Olde Homestead Golf Club's Blog

If Tim Finchem thinks that maintaining PGA Tour sponsorship is tough on his tour, he should consider the long, difficult road ahead for his counterpart – LPGA Tour Commissioner, Michael Whan. Whan took the LPGA reigns back in January, and is hoping that his business and marketing experience that he gained during his tenure at Procter and Gamble will help boost the prospects of increasing overall interest in the LPGA, from both the fans’ and potential tournament sponsors’ perspectives. Given the continuing economic problems facing the US (the home base of the LPGA Tour), that’s no easy task.

Two years ago, the LPGA had 34 events on their 2008 schedule. Over the span of the past 24 months, those tournaments have dwindled 10 fewer, to 24. That’s why there was only one tournament back in March, the season opener. That’s why there will only be two tournaments in August. In September, only one again. With only four tournaments being played in 3 months of the season, that’s quite telling of just how lean the times have gotten for the ladies. And given a time when they need every ounce of exposure they can get, they aren’t playing.

Global Adjustment

Part of the challenge that Commissioner Whan and the LPGA Tour face in trying to restore local interest is trying to restore the hometown identity to what has essentially become a global tour. The major influx of International players over the past several years, while certainly making the tour more competitive overall, has revealed just how subpar our own junior golf programs are here in the United States. While we will most likely never see a cultural shift that will elevate golf to the same levels as that of basketball, soccer, or tennis, more can certainly be done at the local levels to help spur the growth of the game from a youth standpoint. So while Commissioner Whan attempts to use his business acumen to help shore up what little interest remains in women’s golf at the professional level, he would also be wise to initiate some much needed dialogue with the educational institutions across this country to lay the groundwork in improving our junior golf programs. There are a lot of high schools across this country that don’t offer girls the chance to play golf. I think that’s a great place to start the conversation.

Beyond that, if the LPGA Tour wants to increase the interest here in the states sooner rather than later, they need some help from the current list of American players. And the “hometown” gals have an opportunity over the next 5 consecutive weeks to do their part in starting the process to help regain some of that lost interest. It’s not that we don’t want to see an International face underneath the trophy being hoisted over a head on Sunday. We simply want to see a hometown player making the International players earn it. Currently, that’s not happening.

This week the ladies tee it up in the State Farm Classic in Springfield, Illinois. Televised coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. EST, on TGC.

Next week the tour moves to Galloway, NJ for the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

The following week, June 24-27, the LPGA heads to Pittsford, NY for the LPGA Championship, Presented by Wegmens.

Tags: Girls Junior Golf Programs, LPGA Tour, LPGA Tour Commissioner Michael Whan, LPGA Tour Golf, LPGA Tour Sponsorship Down

This entry was posted on June 10, 2010 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Author Uno, LPGA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.