Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian says he's building TGL-franchise LAGC to be revolutionary with focus on inclusivity

Alexis Ohanian, Serena Williams' husband, says his TGL-franchise investment will major on inclusivity. Ohanian and 23-time Major winner Williams are part of an investment group that owns the Los Angeles Golf Club. The LAGC is one of the six teams competing in Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy's fledgling Tomorrow's Golf League (TGL) venture, which they hope will revolutionise the game.

Previously, Ohanian has revealed that daughter Olympia, 7, began playing golf after Woods gifted her a set of clubs. Consequently, when they were building the consortium to invest in TGL, the couple included Olympia as part of the team, making her the youngest owner of a sports team in history. Olympia is the inspiration behind Ohanian's inclusivity vow.

Ohanian was reacting to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Shelley Zallis, the American entrepreneur and gender equality advocate. Zallis was responding to a Gayle King interview in which Ohanian suggested Olympia had grown up believing golf was a game solely for girls. Zallis posted:

"Golf’s a girls’ game. I love this sentiment so much. Let’s keep flipping the script—so women don’t just step into spaces like these, they own them. Let’s show up in such numbers and with such confidence, skill, and worth that the next generation sees our sheer presence as the norm, not the exception."

Ohanian is a leading advocate of women's sports. It's no surprise, then, that he supported Zallis's point of view, and stated that he intends to build the LAGC franchise with inclusivity at its core.

"We're building @wearelagc + @TGL differently - golf is for all"

The LAGC consortium is comprised of several celebrity investors. They include Serena's sister Venus Williams, but also the Antetokounmpo brothers, Alex Morgan, Servando Carrasco, and Michelle Wie West.

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Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams are serial investors in women's sports

Athlos NYC - Source: Getty

Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, was once proclaimed by Forbes as the "Mayor of the Internet". He is also Angel City FC's principal owner, who play in the National Women's Soccer League. On top of that, he's known to have made a significant long-term investment in the University of Virginia women's basketball team.

Ohanian also supports women's track and field. Last year, Ohanian's venture capital firm Seven Seven Six launched the 776 Invitational event, which offered record-breaking purses to female track stars. Ohanian has invested more than $100 million of his own money in women's sports, despite strident advice from his peers not to do so.

Last week, Ohanian was interviewed at the Forbes 50/30 Summit and spoke up for inclusivity and women's sport:

"I think a lot of well-intentioned people were investing in things like women's sports as charity, because they had daughters, or granddaughters, and as soon as you compartmentalize anything that way, you're setting a bar on the success."

The Armenian entrepreneur says he ignored the naysayers, and that his investment has more than paid off:

"Everyone, from random people on the internet, to other investors, who I respected, they all told me I was going to lose all my money, and it would never work. I'm very happy to prove them wrong. Angel City is now the most valuable team in the world at $300m."

Inclusivity is a central theme to all of Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian's sporting investments. It remains to be seen if their daughter, blessed with her mother's sporting genes, can realize her potential on the golf course.