LPGA Under Fire After Golfer Denied Equal Prize for Same Achievement as Akshay Bhatia

The huge difference between the LPGA Tour and the PGA Tour sponsorship was on full display today. At one end, Akshay Bhatia hit a spectacular 227-yard ace, the first of his career. The young pro golfer lined up his drive perfectly, and the ball bounced on the green a few times before rolling in for a hole-in-one. Bhatia jumped up in joy at the tee zone and ran towards his caddie to celebrate. The shot had just gotten him a brand new BMW from the sponsors of the playoff event. However, Haeran Ryu of the LPGA Tour wasn’t as fortunate, despite achieving the same feat.

As the LPGA Tour shared, she also hit a spectacular drive on the 16th hole that landed perfectly on the green and rolled into the hole. The 24-year-old scored an ace in the 2025 Standard Portland Classic. However, as the tweet by the LPGA Tour reflects, the tournament sponsors weren’t as generous for Ryu’s achievement as BMW was for Bhatia’s ace. Toyota, the brand sponsoring the event, gifted the South Korean pro “$50,000 toward a new Toyota.”

Bhatia had promised that if he scored the ace, he would gift his caddie, John Limanti, the BMW. So the two were just as excited about his achievement. However, Ryu looked like she enjoyed the fact that she had just scored an excellent shot, but was not too focused on what she had won because of it. And why would she, as the fans who read what she had won, also found the reward from Toyota to be quite absurd.

In fact, the tweet was packed with comments criticizing both the brand and the LPGA Tour for undervaluing the efforts of the LPGA Tour stars. Let’s see what they had to say.

Fans question the unequal treatment of Haeran Ryu as compared to Akshay Bhatia

The fact that Toyota decided to reward the LPGA Tour stars with a $50,000 payment for the car instead of the whole car is an absurd concept. Fans would have never known about it had Haeran Ryu not scored that hole-in-one on the 16th hole. As someone pointed out, “This is so Embarrassing for @Toyota just give her the car,” questioning the brand’s strategic approach. They should have known that they would receive backlash for it, considering that all other automobile brands outright gift the vehicle to the player for such achievements instead of providing them a payment for it.

Speaking of payments, there were quite a few comments that mentioned how Ryu won’t be able to buy some of the best Toyota cars with the $50,000 check. One fan said, “The real problem is that $50k isn’t even enough for a Toyota,” which is not entirely true. There are quite a few Toyota models, like the Corolla or even a Prius, that fall under that price tag. However, a star golfer like Haeran Ryu would probably prefer something more luxurious than that.

On that note, someone else wrote, “Haeran: I think I’ll go with the 2025 Toyota 4Runner. Toyota dealership: Ok…that’ll be $25,000 extra.” The showroom price for the same comes up to around $55,535. She will definitely need to pay more than the $50K she received from the ace to purchase a Toyota 4Runner. Monday Q Info also dropped into the conversation as they asked, “She won 2/3’s of a car?” If Ryu is planning to buy a Toyota Sequoia, then she will need to pay more than 1/3rd of the car’s value out of her pocket if she decides to use the absurd reward.

Someone brought politics into the equation as they said, “Cant even win a fully paid car anymore thanks to these tariffs.” Ryu will have to talk to Bryson DeChambeau regarding this since he’s the inside man in the White House these days.

While complimenting the shot, a fan called out the car brand for not giving her a car instead. They said, “Awesome shot!! Toyota too cheap to actually give her a vehicle? (sad).” Not that Haeran Ryu needs the money to buy a Toyota. She is a multi-millionaire who can afford cars much more expensive than that.