Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2018 22:23:58 GMT -5
How to rescue U.S. women's golf: Inkster is the key
By Randall MellJanuary 30, 2018, 5:59 pm
Juli Inkster broke the American Solheim Cup captain’s mold Tuesday with news she will lead the team for a third consecutive time.
Nobody has ever led three U.S. teams.
This is historic, this move to make the most of Inkster’s ability to shape, mold and motivate women.
But why stop there?
Here is one man’s idea to expand Inkster’s transcendent gifts to an even more historically impactful role.
Make Inkster Captain America in the largest sense.
If forward thinking minds are willing to give her creative new reach, she might prove to be as good for what ails American women’s golf overall as she has been for the American Solheim Cup effort.
Make Inkster the point person for a collaborative new American developmental program that is still in its infancy, a program that could become a new U.S. pipeline to the women’s game if developed more fully.
The LPGA, USGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour and Augusta National have been working together to create a new American developmental model to guide youth through the game.
Make Inkster the face of that collaboration.
Make her the captain of that effort, too.
Make her the full-time American Solheim Cup captain for as long as she wants the job, with a larger mission to grow the women’s game.
Call it the American Women’s Golf Initiative and formalize that new collaborative effort.
Make her a salaried LPGA executive in that expanded role, a special assistant to commissioner Mike Whan. The tour couldn’t make a better investment in the future of women’s golf. They would be a formidable team.
With the women’s game continuing to grow globally, with Asian dominance expanding beyond South Korea, the Americans could use a more organized effort to bolster their women.
LPGA-USGA Girls’ Golf is growing at an impressive rate. Whan loves to cite the numbers. The next step is developmental, turning the growing interest into world-class talent.
“Each one of us had a little bit of Juli in us,” Stacy Lewis said.
We saw that in the Opening Ceremony in both Germany and Iowa, when the American players abandoned their stiletto heels to wear the old Taylor Converse basketball shoes that Inkster loves to wear.
We saw it in the red-, white-and-blue lunch buckets Inkster’s players embraced as their team gift in Germany and the hard hats she got them in Iowa.
Mostly, we saw it in the way the Americans conducted themselves, in the way they worked hard, played hard, loved hard and laughed as much as they could along the way.
“Juli is a freaking rock star,” Gerina Piller said. “We look up to her so much.”
That’s what gives Inkster a chance to touch more than a Solheim Cup trophy with her reach this time around.
Link to article:
www.golfchannel.com/article/randall-mell/how-rescue-us-womens-golf-inkster-key/?cid=twitter-gc-a-how-rescue-us-womens-golf-inkster-key-01312018
By Randall MellJanuary 30, 2018, 5:59 pm
Juli Inkster broke the American Solheim Cup captain’s mold Tuesday with news she will lead the team for a third consecutive time.
Nobody has ever led three U.S. teams.
This is historic, this move to make the most of Inkster’s ability to shape, mold and motivate women.
But why stop there?
Here is one man’s idea to expand Inkster’s transcendent gifts to an even more historically impactful role.
Make Inkster Captain America in the largest sense.
If forward thinking minds are willing to give her creative new reach, she might prove to be as good for what ails American women’s golf overall as she has been for the American Solheim Cup effort.
Make Inkster the point person for a collaborative new American developmental program that is still in its infancy, a program that could become a new U.S. pipeline to the women’s game if developed more fully.
The LPGA, USGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour and Augusta National have been working together to create a new American developmental model to guide youth through the game.
Make Inkster the face of that collaboration.
Make her the captain of that effort, too.
Make her the full-time American Solheim Cup captain for as long as she wants the job, with a larger mission to grow the women’s game.
Call it the American Women’s Golf Initiative and formalize that new collaborative effort.
Make her a salaried LPGA executive in that expanded role, a special assistant to commissioner Mike Whan. The tour couldn’t make a better investment in the future of women’s golf. They would be a formidable team.
With the women’s game continuing to grow globally, with Asian dominance expanding beyond South Korea, the Americans could use a more organized effort to bolster their women.
LPGA-USGA Girls’ Golf is growing at an impressive rate. Whan loves to cite the numbers. The next step is developmental, turning the growing interest into world-class talent.
“Each one of us had a little bit of Juli in us,” Stacy Lewis said.
We saw that in the Opening Ceremony in both Germany and Iowa, when the American players abandoned their stiletto heels to wear the old Taylor Converse basketball shoes that Inkster loves to wear.
We saw it in the red-, white-and-blue lunch buckets Inkster’s players embraced as their team gift in Germany and the hard hats she got them in Iowa.
Mostly, we saw it in the way the Americans conducted themselves, in the way they worked hard, played hard, loved hard and laughed as much as they could along the way.
“Juli is a freaking rock star,” Gerina Piller said. “We look up to her so much.”
That’s what gives Inkster a chance to touch more than a Solheim Cup trophy with her reach this time around.
Link to article:
www.golfchannel.com/article/randall-mell/how-rescue-us-womens-golf-inkster-key/?cid=twitter-gc-a-how-rescue-us-womens-golf-inkster-key-01312018