Lorena Ochoa opened up a 4-shot lead on Player of the Year race leader Ji-Yai Shin in the 1st round of the LPGA Tour Championship today. Both players started on the back in the morning pairings, but they finished quite differently. Ochoa fired a tournament-leading 66, making 3 of her 8 birdies on the day in her last 4 holes, while Shin was busy bogeying 2 of her last 4 holes and finishing +2 over her last 8 holes to drop back to T9 at -2. Meanwhile, Michelle Wie, who finished +3 over her last 6 holes, including a double bogey on the par-3 17th, to settle for a 72, later announced that her ankle injury was forcing her to withdraw.
With Ya Ni Tseng the only elite player to break 70 besides Ochoa--no disrespect to Reilley Rankin (67), Taylor Leon (68), or the others who also shot 69s, including Solheim Cupper Kristy McPherson and 6-time winner on tour Pat Hurst--Ochoa has opened up a little bit of breathing space for herself. But Na Yeon Choi (70), Anna Nordqvist (70), Stacy Lewis (70), Katherine Hull (71), Cristie Kerr (72), Suzann Pettersen (72), Se Ri Pak (72), Hee-Won Han (72), Morgan Pressel (72), Angela Stanford (73), Ai Miyazato (73), In-Kyung Kim (73), and Song-Hee Kim (73) have just the game needed to tame the Houstonian over the next 54 holes, in addition to Shin and Tseng, so there's no way Ochoa can let down if she wants to win her 4th-straight POY and Vare Trophy. Meanwhile, players as great as Karrie Webb (75), Paula Creamer (76), Eun-Hee Ji (76), Vicky Hurst (76), Amy Yang (76), Candie Kung (78), Christina Kim (79), and Seon Hwa Lee (79) will need to play great tomorrow just to make it into the weekend. As for making the Saturday cut (top 30 and ties), that's going to take another 18 great holes. Let's see what happens!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
A Hitchhiker's Guide to the 2010 LPGA Schedule
I've been checking out all the reactions to the announcement of the 2010 LPGA schedule that google can bring my way, from neutral ones like Bill Jempty's, Ryan Ballengee's, Hound Dog's, and Steve DiMeglio's, to mildly optimistic ones like Brent Kelley's and Stephanie Wei's, to pessimistic ones like Mick Elliott's and Steve Elling's. I've also been tracking the fate of tournaments not (yet?) on the official list, like the very popular Phoenix event (which still can't pull together enough sponsorship support) and the Sybase (which suddenly lost ShopRite's support when they decided to go back to sponsoring their own event in Atlantic City).
So here's what I think.
(1) Michael Whan is one lucky guy. The huge bet ("all down on Wie winning!") which was the essence of Carolyn Bivens's business model may still pay off for her successor. As Brent emphasized, Marty Evans did a fantastic job of salvaging the 2010 schedule and it remains to be seen what else can be salvaged in the wake of Michelle's 1st win. But even if the LPGA ends up in the low 20s instead of the mid-20s next season, as Hound Dog points out is entirely possible, Steph's optimism for the medium-term is also well founded. Whan has the chance of a lifetime to be the white knight here. If he's the anti-Bivens when it comes to cultivating relationships with tournament organizers, convincing sponsors of the increasing value of LPGA events (rather than issuing ultimatums like Bivens did with the Donald and the ADT), and selling the LPGA as the premier global golf tour, he might be able to lure the Corning and the ADT back, pursue those international co-sponsorships with the ALPG, LET, KLPGA, and JLPGA I argued ought to shore up the spring schedule (the advice I tried to give to Bivens back in February is still mostly relevant for Whan's 2011 planning), and develop and enact a full-spectrum new media access/distribution/interaction plan to reach out beyond TV's dwindling audiences and bring new fans to the LPGA (on that front, it was great news to read in the press conference that J Golf will be launching an LPGA site in Korean; let's hope the LPGA learns from their global partners when it comes to using new media and taking advantage of social networking technologies).
(2) Is there a South Korean surprise up the LPGA's sleeve? I'm not talking about the Hana/KOLON event, on which Evans said, "With regard to Korea, we are continuing discussions with our partner Hana Financial Group. In the near future we expect to announce the specifics of our Korean event." Nope, here's what she said that perked my ears right up:
Stay tuned!
(3) Rochester rocks! Now I get to bring the family to a major! I only hope Wegmans can outbid other potential sponsors who seem to be interested in hosting the LPGA Championship for the long term. If I'm reading Evans's circumlocutions in the Q & A correctly, Wegmans was holding out for something bigger and more prestigious than simply a contract renewal, and when it became clear that the LPGA wasn't going to be able to close any deals with prospective title sponsors this year for the LPGA Championship, they were able to go back to Wegmans with a proposal to turn its tournament into a major for a year.
(4) Don't give up on the early spring! It's easy for LPGA watchers to forget that the 2 LET-ALPG events in Australia are scheduled for March 4-7 (ANZ Ladies Masters) and March 11-14 (Women's Australian Open). This means that the LPGA's finest have 4 weeks in a row to start the season, as they move from Thailand to Singapore to Australia. And we could be talking 7 weeks in a row if the Phoenix event were able to be slipped in, right before the new J Golf event outside San Diego and the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills.
If the LPGA is interested in increasing purses, they should be entering into talks with other tours right now to lock in this schedule for 2011, creating a co-sponsored event with the KLPGA in early February, co-sponsoring Thailand with the JLPGA, partnering with every women's tour in the world for the HSBC, and doing what it takes to join in on co-sponsoring the Australia events. Then they have a block of 8 events leading up to the LPGA's 1st major. And if ADT wanted to step in with a kickoff event and HSBC wanted to resurrect the Women's World Match Play Championship, there's room in late January and early February to expand that block. And if a Hawaiian sponsor wanted to become the bridge between Asia and Mexico in March, there's certainly room to slide the North American events back to make room for it.
