Abstract
This article compares the PGA Tour to the LPGA by examining the relationship between skills and earnings on the two tours. Men on the PGA Tour play for bigger purses than do the women in the LPGA tournaments. But the men also play more rounds of golf over longer golf courses in front of more spectators and exhibit greater levels of skill than the women. The statistical results show which golf skills are the most valuable by estimating the effect of the skill on earnings. Furthermore, the results show that once skill levels are accounted for, women are not underpaid compared to men. Even though the tournament form of compensation rewards the relative skill levels within each tournament, the professional golf industry appears to reward the absolute level of skill with no gender bias.
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