PGA Tour In Discussions With Tour De Las Americas For South American Feeder System

The PGA Tour by the end of the year “might announce its plan for a feeder system that will allow” South American golfers “to qualify for the Nationwide Tour,” according to the AKRON BEACON JOURNAL’s Marla Ridenour, who writes under the header, “South America: PGA Tour’s Next Frontier?” Tour officials “have spent the past 18 months talking to event promoters, national federations and the Tour de las Americas and searching for an umbrella sponsor for the program.” PGA Tour Exec VP/Communications & Int'l Affairs Ty Votaw said that “though it’s still in the investigative stages, he hopes for a 2012 launch.” The initiative is “part of the lead-up” to golf’s inclusion in the '16 Rio de Janeiro Games. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said, “The Hispanic portion of our fan base has had double-digit growth for the last four or five years. It’s perking along. The long-term evolution of that area for the country is very strong, too. You look at where the demographics in the United States are headed in the next generation.” Votaw said Colombian golfer Camilo Villegas’ “emergence played a large part in our interest in having a Nationwide event in Columbia.” Votaw: “We didn’t have a television partner in Columbia before Camilo’s emergence, now we have a very strong television presence. Someone like Johnny Vegas in the now-Humana Challenge changed his country’s president’s view of golf in Venezuela. Argentina with Angel Cabrera winning a couple of major championships, the fact that Argentina has had such a long and strong history of golf, we see the building blocks of what can happen in that part of the world if there can be a tour organized on a more solid economic footing” (AKRON BEACON JOURNAL, 8/2).

JUST WHAT THE LPGA ORDERED? ESPNW.com’s Mick Elliott wrote golfer Yani Tseng, who this past weekend won her fifth career major championship, is “just what women’s golf was needing.” Elliott: “Never has a professional golfer -- man or woman -- made a greater and more sudden impact. Repeat: never” (ESPNW.com, 8/1). ESPN's Michael Wilbon said, "The LPGA needs a star, they do. Michelle Wie hasn’t been that person. They need a star and if this young woman can do it, the tour’s going to be much better off” (“PTI,” ESPN, 8/1). In California, Larry Bohannan wrote, “We can’t say the LPGA doesn’t have a dominant player.” Still, the tour “needs a lot of help.” Bohannan: “It needs more domestic tournaments, more events on networks and a few more solid sponsors” (MYDESERT.com, 8/1).