(5) It's high time for North American sponsors to step up. The LPGA has plenty of room for expansion in the U.S. in particular, as Mexico and Canada are more than pulling their own weight. That gap between the KNC and the run-up to the summer majors from mid-April to early June sure is painful, ain't it? There's also little rhyme or reason to the schedule between the summer European swing and the fall Asian swing, is there? Sure, there's room to slide the late-summer/early fall schedule back to make room for a Hawaiian interlude before the Asian swing, but the real issue here is the mainland. Where are the southern sponsors for the late spring? Where are the northern sponsors for the late summer? Elling and Elliott are idiots to blame the LPGA for having only 13 domestic events. Yes, Bivens screwed up royally with the ADT, but it wasn't the shift in date so much as the financial ultimatum that killed it. The real problem is American companies not being willing or able to commit to the LPGA, even when they've finally figured out they need to offer different tournament tiers. It's not the LPGA's fault American players aren't winning more. It's not the LPGA's fault the American media can't get excited about global stars and national heroes from other countries, much less the best pennant races in decades. It's not the LPGA's fault American fans aren't outraged at the media's assumption of their indifference or antipathy toward anyone who isn't American.
So maybe Bivens's big bet on Michelle Wie will finally start paying off for Michael Whan and the LPGA. Maybe American fans, media, and sponsors will catch up with the rest of the world. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm guardedly optimistic.
[Update 1 (9:25 am): There's more:
(6) Don't underestimate the power of the Olympics. The LPGA got to Rio well before the Olympics, so if HSBC is ever inclined to bring back their women's match play championship, Rio would be a natural site for such an event. But this is not just a retread of #1 and #4 above; my point is that there are plenty of opportunities for the LPGA to expand its opening and closing international schedules. With all the great Taiwanese players on tour, and with relations between China and Taiwan thawing, isn't it a matter of time before Taiwan/Chinese Taipei hosts an LPGA event? If Mariajo Uribe turns out to be better than Julieta Granada, as I believe she will be, why not an LPGA event in Colombia? Heck, if Ashleigh Simon ever starts living up to her potential, why not a South African event?
(7) What if the cable takeover of a network actually goes through? If NBC ends up under the control of Comcast, isn't that a good thing for the LPGA when it comes to getting onto network TV? And hey, I don't even have to have had cable to know just how badly Golf Channel coverage of the LPGA has sucked. But they showed what they're capable of with their Solheim Cup coverage. And they're going to pursue ratings and profits just like any other company would. If Michelle Wie is playing most every LPGA event in 2010, and Americans are regularly putting themselves in contention, do you think really think anything's going to stop them from making the LPGA the #2 tour on their channel?
OK, that's it for me. What about you? What you think of the LPGA's prospects for 2010 and beyond?]
So here's what I think.
(1) Michael Whan is one lucky guy. The huge bet ("all down on Wie winning!") which was the essence of Carolyn Bivens's business model may still pay off for her successor. As Brent emphasized, Marty Evans did a fantastic job of salvaging the 2010 schedule and it remains to be seen what else can be salvaged in the wake of Michelle's 1st win. But even if the LPGA ends up in the low 20s instead of the mid-20s next season, as Hound Dog points out is entirely possible, Steph's optimism for the medium-term is also well founded. Whan has the chance of a lifetime to be the white knight here. If he's the anti-Bivens when it comes to cultivating relationships with tournament organizers, convincing sponsors of the increasing value of LPGA events (rather than issuing ultimatums like Bivens did with the Donald and the ADT), and selling the LPGA as the premier global golf tour, he might be able to lure the Corning and the ADT back, pursue those international co-sponsorships with the ALPG, LET, KLPGA, and JLPGA I argued ought to shore up the spring schedule (the advice I tried to give to Bivens back in February is still mostly relevant for Whan's 2011 planning), and develop and enact a full-spectrum new media access/distribution/interaction plan to reach out beyond TV's dwindling audiences and bring new fans to the LPGA (on that front, it was great news to read in the press conference that J Golf will be launching an LPGA site in Korean; let's hope the LPGA learns from their global partners when it comes to using new media and taking advantage of social networking technologies).
(2) Is there a South Korean surprise up the LPGA's sleeve? I'm not talking about the Hana/KOLON event, on which Evans said, "With regard to Korea, we are continuing discussions with our partner Hana Financial Group. In the near future we expect to announce the specifics of our Korean event." Nope, here's what she said that perked my ears right up:
The LPGA Tour remains the preeminent sports association in the world, and there is no doubt that we are poised for greater things in the years ahead. Never did it hit me more than a couple weeks ago in South Korea, where there is a national craze for golf and for women's golf in particular, and where recession economics are perhaps a memory. There we're in talks with a number of companies wanting to sponsor tournaments.
Stay tuned!
(3) Rochester rocks! Now I get to bring the family to a major! I only hope Wegmans can outbid other potential sponsors who seem to be interested in hosting the LPGA Championship for the long term. If I'm reading Evans's circumlocutions in the Q & A correctly, Wegmans was holding out for something bigger and more prestigious than simply a contract renewal, and when it became clear that the LPGA wasn't going to be able to close any deals with prospective title sponsors this year for the LPGA Championship, they were able to go back to Wegmans with a proposal to turn its tournament into a major for a year.
