Post by bobawiefan on Mar 17, 2012 21:48:17 GMT -5
Hello Wie Nation: 
Article from Wall Street Journal
The Comeback of the Women's Game
With More Tournaments, Exciting Young Players and Renewed Spirit, the LPGA Tour Rebounds
Phoenix
Marilynn Smith, 82, one of the LPGA's 13 founders in 1950, was sitting in a cart Thursday telling stories near the fourth tee at the Desert Ridge Resort course here. She and an escort were out watching first-round play in the LPGA's first U.S. event of the year, the aptly named Founders Cup.
She talked about how the girls (the term she invariably uses) went to baseball stadiums when the tour came to town to wow the crowd with how far they could hit golf balls. They climbed into the ring at pro boxing matches and challenged the fans to come out and watch a "real fight" the next day at the local golf course. "We had to do it all back in those days—promotion, the back-office jobs, sometimes even setting up the golf course," she said.
Lexi Thompson, 17, will compete with existing stars like Yani Tseng, Na Yeon Choi and Paula Creamer.
As she talked, a group including Paula Creamer (career earnings: $8.8 million) and 17-year-old Lexi Thompson arrived at the tee. Creamer walked over to give Smith a hug. Thompson, more reserved, shook Smith's hand and said, "Thank you for all you've done."
It was a touching moment: the 5-foot-11 wunderkind, who won last year's Navistar LPGA Classic and whom many project as women's golf's next superstar, paying tribute to the founder. "Why, thank you, honey! Thank you for playing in the tournament," Smith replied.
"I'm doing what I love," Thompson said with a smile.
The LPGA Tour, in turmoil two years ago after a player revolt led to the resignation of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, seems to have found its footing again. Its first three tournaments this year, in Asia and Australia, were all thrillers. Two concluded in playoffs and the third was won by the game's dominant No. 1, Yani Tseng of Taiwan. Five new tournaments were added for the 2012 season, against one loss, with four of the five newcomers in North America. Most importantly, for young players like Thompson, Tseng (still only 23 despite her five major titles) and Jessica Korda, the 19-year-old American who won the Australian event at Royal Melbourne, the future seems secure, if not yet brimming with dollars and network-television exposure.
"Everyone is very excited," said Christina Kim. "It's been a roller-coaster ride, but we're past the dark chasm."
For Commissioner Michael Whan, now starting his third year, the Founders Cup is a way to remind players of the LPGA's historic personality. At the underfunded inaugural version last year, the pros competed for no purse; all proceeds went to charities and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. This year, with the addition of RR Donnelley as title sponsor, the purse is $1.5 million, but the players still regard the event as special. Three of the founders are present—Smith, Louise Suggs and Shirley Spork—and at the players meeting on Wednesday, Whan encouraged the members, as he often does, to "think like a founder," that is, assume a stake in the whole enterprise, like a barnstormer.
Compared with the PGA Tour, the players at LPGA events are much more accessible and the atmosphere more intimate. Before each tournament, the Tour staff distributes cheat sheets detailing which companies are writing the checks that week, what those sponsors hope to achieve through their relationship with the LPGA (each event is unique, Whan says), and to whom the players can write thank-you notes. On Thursday, when an errant drive by Creamer hit a spectator, Creamer not only apologized but gave her the watch off her wrist, instead of the more customary signed glove.
The most striking difference between the LPGA Tour now and 10 years ago is the depth of talent. "The good ones—the Beth Daniels, the Annikas (Sorenstam), the Lorena Ochoas—were always spectacular," said Lynn Marriott, who with Pia Nilsson coached Sorenstam, among others. "But now the number of great swings you see out here, the power, the athleticism are much greater." Veteran Pat Hurst put it more bluntly: "When I first came out here [in 1994], there were maybe 25 who could really play. Now almost everybody can play."
The talent comes from everywhere. A decade ago, inspired by the success of Se Ri Pak, skilled and disciplined South Koreans flooded the LPGA. But in the last few years there has been a kind of market correction. "Not as many Korean girls want to come to the U.S. to play now," Pak told me Thursday. Qualifying for the LPGA is harder now, she said, and women's golf has become so popular in Asia that many talented South Koreans are happy to make a good living closer to home, competing on the Korea and Japan LPGA tours. Of the 26 international players in the LPGA's last two rookie classes, only five came from South Korea and eight from other Asian countries. There were 35 American rookies.
"We are and want to be a global tour, because golf is a global game," Whan said. Asian television funnels more income to the tour than U.S. television does. "But we don't want to become so global that we wake up one morning and realize we don't have a home." He considers the mix of events this year, with 64% in North America (including two in Canada and one in Mexico) and 36% abroad, to be about right. In the future, he said, the LPGA's developmental Symetra Tour (formerly the Futures Tour) may become the only qualifying avenue onto the LPGA Tour, eliminating the one-shot qualifying-school ticket. That would deepen the U.S.-LPGA connection.
