Finance king Terry Duffy lifts purses, possibilities
Photographs by Charles Cherney
This article appeared in the November 2025 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
To read more Chicago District Golfer stories, head to our article archive.
A native of the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, Terry Duffy learned the game of golf at Marquette Park Golf Course. He would go on to become chairman of CME Group and play an integral role in the elevation of the LPGA Tour.
A cursory look at his life history and you’d likely never guess Terry Duffy would become a trailblazing figure in the world of women’s golf. The demographics alone kind of belie it.
A native of Chicago’s Southwest Side, Duffy grew up in the blue-collar, Irish Catholic enclave of Mount Greenwood, where many cops, firefighters and other city workers still proudly call home. Queen of Martyrs Elementary School. St. Leo High School (yes, the school with the spectacular choir of recent “America’s Got Talent” fame). Like most city boys who grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, Duffy played baseball, basketball, football and hockey, depending on the weather. Occasionally, he’d hop the Halsted Street bus with some not-so-royal-but-relatively-ancient clubs and head to Marquette Park Golf Course, where he’d tee off on rubber mats and learn to appreciate the euphoria of a well-struck 7-iron.
Nor would his early professional life provide a clue. In the early ‘80s, the college dropout found himself in the open outcry Live Hog pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yelling out orders amid a sea of other boisterous dudes looking to make a buck on the smallest deviation in the price of swine.
Fast forward some 20 years to 2002, when Duffy took over as chairman of CME Group, then became executive chairman in 2006 (yes, we’ve skipped a lot). It was around that time that Duffy began hosting his Global Financial Leadership Conference (GFLC) in Naples, Florida, bringing together CME Group customers from all over the world. Because all work and no play makes for a one-dimensional financial conference, Duffy decided to have a pro-am.
His friend Natalie Gulbis, a popular LPGA Tour player at the time, gave him some ideas. What Duffy found was a group of highly talented, socially adept and financially motivated young LPGA stars who were more than willing to play in his event. His clients loved it.
“As I went through this first pro-am, I had people coming up to me saying, ‘That was the most incredible experience of my life,’” Duffy recalled. “So, I said, ‘Can you explain that to me?’ They said, ‘Terry, first of all, their swings are amazing. Their acumen around the short game and everything else is off the charts and the most important thing is they'll talk to you, and they communicate with you, and they appreciate you.’ I thought, my God, this is perfect. This is absolutely perfect.”
Soon thereafter, Jerry Rich, owner of Rich Harvest Farms (RHF) in Sugar Grove, host of the 2009 Solheim Cup, introduced Duffy, an RHF member and tournament sponsor, to Solheim tournament director Kelly Hyne of the LPGA.
Their first meeting, scheduled for 15 minutes, lasted two hours.
“We kind of hatched a plan that all came true times 10 over,” recalled Hyne, now senior vice president for brand alliance for Orlando City SC and the Orlando Pride men’s and women’s pro soccer teams. “Terry was a trailblazer. The timing of it, both their business and our business kind of coming together was why the magic happened. He was the one that had all the foresight to see that and see what it could become.”
Duffy saw a strong business case for CME Group’s involvement with the women’s tour. The company – now $100 billion in market capitalization – is in 150 countries in North and South America, Asia Pacific (including Australia/New Zealand) and Europe. The LPGA has an international footprint with events in China, Korea, Malaysia, France and the United Kingdom in addition to Arkansas and Ohio. And, of course, the LPGA has seen the prominence and dominance of South Korean women for years.
“Whoever wins, wins,” Duffy said. “My point is we (CME) win either way and that’s what is important to me.”
When approached in 2010 about sponsoring an annual LPGA tournament, Duffy wasn’t interested – not even if it was in Chicago, according to former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, whom Duffy calls “a dear friend.” Whan is now the CEO of the United States Golf Association (USGA).
“He said, ‘I actually believe that my pro-am is changing more lives than me being a title sponsor would,’” Whan recalled. “He told me, ‘I’m not a tournament sponsor guy. When you have an event that isn’t just an event, come and talk to me.’”
Known for his salesmanship skills, Whan persuaded Duffy to host the CME Group Titleholders in Florida, but after a couple of years, it was “getting stale,” according to Duffy.
“I told Mike Whan, ‘I believe the women deserve a Tour Championship, and you guys don’t have one. I will be one.’”
What emerged was the season-long Race to the CME Globe, a season-long points competition that populates the top 60 players into the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. Tournament week coincides with CME Group international financial conference with many attendees playing in the pro-am.
Next came purse increases.
“I decided I didn't like the fact that there was inequality in golf,” Duffy said. “I don't like inequality in anything.
“I’m very passionate about equality across the board. We don’t base pay on whether someone is a male versus a female. I will not do that. I pay on merit, and I pay on performance. That’s it.”
Hence, the Tour Championship purse increased to $2.5 million from $2 million in 2017, doubled to $5 million in 2019 with the champion receiving $1.5 million, and last year to $11 million, with a winner payout of $4 million – the same amount as the winners of PGA Tour Signature Events and LIV tournaments receive.
