The sport’s top performers lack the global cachet of tennis players such as Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova, but women’s professional golf has been quietly turning itself in recent years into a sizeable commercial proposition.

Aggregate prize money on three leading tours – the US-based Ladies Professional Golf Association, the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA of Japan – now totals well over $100m. Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, who topped last year’s LPGA official money list, picked up nearly $4.4m. Tournament names around the world are studded with familiar brands: the Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open; the Kraft Nabisco Championship; the Stanford International Pro-Am; and, of course, next week’s(JUL 24) Evian Masters, whose $3m prize-fund is the biggest in the European women’s game.