(4) Don't give up on the early spring! It's easy for LPGA watchers to forget that the 2 LET-ALPG events in Australia are scheduled for March 4-7 (ANZ Ladies Masters) and March 11-14 (Women's Australian Open). This means that the LPGA's finest have 4 weeks in a row to start the season, as they move from Thailand to Singapore to Australia. And we could be talking 7 weeks in a row if the Phoenix event were able to be slipped in, right before the new J Golf event outside San Diego and the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills.
If the LPGA is interested in increasing purses, they should be entering into talks with other tours right now to lock in this schedule for 2011, creating a co-sponsored event with the KLPGA in early February, co-sponsoring Thailand with the JLPGA, partnering with every women's tour in the world for the HSBC, and doing what it takes to join in on co-sponsoring the Australia events. Then they have a block of 8 events leading up to the LPGA's 1st major. And if ADT wanted to step in with a kickoff event and HSBC wanted to resurrect the Women's World Match Play Championship, there's room in late January and early February to expand that block. And if a Hawaiian sponsor wanted to become the bridge between Asia and Mexico in March, there's certainly room to slide the North American events back to make room for it.
(5) It's high time for North American sponsors to step up. The LPGA has plenty of room for expansion in the U.S. in particular, as Mexico and Canada are more than pulling their own weight. That gap between the KNC and the run-up to the summer majors from mid-April to early June sure is painful, ain't it? There's also little rhyme or reason to the schedule between the summer European swing and the fall Asian swing, is there? Sure, there's room to slide the late-summer/early fall schedule back to make room for a Hawaiian interlude before the Asian swing, but the real issue here is the mainland. Where are the southern sponsors for the late spring? Where are the northern sponsors for the late summer? Elling and Elliott are idiots to blame the LPGA for having only 13 domestic events. Yes, Bivens screwed up royally with the ADT, but it wasn't the shift in date so much as the financial ultimatum that killed it. The real problem is American companies not being willing or able to commit to the LPGA, even when they've finally figured out they need to offer different tournament tiers. It's not the LPGA's fault American players aren't winning more. It's not the LPGA's fault the American media can't get excited about global stars and national heroes from other countries, much less the best pennant races in decades. It's not the LPGA's fault American fans aren't outraged at the media's assumption of their indifference or antipathy toward anyone who isn't American.
So maybe Bivens's big bet on Michelle Wie will finally start paying off for Michael Whan and the LPGA. Maybe American fans, media, and sponsors will catch up with the rest of the world. I'm not holding my breath. But I'm guardedly optimistic.
[Update 1 (9:25 am): There's more:
(6) Don't underestimate the power of the Olympics. The LPGA got to Rio well before the Olympics, so if HSBC is ever inclined to bring back their women's match play championship, Rio would be a natural site for such an event. But this is not just a retread of #1 and #4 above; my point is that there are plenty of opportunities for the LPGA to expand its opening and closing international schedules. With all the great Taiwanese players on tour, and with relations between China and Taiwan thawing, isn't it a matter of time before Taiwan/Chinese Taipei hosts an LPGA event? If Mariajo Uribe turns out to be better than Julieta Granada, as I believe she will be, why not an LPGA event in Colombia? Heck, if Ashleigh Simon ever starts living up to her potential, why not a South African event?
(7) What if the cable takeover of a network actually goes through? If NBC ends up under the control of Comcast, isn't that a good thing for the LPGA when it comes to getting onto network TV? And hey, I don't even have to have had cable to know just how badly Golf Channel coverage of the LPGA has sucked. But they showed what they're capable of with their Solheim Cup coverage. And they're going to pursue ratings and profits just like any other company would. If Michelle Wie is playing most every LPGA event in 2010, and Americans are regularly putting themselves in contention, do you think really think anything's going to stop them from making the LPGA the #2 tour on their channel?
OK, that's it for me. What about you? What you think of the LPGA's prospects for 2010 and beyond?]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
LPGA Tour Championship Preview/Predictions/Pairings
The LPGA Tour Championship is here. This one's for all the marbles! It all comes down to this! [Insert your cliche here.] Jeff Skinner lays out what's at stake this week for the top LPGA golfers. Rookie of the Year Ji-Yai Shin may have clinched the money-list title last week in Guadalajara, but Lorena Ochoa can walk away from Houston with her 4th-straight Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy. But can Michelle Wie play spoiler for the 2nd week in a row? Can Cristie Kerr sneak away with both the POY and the Vare Trophy for herself? (It's mathematically possible, according to Hound Dog! And check out his own POY scoring system while you're at it.) Can Ai Miyazato remember how to make birdies in bunches and end up with the lowest scoring average on tour this season? Can Paula Creamer or Seon Hwa Lee get that win that's been eluding them all season? Can Song-Hee Kim or Brittany Lang or Hee Young Park or Amy Yang or Vicky Hurst become the 4th player on my list of players looking for her 1st career LPGA win to finally get it?
Well, the Rees Jones-designed Houstonian Golf and Country Club may draw sneers from someone like Geoff Shackelford, but the layout provides for plenty of drama, with water in play behind the 1st green, left of the 2nd fairway and green, right of the 5th fairway, behind and to the left of the 6th green, all the way down the 7th and 10th fairways and green complexes, and from the 13th through the 17th holes. While it can certainly play long by LPGA standards, the bombers will have to very careful, as water comes into play on every par 5--the 2nd in particular looks tricky, as trees guard bailout areas to the right. You better be trusting your swing coming into this week! With so many different tees, the tournament organizers can set the course up very differently each day. It'll be interesting to see how short they decide to make the 6th and the 14th (both water holes) over the course of the week--will they try to tempt anyone to drive those greens? From the pictures on the club site, my guess is that Jones tried to compensate for the flatness of the land by creating lots of undulations in the fairways and elevating lots of greens. Unfortunately Google Earth photos must have been taken in winter or early spring, so the course doesn't look as nice there as it probably will on Golf Channel.
