Post by bobawiefan on Mar 19, 2012 8:30:37 GMT -5
Hello Wie Nation: 
Good article by Ron Sirak in Golf Digest Women.
The LPGA Tour's wow factor
Saturday, March 17, 2012
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Sometimes things just work out. When the LPGA lost Safeway as a sponsor for the Phoenix stop on tour the event lived one year at Papago Park, a municipal course, with local sponsors, but that was a one-off deal. The prospect of losing a tournament in the golf-mad Arizona desert seemed to shout a warning about the underlying weakness of the tour. Then something remarkable happened.
Mike Whan, the commissioner who took over right as the global economy was tanking, convinced RR Donnelley, the official printer of the tour, to become a title sponsor. And it was decided that the event would honor the founders of the LPGA, which made the fact that the first installment of the RR Donnelley Founders Cup was played without prize money a little easier to swallow, which is not to say there weren't some complaints and a few no-shows.
But almost as soon as players began arriving at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa last year, even the most vocal critics quickly realized how special this tournament is. On hand were three of the 13 founders - Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork - and a gaggle of Hall of Fame members.
That tradition continued this year with the same three founders in attendance and, on Saturday morning, legends Pat Bradley, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez and Patty Sheehan played a nine-hole exhibition that featured a lot of good golf and even more laughs. That foursome won a combined 148 LPGA tournaments, including 17 majors. It's like watching Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Clemente play baseball.
Pat Bradley watches Patty Sheehan tee off.)
"It's like the good, old days," Bradley said on the first tee. So was some of the golf. With King a limping observer with a banged up ACL hurt while playing basketball at Furman University 35 years ago, the other three all hit the first green and Sheehan rolled in her 15-foot birdie putt.
"Don't forget the valley," King said as Sheehan was lining up her putt, reminding her of the affect the terrain has on the break. "Which way is the valley?" Sheehan asked. "I think it's that way," King answered, pointing while all laughed. "Got your readers?" Bradley said as Sheen squinted at the putt. Then she made it.
When Sheehan's ball ended up literally an inch in front of Lopez' ball on No. 3, she led and said to herself: "Got her" then yelled to Nancy, "Hey, I out-drove you." Once a competitor, always a competitor. On No. 4, when Bradley nearly chipped in, King shouted: "You guys are better than I remembered."
And so it went. Birdies were made - three by Sheehan - autographs were signed, photos were posed for and a golden era in women's golf - the 1980's when these four were among a very talented group - was celebrated. King, in fact, is the last American-born played to top the LPGA money list, and that was in 1993.
Almost by accident, and certainly out of economic scrambling, the LPGA has found a tournament that is rapidly becoming something very special. It has found the Founders Cup, which celebrates not just those 13 pioneers who launched the LPGA in 1950, but also all the great talent that has played along the way.
This year, The RR Donnelley Founders Cup has a $1.5 million purse and it will make a $500,000 contribution to the LPGA Foundation. More importantly, it is teaching a new generation of players and fans about the history of women's golf in the United States.
On Friday, before she and Bradley were off to play a practice round, Sheehan stopped at the far end of the practice range and warmed up with about a half-dozen drives, nailing each one with a gorgeous right-to-left draw that repeated almost as if under remote control.
As Sheehan walked off to join Bradley, a young player not from the United States, asked a reporter who that was. When I said, "Patty Sheehan," she asked: "Did she play on tour?" When I said: "A Hall-of-Famer" she said, "Wow."
Yes, wow, indeed. That's what the RR Donnelley Founders Cup is all about: To remind everyone of those who went before. To remind everyone of all the wow this tour has had - and still has. And so far, it is doing a heck of a job.
--Ron Sirak
Read More www.golfdigest.com/golf-digest-woman/blogs/golf-digest-woman/2012/03/the-lpga-tours-wow-factor.html#ixzz1pZJWoqA1
Got to love the Lpga
Got to love Wie Golf
Bobawiefan
Good article by Ron Sirak in Golf Digest Women.
The LPGA Tour's wow factor
Saturday, March 17, 2012
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Sometimes things just work out. When the LPGA lost Safeway as a sponsor for the Phoenix stop on tour the event lived one year at Papago Park, a municipal course, with local sponsors, but that was a one-off deal. The prospect of losing a tournament in the golf-mad Arizona desert seemed to shout a warning about the underlying weakness of the tour. Then something remarkable happened.
Mike Whan, the commissioner who took over right as the global economy was tanking, convinced RR Donnelley, the official printer of the tour, to become a title sponsor. And it was decided that the event would honor the founders of the LPGA, which made the fact that the first installment of the RR Donnelley Founders Cup was played without prize money a little easier to swallow, which is not to say there weren't some complaints and a few no-shows.
But almost as soon as players began arriving at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa last year, even the most vocal critics quickly realized how special this tournament is. On hand were three of the 13 founders - Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork - and a gaggle of Hall of Fame members.
That tradition continued this year with the same three founders in attendance and, on Saturday morning, legends Pat Bradley, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez and Patty Sheehan played a nine-hole exhibition that featured a lot of good golf and even more laughs. That foursome won a combined 148 LPGA tournaments, including 17 majors. It's like watching Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Clemente play baseball.
Pat Bradley watches Patty Sheehan tee off.)
"It's like the good, old days," Bradley said on the first tee. So was some of the golf. With King a limping observer with a banged up ACL hurt while playing basketball at Furman University 35 years ago, the other three all hit the first green and Sheehan rolled in her 15-foot birdie putt.
"Don't forget the valley," King said as Sheehan was lining up her putt, reminding her of the affect the terrain has on the break. "Which way is the valley?" Sheehan asked. "I think it's that way," King answered, pointing while all laughed. "Got your readers?" Bradley said as Sheen squinted at the putt. Then she made it.
When Sheehan's ball ended up literally an inch in front of Lopez' ball on No. 3, she led and said to herself: "Got her" then yelled to Nancy, "Hey, I out-drove you." Once a competitor, always a competitor. On No. 4, when Bradley nearly chipped in, King shouted: "You guys are better than I remembered."
And so it went. Birdies were made - three by Sheehan - autographs were signed, photos were posed for and a golden era in women's golf - the 1980's when these four were among a very talented group - was celebrated. King, in fact, is the last American-born played to top the LPGA money list, and that was in 1993.
Almost by accident, and certainly out of economic scrambling, the LPGA has found a tournament that is rapidly becoming something very special. It has found the Founders Cup, which celebrates not just those 13 pioneers who launched the LPGA in 1950, but also all the great talent that has played along the way.
This year, The RR Donnelley Founders Cup has a $1.5 million purse and it will make a $500,000 contribution to the LPGA Foundation. More importantly, it is teaching a new generation of players and fans about the history of women's golf in the United States.
On Friday, before she and Bradley were off to play a practice round, Sheehan stopped at the far end of the practice range and warmed up with about a half-dozen drives, nailing each one with a gorgeous right-to-left draw that repeated almost as if under remote control.
As Sheehan walked off to join Bradley, a young player not from the United States, asked a reporter who that was. When I said, "Patty Sheehan," she asked: "Did she play on tour?" When I said: "A Hall-of-Famer" she said, "Wow."
Yes, wow, indeed. That's what the RR Donnelley Founders Cup is all about: To remind everyone of those who went before. To remind everyone of all the wow this tour has had - and still has. And so far, it is doing a heck of a job.
--Ron Sirak
Read More www.golfdigest.com/golf-digest-woman/blogs/golf-digest-woman/2012/03/the-lpga-tours-wow-factor.html#ixzz1pZJWoqA1
Got to love the Lpga
Got to love Wie Golf
Bobawiefan