Read all about it!
[Update 1 (8:55 am): Here's Stephanie Wei's reaction.]
[Update 2 (10:21 am): And here's Brent Kelley's.]
[Update 3 (10:45 am): Randall Mell's summary of how the 64-player field will be put together shows how smart Mike Whan is. By having the Bell Micro Classic the week before serve as a qualifier for those who fell outside the top 48 on last year's money list--in 2 ways, as the top 10 at the half-way point and the top 4 on this year's money list after the conclusion of the event get all but the last 2 spots, which are sponsor exemptions--the LPGA encourages players with dual memberships to come back to the States for that 2-week stretch in mid-May.
Looking at the worldwide schedule more closely, it's still likely most with JLPGA membership will be in Japan from the conclusion of the Kraft Nabisco Championship in early April, skipping Tres Marias in late April in order to play a 5-event run culminating with the tour's 1st major, the Salonpas Cup. But instead of staying in Japan for the rest of May, it's more likely now they'll accept a little break before and after the 2-week run in Alabama and NJ and the meat of the tour's U.S. schedule in June and July.
As for those with dual LPGA-LET membership, with no LET events in April, either, it's now unlikely they'll choose Europe in May over the LPGA. That gap in the LET schedule between the Turkey-Germany run and the Ladies Slovak Open is going to look a lot worse compared to the Alamaba to NJ commute.]
[Update 4 (1/28/10, 5:37 pm): Hound Dog sees the addition of the Sybase as good news, but maybe he'll upgrade it to great when he considers that only the top 48 spots in the 64-player field are based on past performance (and that all 48 players may not choose to tee it up, either) and that the LPGA is probably waiting on the KLPGA to announce their 2010 schedule before sharing news about the dual-sponsored event.]
2 comments:
I had commented at Steph's site that I didn't see a problem with limited field events, as long as the qualifying was pretty straightforward and set up to reward good play. That sounds like what they've done here. If you add more limited field events (with lower overall purses -- that's the real appeal of these to sponsors) with a qualifying process that makes sense to the players, you end up benefiting everybody. While we might want to see more full field events, the fact remains that the top players won't be able to play in every Tour event. If they qualify for these special events, that should leave more room in the full field events for the rank-and-file players.
If they can survive this economic challenge, perhaps they'll get more full field events later on.
I agree with you, particularly b/c this is a match-play event. I hate limited-field, no-cut events and would love to see Evian and HSBC expand further. But at least here there's a chance you could walk away with little to no money.
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