Jill Painter whines that LA doesn't have LPGA event in 2010 or the golf media's new meme

I can't ever recall a non-major championship week where there has been so much half baked golf writing. From the LA Times-

The LPGA Tour held a news conference in February in Beverly Hills to announce it would host a tournament in the Los Angeles area in 2010.

The tour also announced a lucrative partnership with J Golf.

It made good on only one of those announcements.

Wednesday, the LPGA released its schedule for 2010 and there was no tournament in Los Angeles. The LPGA instead added the J Golf Classic, March 25-28 at La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad.

"It's the same event," acting LPGA commissioner Marty Evans said in a phone interview. "We're working with J Golf and it was a great opportunity at La Costa.

"We're hoping some people from L.A. will drive to north San Diego County."

That's an 85-mile drive, or about an hour-and-a-half - without traffic.

Fast someone get Steve Elling to call Jill Painter and explain to her how Carlsbad is just outside Los Angeles. I was a Southern California resident from March 1985 to July 87.

The LPGA has had to scramble to get even a 24-tournament schedule. Mostly thanks to Carolyn Bivens mismanagement and the poor economy. I'm willing to cut the LPGA some slack when it comes to their broken promise to LA. However note that Painter admits when Bivens gave that press conference that very little of the local media was in attendance. So really how many Southern Californians are upset about this?

Since an American won a golf tournament last weekend, the golf media needs a new meme and it didn't take long for them to settle on one. The lack of American golf tournaments on the 2010 LPGA schedule. Gene Yosuda at Golfweek chimed in on it yesterday and since then Steve Elling, Mick Elliot, and Peter Dixon at least have chimed in saying similar things.

Anyone who has been following the LPGA's woes for the last year should have seen this coming for six months at least. Why are the media fixated on this feature of the LPGA schedule. Because again, the golf media shows itself to be mostly a group of unimaginative lemmings.

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