The field consists of the top 120 golfers on tour, with some interesting absences, as IceCat points out at Seoul Sisters.com (including Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, Laura Diaz, Inbee Park, Angela Park, Momoko Ueda, Shiho Oyama, Kyeong Bae, Shi Hyun Ahn, and Ashleigh Simon, to name a few). Some of those players are in danger of dropping out of the top 80 or top 100 on the money list, which would mean losing full or near-full status on tour in 2010 (although some of them have recent wins they can bank on for what's essentially full status next season). Speaking of milestones, I'd love to break the 100-point barrier in the season-long PakPicker competition, even if a win (and most likely a runner-up, too) is out of reach. Here are my last picks of the season:
1. Miyazato Ai
2. Shin Ji-Yai
3. Creamer, Paula
4. Ochoa, Lorena
5. Choi Na Yeon
6. Kim In-Kyung
7. Kerr, Cristie
8. Hurst, Vicky
9. Lang, Brittany
10. Wie, Michelle
11. Pressel, Morgan
12. Kim Song-Hee
Alts: Tseng Ya Ni; Lee Seon Hwa; Pettersen, Suzanne
As for the pairings, the prime-time quadrant going 1st off the 10th is pretty impressive:
But then so is the one going 2nd off the 1st:
That leaves some very good but less-well-known players to go 2nd off the 10th:
and 1st off the 1st:
I'll be rooting for NYers Moira Dunn (starting on the front with Shanshan Feng and Minea Blomqvist at 12:40 pm) and Danielle Downey (going off the same side at 7:20 am with Irene Cho and Taylor Leon), in particular, but I'll be watching the 1st group off the 1st tee very carefully, as Katie Futcher is at #80 on the money list right now, Alena Sharp is at #76, and Allison Fouch is at #73--and less than $10K separates the 3 of them. Many of my questions from last week still stand. I'd love to see 2009 end up a better year for making a million and breaking 71 than even 2004. We'll know the answers to all of them and the results of all the year-long races in a mere 72 holes. Game on!
[Update 1 (4:57 am): We're about 4 hours away from the official release of the 2010 schedule, and Beth Ann Baldry is reporting that there'll be 23 events on it and that Wegmans will be sponsoring the LPGA Championship. Is this in addition to their own event in Rochester? We'll have to wait and see!]
[Update 2 (5:14 am): Ron Sirak leaks many more details on the 2010 schedule. Looks like the Wegmans will be merged with the LPGA Championship. But how is there possibly no Korea event in the fall? Oh, and it's nice to see him picking up on one of my ideas to enhance the LPGA's future (more coordination of schedules and co-sponsored events with other women's tours), but what's up with his hating on cuts? More on all this later.]
[Update 3 (5:30 am): Bob Young speculates on the fate of the Phoenix event, which is not (yet?) on the schedule Sirak leaked, either.]
[Update 4 (5:37 am): In response to some of Sirak's ideas, Ryan Ballengee brings the skepticism on any rivals to the LPGA Tour emerging in the U.S.]
[Update 5 (2:59 pm): Here's Brent Kelley on the 2010 schedule. More after work!]
Well, the Rees Jones-designed Houstonian Golf and Country Club may draw sneers from someone like Geoff Shackelford, but the layout provides for plenty of drama, with water in play behind the 1st green, left of the 2nd fairway and green, right of the 5th fairway, behind and to the left of the 6th green, all the way down the 7th and 10th fairways and green complexes, and from the 13th through the 17th holes. While it can certainly play long by LPGA standards, the bombers will have to very careful, as water comes into play on every par 5--the 2nd in particular looks tricky, as trees guard bailout areas to the right. You better be trusting your swing coming into this week! With so many different tees, the tournament organizers can set the course up very differently each day. It'll be interesting to see how short they decide to make the 6th and the 14th (both water holes) over the course of the week--will they try to tempt anyone to drive those greens? From the pictures on the club site, my guess is that Jones tried to compensate for the flatness of the land by creating lots of undulations in the fairways and elevating lots of greens. Unfortunately Google Earth photos must have been taken in winter or early spring, so the course doesn't look as nice there as it probably will on Golf Channel.
