JM Eagle and Plastpro CEOs Walter and Shirley Wang Reflect on Tournament Week at El Cab; Look Ahead to 2026 and Beyond

By Amy Rogers

LOS ANGELES - Sunday afternoon on the 18th green at El Caballero Country Club, Ingrid Lindblad stood next to a massive trophy befitting the size of her achievement - she had just won for the first time on the LPGA Tour in only her third start since becoming a member. Lindblad was the winner of the JM Eagle LA Championship presented by Plastpro and while she posed for photos next to her huge prize she had Walter and Shirley Wang standing by her side.

The husband and wife duo are the CEOs of JM Eagle and Plastpro, and without their support, there wouldn’t have been a tournament, let alone a trophy to present on Sunday. The trio smiled in front of the more than a dozen cameras that were pointed in their direction and basked in the warm sunshine of a successful week.

“I love that Hannah Green won twice and I’m so glad that a rookie won. It just means that everybody has a chance to win,” Shirley said while standing beside the 18th green on Sunday afternoon. “And as long as you work hard, there’s always drive and perseverance, you can get there.”

The value of resilience and hard work is a theme that has run throughout the JM Eagle LA Championship since the husband and wife duo took over the tournament’s sponsorship in 2023. It’s a message that is deeply personal to Walter and Shirley, who carved their own path to success which has enabled them to sponsor an LPGA tournament with enough gravitas to earn the JM Eagle LA Championship the designation of tournament of the year in 2024. Drawing on the success of the athletes competing in his tournament, along with his own personal experience, Walter shared that same message of perseverance to the 1,000 children who turned out for Junior Golf Day on Saturday.

“They’ve very, really, truly inspirational,” Walter said about the women of the LPGA Tour. “It’s very important for the kids to have good mentors now, beside their parents. As great as these players are to show the value of hard work.”

Walter and Shirley recognize that the women competing on the LPGA Tour put in tremendous work and sacrifice in order to travel the world and compete. The couple makes every effort to show their respect to the athletes by treating them to thousands of dollars in giveaways during the pro-am party on Tuesday evening, providing them with complimentary hotel accommodations, and giving them $3.75 mil in prize money to play for.

“When we announce the names, you see the ladies running, rushing over, my goodness, it was great,” Walter said about the genuine joy he saw in the players who won prizes at the party, which was his personal highlight of the week. “It’s a beautiful weekend and just very fulfilling to be part of it.”

Walter and Shirley wouldn’t have made it to their station in life without a refusal to settle for anything less than great, and while they were thrilled to hear that the first hole at El Cab was lined with enough fans to rival a major championship crowd, there is still much more that they want to do to continue to drive the tournament forward. Shirley would like to share more player’s stories to get fans to take a vested interest in their success as people, not just as golfers. And Walter hopes to further increase the tournament’s attendance in the years to come.

“It’s going in the right direction and growing,” Walter said after the final round on Sunday. “I think we could put more effort into even encouraging more spectators to come. We need to bring more, even more kids here. This year we had the first responders coming and we’d like to do better. We really need to get more people involved in all the LPGA tournaments.”

For Walter and Shirley, increasing fan attendance means increased eyeballs, and with more exposure that means additional sponsorship opportunities, which enables further growth for not just the JM Eagle LA Championship but also the LPGA Tour as a whole.

“More people we attract, obviously, at the end of the day, more sponsorship and the more money for the players and money invested in the future of the sport,” Walter said about his hopes for the tournament’s future growth. “It’s a healthy cycle. I think we’re going towards a good direction, which is wonderful.”

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