In the near term, the two big items on Whan's wish list are more tournaments—33, plus or minus two, would be ideal, he said, up from 28 this year—and more coverage on the networks, so that casual fans can sample the LPGA and start watching it on Golf Channel. This year only the U.S. Women's Open is on a major network, but Whan said he hopes that NBC, Golf Channel's corporate sibling, will air four or five tournaments in 2013
Got to love the LPGA
Got to love wie golf
Bobawiefan
Article from Wall Street Journal
The Comeback of the Women's Game
With More Tournaments, Exciting Young Players and Renewed Spirit, the LPGA Tour Rebounds
Phoenix
Marilynn Smith, 82, one of the LPGA's 13 founders in 1950, was sitting in a cart Thursday telling stories near the fourth tee at the Desert Ridge Resort course here. She and an escort were out watching first-round play in the LPGA's first U.S. event of the year, the aptly named Founders Cup.
She talked about how the girls (the term she invariably uses) went to baseball stadiums when the tour came to town to wow the crowd with how far they could hit golf balls. They climbed into the ring at pro boxing matches and challenged the fans to come out and watch a "real fight" the next day at the local golf course. "We had to do it all back in those days—promotion, the back-office jobs, sometimes even setting up the golf course," she said.
Lexi Thompson, 17, will compete with existing stars like Yani Tseng, Na Yeon Choi and Paula Creamer.
As she talked, a group including Paula Creamer (career earnings: $8.8 million) and 17-year-old Lexi Thompson arrived at the tee. Creamer walked over to give Smith a hug. Thompson, more reserved, shook Smith's hand and said, "Thank you for all you've done."
It was a touching moment: the 5-foot-11 wunderkind, who won last year's Navistar LPGA Classic and whom many project as women's golf's next superstar, paying tribute to the founder. "Why, thank you, honey! Thank you for playing in the tournament," Smith replied.
"I'm doing what I love," Thompson said with a smile.
The LPGA Tour, in turmoil two years ago after a player revolt led to the resignation of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, seems to have found its footing again. Its first three tournaments this year, in Asia and Australia, were all thrillers. Two concluded in playoffs and the third was won by the game's dominant No. 1, Yani Tseng of Taiwan. Five new tournaments were added for the 2012 season, against one loss, with four of the five newcomers in North America. Most importantly, for young players like Thompson, Tseng (still only 23 despite her five major titles) and Jessica Korda, the 19-year-old American who won the Australian event at Royal Melbourne, the future seems secure, if not yet brimming with dollars and network-television exposure.
"Everyone is very excited," said Christina Kim. "It's been a roller-coaster ride, but we're past the dark chasm."
For Commissioner Michael Whan, now starting his third year, the Founders Cup is a way to remind players of the LPGA's historic personality. At the underfunded inaugural version last year, the pros competed for no purse; all proceeds went to charities and the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. This year, with the addition of RR Donnelley as title sponsor, the purse is $1.5 million, but the players still regard the event as special. Three of the founders are present—Smith, Louise Suggs and Shirley Spork—and at the players meeting on Wednesday, Whan encouraged the members, as he often does, to "think like a founder," that is, assume a stake in the whole enterprise, like a barnstormer.
Compared with the PGA Tour, the players at LPGA events are much more accessible and the atmosphere more intimate. Before each tournament, the Tour staff distributes cheat sheets detailing which companies are writing the checks that week, what those sponsors hope to achieve through their relationship with the LPGA (each event is unique, Whan says), and to whom the players can write thank-you notes. On Thursday, when an errant drive by Creamer hit a spectator, Creamer not only apologized but gave her the watch off her wrist, instead of the more customary signed glove.
The most striking difference between the LPGA Tour now and 10 years ago is the depth of talent. "The good ones—the Beth Daniels, the Annikas (Sorenstam), the Lorena Ochoas—were always spectacular," said Lynn Marriott, who with Pia Nilsson coached Sorenstam, among others. "But now the number of great swings you see out here, the power, the athleticism are much greater." Veteran Pat Hurst put it more bluntly: "When I first came out here [in 1994], there were maybe 25 who could really play. Now almost everybody can play."
The talent comes from everywhere. A decade ago, inspired by the success of Se Ri Pak, skilled and disciplined South Koreans flooded the LPGA. But in the last few years there has been a kind of market correction. "Not as many Korean girls want to come to the U.S. to play now," Pak told me Thursday. Qualifying for the LPGA is harder now, she said, and women's golf has become so popular in Asia that many talented South Koreans are happy to make a good living closer to home, competing on the Korea and Japan LPGA tours. Of the 26 international players in the LPGA's last two rookie classes, only five came from South Korea and eight from other Asian countries. There were 35 American rookies.
"We are and want to be a global tour, because golf is a global game," Whan said. Asian television funnels more income to the tour than U.S. television does. "But we don't want to become so global that we wake up one morning and realize we don't have a home." He considers the mix of events this year, with 64% in North America (including two in Canada and one in Mexico) and 36% abroad, to be about right. In the future, he said, the LPGA's developmental Symetra Tour (formerly the Futures Tour) may become the only qualifying avenue onto the LPGA Tour, eliminating the one-shot qualifying-school ticket. That would deepen the U.S.-LPGA connection.
In the near term, the two big items on Whan's wish list are more tournaments—33, plus or minus two, would be ideal, he said, up from 28 this year—and more coverage on the networks, so that casual fans can sample the LPGA and start watching it on Golf Channel. This year only the U.S. Women's Open is on a major network, but Whan said he hopes that NBC, Golf Channel's corporate sibling, will air four or five tournaments in 2013
Got to love the LPGA
Got to love wie golf
Bobawiefan