The field consists of the top 120 golfers on tour, with some interesting absences, as IceCat points out at Seoul Sisters.com (including Mi Hyun Kim, Jeong Jang, Laura Diaz, Inbee Park, Angela Park, Momoko Ueda, Shiho Oyama, Kyeong Bae, Shi Hyun Ahn, and Ashleigh Simon, to name a few). Some of those players are in danger of dropping out of the top 80 or top 100 on the money list, which would mean losing full or near-full status on tour in 2010 (although some of them have recent wins they can bank on for what's essentially full status next season). Speaking of milestones, I'd love to break the 100-point barrier in the season-long PakPicker competition, even if a win (and most likely a runner-up, too) is out of reach. Here are my last picks of the season:
1. Miyazato Ai
2. Shin Ji-Yai
3. Creamer, Paula
4. Ochoa, Lorena
5. Choi Na Yeon
6. Kim In-Kyung
7. Kerr, Cristie
8. Hurst, Vicky
9. Lang, Brittany
10. Wie, Michelle
11. Pressel, Morgan
12. Kim Song-Hee
Alts: Tseng Ya Ni; Lee Seon Hwa; Pettersen, Suzanne
As for the pairings, the prime-time quadrant going 1st off the 10th is pretty impressive:
Start Time: 7:50 AM
Natalie Gulbis
Vicky Hurst
Leta Lindley
Start Time: 8:00 AM
Jimin Kang
Anna Nordqvist
Lorie Kane
Start Time: 8:10 AM
Morgan Pressel
Rachel Hetherington
Stacy Lewis
Start Time: 8:20 AM
Lorena Ochoa
Karrie Webb
Ya Ni Tseng
Start Time: 8:30 AM
Ji-Yai Shin
Na Yeon Choi
Brittany Lincicome
But then so is the one going 2nd off the 1st:
Start Time: 11:20 AM
Nicole Castrale
M.J. Hur
Jee Young Lee
Start Time: 11:30 AM
Lindsey Wright
Juli Inkster
Meaghan Francella
Start Time: 11:40 AM
Catriona Matthew
Suzann Pettersen
Brittany Lang
Start Time: 11:50 AM
Cristie Kerr
Michelle Wie
Christina Kim
Start Time: 12:00 PM
Ai Miyazato
Angela Stanford
Paula Creamer
That leaves some very good but less-well-known players to go 2nd off the 10th:
Start Time: 11:20 AM
Helen Alfredsson
Jane Park
Eunjung Yi
Start Time: 11:30 AM
Pat Hurst
Eun-Hee Ji
Wendy Ward
Start Time: 11:40 AM
Sophie Gustafson
Giulia Sergas
Seon Hwa Lee
Start Time: 11:50 AM
Amy Yang
In-Kyung Kim
Katherine Hull
Start Time: 12:00 PM
Michele Redman
Mika Miyazato
Hee Young Park
and 1st off the 1st:
Start Time: 7:50 AM
Carin Koch
Song-Hee Kim
Janice Moodie
Start Time: 8:00 AM
Hee-Won Han
Maria Hjorth
Laura Davies
Start Time: 8:10 AM
Kristy McPherson
Meena Lee
Se Ri Pak
Start Time: 8:20 AM
Ji Young Oh
Silvia Cavalleri
Candie Kung
Start Time: 8:30 AM
Sun Young Yoo
Meg Mallon
Sandra Gal
I'll be rooting for NYers Moira Dunn (starting on the front with Shanshan Feng and Minea Blomqvist at 12:40 pm) and Danielle Downey (going off the same side at 7:20 am with Irene Cho and Taylor Leon), in particular, but I'll be watching the 1st group off the 1st tee very carefully, as Katie Futcher is at #80 on the money list right now, Alena Sharp is at #76, and Allison Fouch is at #73--and less than $10K separates the 3 of them. Many of my questions from last week still stand. I'd love to see 2009 end up a better year for making a million and breaking 71 than even 2004. We'll know the answers to all of them and the results of all the year-long races in a mere 72 holes. Game on!
[Update 1 (4:57 am): We're about 4 hours away from the official release of the 2010 schedule, and Beth Ann Baldry is reporting that there'll be 23 events on it and that Wegmans will be sponsoring the LPGA Championship. Is this in addition to their own event in Rochester? We'll have to wait and see!]
[Update 2 (5:14 am): Ron Sirak leaks many more details on the 2010 schedule. Looks like the Wegmans will be merged with the LPGA Championship. But how is there possibly no Korea event in the fall? Oh, and it's nice to see him picking up on one of my ideas to enhance the LPGA's future (more coordination of schedules and co-sponsored events with other women's tours), but what's up with his hating on cuts? More on all this later.]
[Update 3 (5:30 am): Bob Young speculates on the fate of the Phoenix event, which is not (yet?) on the schedule Sirak leaked, either.]
[Update 4 (5:37 am): In response to some of Sirak's ideas, Ryan Ballengee brings the skepticism on any rivals to the LPGA Tour emerging in the U.S.]
[Update 5 (2:59 pm): Here's Brent Kelley on the 2010 schedule. More after work!]
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Paging Global Golf Post
Following a suggestion from a long-time reader, I subscribed to Global Golf Post, a new Orlando-based digital magazine edited by Brian Hewitt (formerly of Golf Channel), in hopes that I'd learn something new about golf on this planet. Well, after reading their November 9th issue, I've come to the conclusion that the editorial staff put a lot more effort into their media kit.
Consider this: in their 19-page inaugural issue, Futures Tour Q-School got slightly more inches than the Mizuno Classic (and they were better inches, as they were drawn from a Lisa Mickey press release instead of from the AP). And that was it from the world of women's golf. Seriously.
Anything on the joint LET-KLPGA event with the silly name going on that week? On Hee Kyung Seo clinching KLPGA Player of the Year? On Shinobu Moromizato, Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Chie Arimura battling it out down the stretch on the JLPGA? On the sharp rise in dual LPGA-JLPGA membership attempts this year--mostly from Koreans on the LPGA planning to try out JLPGA Q-School in the last week of November and 1st of December? Or even on the no-brainer: the global nature of the LPGA's pennant races--the tightest since the days when Karrie Webb and Grace Park were challenging Annika Sorenstam for the dominance in wins, winnings, and scoring average? Of course not. But, hey, there was room for a moderately funny (and half-page!) top 10 to-do list for incoming commissioner Michael Whan. w00t!
I mean, come on! Not even a Rickie, Jamie, Rory, Ryo, Danny, Tadd, etc., Global Generation Next piece? Or a cautionary tale on the last crop of Global It Boys' recent travails? You got a week to get each issue out and this is what you come up with? Really?!
