This year has been a “painful campaign in which the LPGA played its thinnest schedule since 1971 and competed for its lowest total purse in a decade,” according to Ron Sirak of GOLF DIGEST. The “abrupt cancellation this week of the Imperial Springs LPGA in China cut to 23 the number of events on this year's LPGA schedule and one of those, the RR Donnelley Founders Cup, paid out no prize money.” Only 11 of the tournaments “had fields of 144 or more and total prize money fell” to $40.5M. The last time the LPGA played as few as 23 tournaments “was in 1971 when the schedule had 21 events.” While there are “whispers of good news concerning” the ‘12 schedule, LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan “admits that 30 is the golden number to make the LPGA business model work.” If Whan can “get there by 2014, it should be considered a success.” The cancellation of the China event was “a further indication that the places in the world eager to spend on golf right now -- Asia and the Middle East -- bring with them a complication: politics” (GOLFWEEK.com, 9/14). YAHOO SPORTS’ Jonathan Wall noted with the loss of the Imperial Classic “to an already thin schedule, you have to wonder what the next step will be for the LPGA.” While the tour “has tried its best to brand the LPGA as a world tour, the loss of [a] sponsor just weeks before the event could deter the tour from signing a similar agreement in the future” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/14). Golf Channel’s Jay Coffin said the loss of the tourney is a "big deal PR-wise, and the fact that a tour that doesn’t have very many events is losing an event, and they’re losing one in two weeks that, to me, is a little bit embarrassing." However, Coffin noted there were not "many of the top players ... planning on playing there” ("19th Hole," Golf Channel, 9/14).
SHE'S AN AMERICAN GIRL: Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee said U.S. golfers Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Natalie Gulbis "need to play better." Chamblee: "American golf sort of rests, at least on the ladies’ tour, on those three players. They connect and move the meter.” The three have won a total of 12 events and one major championship, but that is "not winning enough, that’s not making a big enough splash" (“19th Hole,” Golf Channel, 9/14).
