf, played in the US Women’s Amateur and the British Amateur is one of those players. It was her desire to play professionally that led Berman to this point. “While planning her professional schedule we realized the closest events were 12 hours away. It didn’t happen overnight, but that frustration led us to buying this tour, not for her but because of her.”

The ECWPGT also established the Access Golf Fund to help build tournament purses, and to provide micro-scholarships to assist players with entry fees and travel costs, the two biggest prohibitors to their success.

The ECWPGT is open primarily to the developmental professional players those ranked below the Top 14 on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour. The tour will accept amateur players ages 16 and over on a waitlist basis as space permits. Registration for the Winter Series is currently open on the tour’s website www.ECWPGT.com and can be followed at @ecwpgt.

January17-19 Black Bear Golf Club January 26-28 Rio Pinar Country Club February 7-9 Redtail Golf Club February 14-17 Eagle Dunes CC Feb 28-March 2 Lake Jovita CC March 7-9 Course TBD March 14-16 Course TBD March 28-20 Winter Series Finale, Mission Inn, Symetra Prep event

Official Tour Kick Off - April 25 Northeast Florida, plus events in New England, Mid-Atlantic, Coastal Carolinas, Atlanta and the PXG Women’s Match Play Championship at World Golf Village