As for the sequel, well, I expected to have the link to it in my inbox by now and was eager to see what Hewitt & Co. decided to do with Michelle Wie's breakthrough win in Lorena's tournament in Guadalajara coming the same week Tiger won down under. Hasn't happened. Still waiting.
Opening-issue glitches are no big deal in the big picture. But they do make me worry that the Global Golf Post people don't yet get that their main competition is not print media. The week before their 1st issue came out, I learned more from the blogs on my sidebar and my twitter feed (and yes, the golfy media's web outposts) than they could gather and get permission to reprint. Yeah, it's great that they have Lewine Mair, Lorne Rubenstein, and Leonard Shapiro, among others. But if they don't approach content in a more comprehensive and creative way and really commit to covering the wide world of golf, they won't even be able to keep giving this thing away for very much longer.
To be sure, they're just getting out of the gates...have room to grow...are just finding their sea legs...and all that. Cliches well taken. But the last thing Global Golf Post needs right now is an "Attaboy" or "You go, girl!" They say they "know precisely what super avid core golfers want in a weekly golf publication...and as importantly, what they do not want." I call bullshit. It's not just that they're not even 25% of the way to that "weekly summary of the competitive game as played the previous week at both the professional and amateur levels, around the world" goal from their media kit. No, the problem is much bigger than that. As long as they rely on the "news, results, and commentary" model from print journalism, they are dead dead dead. How about artistry, background, and context? How about depth, expertise, and flair? Shall I go through the rest of the alphabet?
Seriously, the "super avid core golfer digital native" audience Global Golf Post is supposedly targeting already knows how to find out the results of pretty much any competition around the world and can find all kinds of news and commentary from existing corporate media web sites, high- and low-traffic blogs and microblogs, player and fan sites, and google searches. So basically the only ones willing to pay for this digital magazine down the road will be, uh, people who don't want to do any of that for themselves? Aren't those precisely the people who seem to be pretty satisfied with the online offerings of ESPN, Golf.com, Golf Channel, Golf Digest, Golfweek, Golf Observer, and Golfstat.com? Or at least who will reluctantly migrate to them when the last golf magazine has finally been printed? Last I checked, I got plenty of Tiger and Phil in Shanghai and Tiger Down Under from those sources. I don't need more of the same and I don't see why the "super avid core golfer digital newbies" that Global Golf Post is really targeting would, either.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not cancelling my subscription just yet. But basically I'm getting the feeling so far that I'm driving by a car wreck, craning my neck to see who was hurt, how bad the damage was, and what the paramedics are doing. That's not even close to what I was hoping for. Or what Global Golf Post could be and do.
[Update 1 (10:21 am): Whoops, turns out Hewitt doesn't pick up editing responsibilities until January 1, 2010, so I'll give him a little more time to change my mind than most people will give Michael Whan when he starts his job as LPGA Commissioner a few days later!]
Consider this: in their 19-page inaugural issue, Futures Tour Q-School got slightly more inches than the Mizuno Classic (and they were better inches, as they were drawn from a Lisa Mickey press release instead of from the AP). And that was it from the world of women's golf. Seriously.
Anything on the joint LET-KLPGA event with the silly name going on that week? On Hee Kyung Seo clinching KLPGA Player of the Year? On Shinobu Moromizato, Sakura Yokomine, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Chie Arimura battling it out down the stretch on the JLPGA? On the sharp rise in dual LPGA-JLPGA membership attempts this year--mostly from Koreans on the LPGA planning to try out JLPGA Q-School in the last week of November and 1st of December? Or even on the no-brainer: the global nature of the LPGA's pennant races--the tightest since the days when Karrie Webb and Grace Park were challenging Annika Sorenstam for the dominance in wins, winnings, and scoring average? Of course not. But, hey, there was room for a moderately funny (and half-page!) top 10 to-do list for incoming commissioner Michael Whan. w00t!
I mean, come on! Not even a Rickie, Jamie, Rory, Ryo, Danny, Tadd, etc., Global Generation Next piece? Or a cautionary tale on the last crop of Global It Boys' recent travails? You got a week to get each issue out and this is what you come up with? Really?!
As for the sequel, well, I expected to have the link to it in my inbox by now and was eager to see what Hewitt & Co. decided to do with Michelle Wie's breakthrough win in Lorena's tournament in Guadalajara coming the same week Tiger won down under. Hasn't happened. Still waiting.
Opening-issue glitches are no big deal in the big picture. But they do make me worry that the Global Golf Post people don't yet get that their main competition is not print media. The week before their 1st issue came out, I learned more from the blogs on my sidebar and my twitter feed (and yes, the golfy media's web outposts) than they could gather and get permission to reprint. Yeah, it's great that they have Lewine Mair, Lorne Rubenstein, and Leonard Shapiro, among others. But if they don't approach content in a more comprehensive and creative way and really commit to covering the wide world of golf, they won't even be able to keep giving this thing away for very much longer.
To be sure, they're just getting out of the gates...have room to grow...are just finding their sea legs...and all that. Cliches well taken. But the last thing Global Golf Post needs right now is an "Attaboy" or "You go, girl!" They say they "know precisely what super avid core golfers want in a weekly golf publication...and as importantly, what they do not want." I call bullshit. It's not just that they're not even 25% of the way to that "weekly summary of the competitive game as played the previous week at both the professional and amateur levels, around the world" goal from their media kit. No, the problem is much bigger than that. As long as they rely on the "news, results, and commentary" model from print journalism, they are dead dead dead. How about artistry, background, and context? How about depth, expertise, and flair? Shall I go through the rest of the alphabet?
