Dollar for dollar though, Tiger Woods' and Lorena Ochoa's winners' cheques differed by a long shot.

American Woods, 32, bagged seven titles in 16 events on the PGA Tour - including one Major - and hauled in US$10.9 million (S$15.2 million).

Mexico's Ochoa, 26, mirrored his amazing dominance on the LPGA Tour with eight victories from 25 starts, also with one Major.

She made US$4.4 million.

In the corporate world, the feminists would protest. In the golf world, the fairer sex take it in their swing.

'Sometimes you have to understand that's just the way it is and there's nothing we can do,' Ochoa told The Sunday Times.

'But I'm happy with what we have. I think the LPGA Tour is improving and growing a lot. It's getting better every year.'

Certainly so. Take, for example, Kathy Whitworth, who has a record 88 wins on the 58-year-old Tour.

In 1981, the American became the first woman to reach US$1 million in career earnings. It took her 599 events.

In 1996, Australia's Karrie Webb became the first woman to win US$1 million in a single season. It took her 25 events.

A decade later, Paraguay's Julieta Granada took just a single event, the inaugural LPGA season-ending ADT Championship, to claim her US$1 million - and women's golf biggest winner's cheque.

This year, the LPGA Tour will feature 35 events in nine countries and offer a record total prize purse of over US$60 million - about 10 per cent up from last year.

Women's tours in Europe, Japan and Korea are posting record prize funds this year too.

Not bad. But not when compared with the men, who have about US$300 million in total prize money on this year's PGA Tour.

Even the 28-year-old Champions Tour for pro golfers aged 50 and over, will offer at least US$55.2 million over 29 events this year.

The main reason for the disparity is television money. While networks pay the PGA Tour to broadcast their events, the LPGA has to pay networks to get television coverage for their events.

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said the women's game was 'way too far away' from seeing prize fund parity with the men any time soon.

'It's kind of the way the sports world has grown up,' said Bivens, the first woman to helm the Florida-based LPGA, which is the world's oldest women's sports body.

'There are some who will say I'm crazy, but I do believe that we need to strive to get towards parity...it's one of our top priorities.'

But sexual inequality, not just in prize money, is an age-old theme in golf.

British clubs tended to be private, elite and male-only - and renowned for putting up signs that said: 'No dogs, no women'.

Country clubs in the United States were the exclusive preserve of affluent, white males.

While the situation has improved, arcane club traditions such as male-only clubhouses, facilities and weekend tee times, and lack of voting or membership rights for women still exist.

At many events, like the HSBC Women's Champions, women golfers still use the men's locker rooms as the women's rooms are built too small.

Players, though, say they are not bothered.

'I've never really thought twice about using the men's locker rooms, actually,' said American two-time Major winner Sherri Steinhauer, 45, who has been on the LPGA Tour for 22 years.

'It's just better from a convenience standpoint, so we have a bigger space to accommodate all of us players.'

Women's golf may have a 29-year headstart over the women's tennis circuit. But the LPGA's top golfers still trail female tennis stars.

Last year, women's tennis achieved equal prize money across the board at all four of their Majors - Wimbledon and the French, Australian and US Opens.

On the other hand, Ochoa received £160,000 (S$448,000) for her victory at last year's Women's British Open, considerably less than the £750,000 earned by men's champion Padraig Harrington.

Yet there was a victory for women's golf at the same event.

Ochoa's triumph came on the legendary Old Course at St Andrew's, Scotland. It was the first time that a professional women's event had been played on golf's hallowed grounds.

It was also the first time the 155-year-old Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) opened its clubhouse locker room facilities to women.

Men's PGA events, too, have also opened up.

At the 2003 Colonial Invitational in Texas, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to play in a PGA Tour event.

In 2006, the R&A removed their policy barring women from the British Open, bringing the tournament in line with the three other men's Majors.

The recent wave of fresh faces, such as Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis, are also helping to heat up the Tour with their attractiveness and marketability, which attract sponsors and fan interest.

But perhaps the biggest and most important change is the standard of the women's game.

Major-winner Pat Hurst, 38, who has been in the LPGA for 13 years, noted that 'the level of play has definitely gone up'.

'If you want to win a golf tournament now, you definitely have to go out and play four good rounds. Before, you could get away with a little bit, but you can't now,' said the American.

'We're heading in the right direction with the purses going up, the golf courses we're playing and the calibre of golf that's out there. Everything's stepping up, hopefully we ride the wave and it keeps going up.'

Bivens said: 'We've come a long way. We should celebrate the advances that we've made, but we should not pat ourselves on the back that making those improvements is good enough.

'If we don't strive to be equal, then we're going to be under-achieving.'

jwang@sph.com.sg