LPGA extends NIL runway with first college-vs.-pros event at 2027 Nanea Cup

by Golf NIL Staff

July 28, 2026

Women's professional golf has long kept its doors open to amateurs. What it hasn't done, until now, is build a tournament around the idea.

Set for March 11–14, 2027 at Nanea Golf Club in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, the Nanea Cup brings together 95 LPGA Tour players and 25 collegiate golfers from Stanford, Texas, Arkansas, Texas A&M and UCLA.

It’s a first-of-its-kind mixed-field event, with pros and student-athletes sharing the same leaderboard and cut line for the first two rounds. Those who advance continue together into the weekend; those who don’t play a separate Saturday round to decide the college team champion.

Pros will compete for a $4 million purse, while the amateurs chase a team title and a longer payoff in exposure, storytelling and future opportunity. Golf Channel is committed to features on the college athletes and their coaches, highlighting the faces and voices of the next generation of the women's game.

Among the college players in contention for the 25 spots, nine sit inside the Golf NIL College Women’s Top 40: Paula Martín Sampedro (No. 6), Meja Örtengren (No. 7) and Andrea Revuelta (No. 4) from Stanford; Farah O’Keefe (No. 5) and Maria José Marín (No. 3) from Texas and Arkansas; and Vanessa Borovilos (No. 31), Sara Brentcheneff (No. 20), Cayetana Fernández (No. 14) and Sky Sudberry (No. 37) from Texas A&M and Arkansas.

With established audience and brand connections, and a head start on visibility that the event can amplify, they’re all well positioned to leverage the opportunity. For the LPGA, it’s a strategic win, bringing a concentration of the sport’s most marketable college names and their built-in audience into its product.

Paula Martín Sampedro, Golf NIL College Women’s No. 6, at the 2026 U.S. Women’s Open, entering her senior season at Stanford — host of the Nanea Invitational that helped inspire the Nanea Cup | Kathryn Riley/USGA

Nanea has long been a steady proving ground for women's college golf. The annual Nanea Invitational, hosted by Stanford coach Anne Walker, has served as a fall benchmark for elite programs.

The Nanea Cup builds on that foundation. For the first time, the top-ranked course in Hawaii will host a professional event, and the college programs that have long competed there will now share the spotlight with LPGA stars in front of a global audience.

For college players, there's no prize money on the table, but there is the LPGA's full muscle behind the event, including a platform, TV exposure, social reach, and direct proximity to the sport’s best, a powerful addition to any player's resume.

Amateurs and pros have shared a stage before, playing their way in or arriving on a sponsor exemption. What's different here is the structure: a built-in tournament format, repeatable every year, with its own competition inside the competition.

It's another installment in how the LPGA is working to integrate college play into its fold.

The effort started with the LPGA Elite Amateur Pathway (LEAP), a points system that fast-tracks top players straight to LPGA membership. The follow-up, LPGA Collegiate Advancement Pathway LCAP, tracks top NCAA Division I players over a two-year cycle and grants Tour status to the top finishers.

Months before Nanea was announced, the Standard Portland Classic became the first Tour event to host winners of the sport's four biggest amateur titles, including the NCAA individual champion, in the same field. The Nanea Cup is the next step in that same plan.