Seriously, the "super avid core golfer digital native" audience Global Golf Post is supposedly targeting already knows how to find out the results of pretty much any competition around the world and can find all kinds of news and commentary from existing corporate media web sites, high- and low-traffic blogs and microblogs, player and fan sites, and google searches. So basically the only ones willing to pay for this digital magazine down the road will be, uh, people who don't want to do any of that for themselves? Aren't those precisely the people who seem to be pretty satisfied with the online offerings of ESPN, Golf.com, Golf Channel, Golf Digest, Golfweek, Golf Observer, and Golfstat.com? Or at least who will reluctantly migrate to them when the last golf magazine has finally been printed? Last I checked, I got plenty of Tiger and Phil in Shanghai and Tiger Down Under from those sources. I don't need more of the same and I don't see why the "super avid core golfer digital newbies" that Global Golf Post is really targeting would, either.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not cancelling my subscription just yet. But basically I'm getting the feeling so far that I'm driving by a car wreck, craning my neck to see who was hurt, how bad the damage was, and what the paramedics are doing. That's not even close to what I was hoping for. Or what Global Golf Post could be and do.
[Update 1 (10:21 am): Whoops, turns out Hewitt doesn't pick up editing responsibilities until January 1, 2010, so I'll give him a little more time to change my mind than most people will give Michael Whan when he starts his job as LPGA Commissioner a few days later!]
Monday, November 16, 2009
Wie Wins! Wie Wins! Whoa, Whoa, Whoa: Some Perspective, People?
I'm as happy as the next guy that Michelle Wie has become the 3rd player of the top 8 without a win as an LPGA member I labelled as "most likely to win this season" to fulfill my expectations and, well, win in this season. After Ai Miyazato and Na Yeon Choi, Wie has been playing the best among the LPGA winless of late, and without jet lag or the pressure of competing for Player of the Year, the Vare Trophy, and money list queen to deal with yesterday, it's no huge surprise that the cookie finally crumbled her way. But let's be honest here: while she definitely deserved the win, she was one of several spoilers in the mix down the stretch at Lorena's tournament.
Top disappointment must go to Cristie Kerr once again. Think what kind of a year she could have had if she had been able to play better on the back 9 on a few more Sundays this season: no majors for Brittany Lincicome or Eun-Hee Ji, that's for sure. Even though she hit an incredible 60 greens at Guadalajara Country Club, those 121 putts she took were a few too many to really put pressure on Wie. While still technically alive in the Player of the Year race, according to Hound Dog, I don't believe Kerr (or anyone else) can take the money title away from Ji-Yai Shin.
Speaking of Shin, would we have seen the same wave of adulation and excitement if she had clinched POY, too, at Lorena's place? All she needed was a normal weekend by her standards, but instead what she got was the reverse of her 1st win as an LPGA member at the HSBC Women's Champions back in February, when she started slow and finished incandescent. This time, her weak weekend not only cost her her 4th win of the season, it handed back to Lorena Ochoa the lead in the scoring-average race, by .05 of a stroke, leaving Shin tied with Kerr and .07 ahead of Ai Miyazato.
Speaking of Ai-sama, the hottest golfer in the world has now failed to shoot in the 60s in her last 5 rounds. Like Kerr, I suspect her putting is to blame; whereas 50 greens in regulation is only a bit below her season average, 10 birdies for the entire tournament is way off her usual pace of close to 4 birdies per round. Even while not going over par for a singe round in her last 6 LPGA tournaments, she seems to have regressed recently to where she was at the start of the season--playing really solid golf, but scoring much worse than she was playing. Even if she gets back on track in the last events of the LPGA and JLPGA season (where she'll be competing next week in the Ricoh Cup with Momoko Ueda and Ji-Yai Shin, who also won this season on the JLPGA, and alongside the former and against the latter in the Team Japan vs. Team Korea Kyoraku Cup the following week), even if she becomes a $2M winner on both tours combined in '09, this is going to remain the "what could have been?" year for Ai-sama. Her decisions to skip the LPGA Championship to play hostess at the Suntory Open on the JLPGA and skip the Hana Bank/KOLON Championship in Korea to vacation in the U.S. could well end up being all that stood between her, POY, and top of the money list.
As I've suggested, even though Lorena Ochoa didn't put herself in the mix on her birthday this past Sunday, she still kept her hopes alive for her 4th consecutive Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy. That Wie was able to beat her on her home course, along with Kerr, Shin, and Miyazato, defnitely speaks to how impressive a spoiler she was. The 4th rookie to win this season, Wie could join Shin in the Million Dollar Club with a good finish in Houston this week. In that case, they'd be the 2nd pair of LPGA rookies ever to accomplish this feat, following on Ya Ni Tseng and Na Yeon Choi from last season. That's pretty good company, and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't make like Tseng and Choi this season and also break the $1M barrier in season winnings in 2010.
But the difficulties of Paula Creamer and Seon Hwa Lee this season should strike a cautionary note for those who want to see in Wie's win some kind of changing of the guard or new era in LPGA history. Creamer and Lee are the only 2 players who started playing the 2nd half of this decade to be averaging more than 1 win per season, yet both are in danger of going 0-for-2009. Creamer's litany of injuries and illnesses this season clearly explain why she couldn't contend for any of the top year-end honors, but Lee's absence from the winner's circle is more mysterious. While she needs to shoot 4 rounds in the 60s this week to match her career high in a season, which she established in her rookie year, none of her key performance stats are that much worse than her career averages. So why has she dropped from the top of the money list to barely in the top 30? Well, it certainly didn't help that she played so badly in the majors. Nor has she been getting top 10s and top 20s with the regularity we've become accustomed to seeing from her. I'm sticking by my theory that with mre gaps in the LPGA schedule this year than any of her previous seasons on tour, she lost some advantage on the field from her better conditioning. With other players able to rest more, she wasn't able to outplay them under the mental and physical stress of a lot of weeks in a row.
