Nobody wants a shortened tournament, but if conditions force the organizers to shorten the tournament in order to have a Sunday finish – then that’s what they have to do.

The LPGA is growing in popularity, but not yet to the point where they can draw Monday TV time and viewers, and the galleries would be very disappointed if they didn’t get to see a finish.

Until the LPGA has built up enough popularity, they are best served by finishing on Sundays to keep the TV people happy.

The TV people will still get their weekend and if ESPN2 and the LPGA are serious about starting a long-term relationship-and there’s a Lorena-Annika showdown to boot-why not see if it’s possible? At the very least, it solves that whole overlap with the PGA thing MS was mentioning about last week…. And if it isn’t aired, so what? This is a winner’s event, with entry into the ADT Championship and a $2M purse at stake—this is supposed to be one of the big events of the season. 54 holes suggests to me they just aren’t taking themselves seriously enough.

...the galleries at the NYC events have never been good, even for the PGA, and mercurial spring weather makes them quite irregular; the forecast isn’t that great for Sunday, so they may be going to Monday anyway, unless they decide to make it a 36-hole event; and I have a feeling that ESPN would find a way to get highlights of a Monday showdown between Annika and Lorena on a broadcast somewhere.

The LPGA official who explains the decision to wipe the Friday rounds isn’t at all clear and the reporters apparently weren’t paying enough attention to ask good follow-up questions to her non-answers on the 72-to-54 reduction. Yeesh.