Raising the CME purse to $11 million was Duffy’s way of pressuring the majors to boost their own.
“They all had to raise their purses because here’s this company, CME Group, that’s paying the winner $4 million and has an $11 million total purse,” Duffy explained. “Our purse for a major is $4 million, if I’m KPMG or if I’m Evian. That doesn’t fly. So, I forced them up.”
Last year, the U.S. Women’s Open’s purse was $12 million, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship $10.4 million, the AIG Women’s British Open $9.5 million, the Evian Championship $8 million and the Chevron Championship $7.9 million. Mission accomplished.
“Terry really wants to make an impact,” Whan said. “He knew he could make an impact in the women’s game and quite frankly the women’s game needed it more than most other sports, men or women, and he really appreciates appreciation. I’m sure he got 50 thank you cards a year – handwritten thank you cards – from the athletes thanking him for doing what he was doing for women’s golf. And he’d be the first to tell you, he sponsors a lot of things, and he doesn’t get a lot of handwritten notes from the athletes.”
The low point in Duffy’s relationship with the LPGA is well known. It came in 2022 at the pro-am dinner of the CME Group Tour Championship. With Duffy on stage and dozens of top CME clients in the audience, Duffy asked all the LPGA players in the room to stand for a round of applause, expecting a dozen players or more to rise, as in past years. No one stood. “I’m like, ‘What the f---?” Are you kidding me?” Hard conversations were had with LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, Whan’s successor. Duffy accused her of a “lack of leadership.” The media found out. Controversy ensued.
“I found that to be a very big slap at me after a guy that’s put more into it than anybody else on the LPGA at that time and I will say to this day, no one has put more into it than I have,” said Duffy, who said he and Samaan have buried the hatchet. Samaan resigned in 2024, a year before her contract expired. Duffy re-upped CME’s sponsorship through 2027.
Of course, over the years, Duffy has been courted by the PGA Tour. He recalls the day he played golf at mega-exclusive Cypress Point Club in California with now former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, then incoming commissioner Jay Monahan and former President George W. Bush. An opportunity for some fun with Whan presented itself.
As Duffy tells it: “Jay calls Mike Whan [on speaker phone], and he says, I’ve got to tell you something. We’re at Cypress with Tim because I just became commissioner, and President Bush and another guy you might know. Mike Whan goes, Who’s that? They go Terry Duffy. Mike Whan goes, I’m on my way. You’re not taking him from me. I kept saying to Jay, what’s this CDC Mexican Open, because they were looking for a new sponsor for that big tournament in Mexico. I was thinking, Geez, my clients might really enjoy Mexico. It was priceless. That’s how we did it. But they knew – listen, I believe Tim and Jay to this day understand the value of having a strong LPGA. They know how important it is to the game of golf. So, we had a little fun with Mike Whan, but there was no threat of me going there, and they want the LPGA to have more people to help them be successful.”
If only the LPGA Tour could find more people like Terry Duffy.
Barry Cronin is the editor of Chicago District Golfer.
Duffy to Be Honored by Leo High School
“Facta non Verba” – Deeds not Words. That’s the motto of Leo High School, Terry Duffy’s alma mater. Anyone who knows Duffy understands that few people, if any, better exemplify that maxim.
This year, Duffy (pictured) will be honored with the Andy McKenna Leo Lions Legacy Award for his contributions to “the greater good” of the private South Side Catholic school located in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. The award will be presented at a dinner honoring Duffy on Dec. 3.
“Terry Duffy is a 1976 Leo graduate,” said Leo High School President Dan McGrath. “His steadfast support of his alma mater, and his extensive involvement in the philanthropic sector, made him the unanimous choice of our selection committee. It's our honor to honor him, and we're delighted that he will accept.”
“Four of the greatest years of my life,” Duffy said. “My father went there (1947 graduate), my uncles went there, my brother went there. There were about 10 guys from my grammar school that went there. The first four weeks I think I boo-hooed every day.”
“I love Leo and what it stands for to this day,” Duffy said. “I like their mission. I like what they’re doing.”
Duffy praised McGrath and Bob Sheehy (’71), President of the Leo Advisory Board.
“What’s changed about Leo over the years is because of guys like Bob Sheehy and McGrath and others is that the neighborhood has actually gotten better. The school helped the neighborhood. I found that very powerful, so I said I want to be a bigger part of it.”
His $100,000 donation will go toward scholarships for worthy students who couldn’t otherwise afford the tuition.
“All proceeds go toward tuition assistance for needy and deserving students who otherwise might not be able to attend Leo,” McGrath said. “And it's our policy not to turn anybody away purely for financial reasons.”
Duffy said the Leo Choir will perform along with Keith Urban and Blake Shelton the week of this year’s CME Group Tour Championship, Nov. 20-23, at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
—Barry Cronin