That's something Michelle Wie isn't going to have to worry much about next season. I doubt this win will change her plans to play about 20 events per season while working toward her undergraduate degree. Even if she decides to play more, it remains to be seen how many more events the LPGA can offer its players in 2010 (although it's certainly good news that the ShopRite Classic is back!). Actually, we should have a pretty clear sense by Wednesday....
Anyway, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but when you consider how long it took for a player of Ya Ni Tseng's caliber to get win #2, we shouldn't be heaping loads of extra expectations on Michelle Wie's shoulders the second after she got that 1st-win monkey off her back. Whatever happened to letting a player enjoy her win and helping her keep it in perspective?
Top disappointment must go to Cristie Kerr once again. Think what kind of a year she could have had if she had been able to play better on the back 9 on a few more Sundays this season: no majors for Brittany Lincicome or Eun-Hee Ji, that's for sure. Even though she hit an incredible 60 greens at Guadalajara Country Club, those 121 putts she took were a few too many to really put pressure on Wie. While still technically alive in the Player of the Year race, according to Hound Dog, I don't believe Kerr (or anyone else) can take the money title away from Ji-Yai Shin.
Speaking of Shin, would we have seen the same wave of adulation and excitement if she had clinched POY, too, at Lorena's place? All she needed was a normal weekend by her standards, but instead what she got was the reverse of her 1st win as an LPGA member at the HSBC Women's Champions back in February, when she started slow and finished incandescent. This time, her weak weekend not only cost her her 4th win of the season, it handed back to Lorena Ochoa the lead in the scoring-average race, by .05 of a stroke, leaving Shin tied with Kerr and .07 ahead of Ai Miyazato.
Speaking of Ai-sama, the hottest golfer in the world has now failed to shoot in the 60s in her last 5 rounds. Like Kerr, I suspect her putting is to blame; whereas 50 greens in regulation is only a bit below her season average, 10 birdies for the entire tournament is way off her usual pace of close to 4 birdies per round. Even while not going over par for a singe round in her last 6 LPGA tournaments, she seems to have regressed recently to where she was at the start of the season--playing really solid golf, but scoring much worse than she was playing. Even if she gets back on track in the last events of the LPGA and JLPGA season (where she'll be competing next week in the Ricoh Cup with Momoko Ueda and Ji-Yai Shin, who also won this season on the JLPGA, and alongside the former and against the latter in the Team Japan vs. Team Korea Kyoraku Cup the following week), even if she becomes a $2M winner on both tours combined in '09, this is going to remain the "what could have been?" year for Ai-sama. Her decisions to skip the LPGA Championship to play hostess at the Suntory Open on the JLPGA and skip the Hana Bank/KOLON Championship in Korea to vacation in the U.S. could well end up being all that stood between her, POY, and top of the money list.
As I've suggested, even though Lorena Ochoa didn't put herself in the mix on her birthday this past Sunday, she still kept her hopes alive for her 4th consecutive Player of the Year award and Vare Trophy. That Wie was able to beat her on her home course, along with Kerr, Shin, and Miyazato, defnitely speaks to how impressive a spoiler she was. The 4th rookie to win this season, Wie could join Shin in the Million Dollar Club with a good finish in Houston this week. In that case, they'd be the 2nd pair of LPGA rookies ever to accomplish this feat, following on Ya Ni Tseng and Na Yeon Choi from last season. That's pretty good company, and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't make like Tseng and Choi this season and also break the $1M barrier in season winnings in 2010.
But the difficulties of Paula Creamer and Seon Hwa Lee this season should strike a cautionary note for those who want to see in Wie's win some kind of changing of the guard or new era in LPGA history. Creamer and Lee are the only 2 players who started playing the 2nd half of this decade to be averaging more than 1 win per season, yet both are in danger of going 0-for-2009. Creamer's litany of injuries and illnesses this season clearly explain why she couldn't contend for any of the top year-end honors, but Lee's absence from the winner's circle is more mysterious. While she needs to shoot 4 rounds in the 60s this week to match her career high in a season, which she established in her rookie year, none of her key performance stats are that much worse than her career averages. So why has she dropped from the top of the money list to barely in the top 30? Well, it certainly didn't help that she played so badly in the majors. Nor has she been getting top 10s and top 20s with the regularity we've become accustomed to seeing from her. I'm sticking by my theory that with mre gaps in the LPGA schedule this year than any of her previous seasons on tour, she lost some advantage on the field from her better conditioning. With other players able to rest more, she wasn't able to outplay them under the mental and physical stress of a lot of weeks in a row.
That's something Michelle Wie isn't going to have to worry much about next season. I doubt this win will change her plans to play about 20 events per season while working toward her undergraduate degree. Even if she decides to play more, it remains to be seen how many more events the LPGA can offer its players in 2010 (although it's certainly good news that the ShopRite Classic is back!). Actually, we should have a pretty clear sense by Wednesday....
Anyway, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but when you consider how long it took for a player of Ya Ni Tseng's caliber to get win #2, we shouldn't be heaping loads of extra expectations on Michelle Wie's shoulders the second after she got that 1st-win monkey off her back. Whatever happened to letting a player enjoy her win and helping her keep it in perspective?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)