Golf has always presented itself as a global sport, yet the influence of countries shifts dramatically depending on which tour you follow. The PGA Tour continues to reflect the depth of American men’s golf, where domestic players regularly appear on leaderboards. However, the LPGA Tour shows a different landscape. Both tours operate at the highest level of the sport, although they produce two contrasting competitive pictures globally.

Before examining the statistical divide, however, it is important to clarify what this comparison reveals. It does not evaluate which tour is stronger or which nationality performs better. Instead, it explains how two parallel professional circuits, running in the same calendar year, highlight different development systems, pathways, and patterns of dominance. So let’s see what the data says.

PGA Tour 2025: A Season Shaped by American Winners

The PGA Tour’s 2025 schedule began in January with The Sentry in Maui and continued through the FedExCup Playoffs and the fall series. Across this span, American names appeared frequently. Scottie Scheffler won multiple times, including The CJ CUP Byron Nelson, and the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Harris English captured the Farmers Insurance Open. Ben Griffin recorded victories at the Zurich Classic and the World Wide Technology Championship. Brian Harman, Cameron Young, and Justin Thomas added to the list.

Several major events also went to American players: Scottie Scheffler won both the PGA Championship and The Open Championship, while J.J. Spaun won the U.S. Open.

Non-Americans such as Rory McIlroy and Min Woo Lee also secured important titles during the season, providing international highlights alongside the American winners. This pattern was reflected in the Official World Golf Ranking published on November 24, 2025.

Scottie Scheffler held the world number one with 17.8725 average points; 6 Americans were inside the top ten, and 10 Americans were positioned inside the top 20. The concentration of domestic talent in the upper tier shows how the United States maintains a strong presence in elite men’s golf, but what does it look like in the women’s golf realm?

LPGA Tour 2025: International Depth Across the Leaderboard

The LPGA Tour delivered a very different distribution of success this season. The 2025 season opened in Florida at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and stretched across Asia, Europe, and North America. Across these events, most winners came from outside the United States.

Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand recorded multiple victories during 2025 and finished the season ranked world number 1.

Miyu Yamashita of Japan claimed the Maybank Championship and the AIG Women’s Open. Minjee Lee won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Maja Stark captured the U.S. Women’s Open. Carlota Ciganda, Sei Young Kim, Lydia Ko, Akie Iwai, and Grace Kim also stood out during the season.

American winners were far fewer. Angel Yin won the Honda LPGA Thailand. Jennifer Kupcho won the ShopRite LPGA Classic. These exceptions highlight how competitive and internationally diverse the LPGA field has become, particularly across Asia, where golf development programs have expanded rapidly in recent years.

The Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings supported this pattern. The ranking published on November 24, 2025, showed Jeeno Thitikul as world number 1 with 13.69 average points; Nelly Korda was the only American inside the top 10, and two others (Angel Yin and Lauren Coughlin) appeared inside the top 20. Players from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, England, and New Zealand filled the majority of the leading positions. So why the divide?

How These Patterns Emerge

The PGA Tour reflects the strength of the American men’s amateur and collegiate systems. Many players come from NCAA programs and progress through Korn Ferry Tour pathways into the PGA Tour. This structure creates a steady supply of high-level American talent.

The LPGA Tour features a different system where golf programs in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China have developed strong junior pipelines. These countries place a heavy emphasis on structured training and international competition. This has widened the field on the LPGA Tour and created a leaderboard where multiple regions of the world share influence.

One tour is driven by geographic depth, the other by demographic diversity, and that contrast is exactly what makes modern golf a richer, more global sport. So, what’s your take on this? Tell us in the comments.

Written by

Aditi Singh

Edited by

Sagnik Bagchi