LPGA Moves Tournament - Does It Signal the Larger Move?

by Mulligan Stu on Jan 31, 2008 7:02 PM EST Comment 2 comments

Hat tip to Hound Dog for this one: The LPGA announced that the NW Arkansas Championship sponsored by John Q. Hammons now boasts Procter & Gamble as a title sponsor. And it's moving on the schedule from September - when it was rained out last year - to the July 4 weekend. The tournament is now called P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship presented by John Q. Hammons, putting it in the running for longest official tournament title.

(Aside: Is the commissioner, who was bashed quite a bit when she first took over for driving away sponsors, reeling in some pretty good sponsors these days?)

Hound Dog points out:

This opens up a two-week gap between the Safeway Classic and the new Bell Micro event (with the Bell Micro becoming the only event in a four-week span leading up to Navistar). It also creates a stretch of seven consecutive tournaments immediately after an eleven-week stretch, making 18 events in 19 weeks from the end of March to the beginning of August. By doing this, they're just begging for the top players to bail on 3-4 of those 18 just to get some rest.

I like the bunching up of the LPGA schedule in the sense that it allows for the possibility of momentum. A little forward movement building from week to week. But it may also have the effect that Hound Dog postulates. Almost nobody - and certainly not Sorenstam or Ochoa or Webb - is going to play 18 out of 19 weeks.

But I wonder if the effect - the top players taking weeks off - will be that noticeable. Most of the top players would skip some of those tournaments anyway, regardless of where they fall on the schedule.

The LPGA is building a very meaty schedule through the spring and summer. Perhaps this is the beginning of a possible realignment that was broached earlier, with the late summer and fall bringing mostly short-field and overseas tournaments, and with new events added stateside that combine middle- and lower-tier LPGA players with Futures Tour players.

I reacted with consternation when that idea - more short-field, overseas tourneys, and the possibility of LPGA/Futures Tour mashups - first came to light. But if the LPGA has a strong, consistent - and week-to-week - schedule in the spring and summer, then the short-field and LPGA/Futures mixes at the tail-end of the schedule make a lot more sense.

The LPGA then has a strong run in the U.S. in the part of the year when people are most paying attention to golf. But then heads overseas (or holds all-star tournaments) when American interest in watching golf starts to wane.

(Addendum: I got all meta above, but it should be noted that there's every possibility the NW Arkansas Championship was moved on the schedule simply because 1) the LPGA is trying to ensure better weather prospects; 2) Proctor & Gamble requested a higher-profile date.)

Update: Golfweek reports the date change had a lot to do with getting the event on network television:

Tim Erensen, senior vice president of Octagon, the sports marketing and management firm that runs the event, said the change in date provides the tournament an opportunity to secure a network television broadcast. He said there is an available window on CBS for that weekend, and he expects a deal to be finalized within the next 30 days. Broadcast arrangements for the tournament’s opening rounds have yet to be determined.

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