The LPGA Tour makes its season debut this week under a pretty big economic cloud.  One-third of the schedule has title sponsorships that have to be renegotiated and finalized before 2010.  There are four fewer events and about $8 million less in prize money. 

Annika is gone, though her specter looms over the women's game.  World number one Lorena Ochoa is not in the first field of the year - the SBS Open at Turtle Bay.  Michelle Wie is on Tour with a card for the first time in what is now a long career.  Anna Rawson just got into hot water for a bad word choice.

Basically, it's a mixed bag for the Tour off of the course despite the great golf on the course.  And the golf industry is pulling for the Tour off of the course because it helps their business.

Jerry Potter has the story in USA Today.

In separate interviews, Cindy Davis, president of Nike Golf, and George Fellows, president of Callaway Golf, expressed the opinion that a healthy LPGA is important for their business.

"What we want is a vibrant, successful LPGA tour so we can showcase our product through the players we sponsor," explained Davis, a former LPGA executive. "Their visibility is important; the more of it the better."

Davis said 20% of the golfers in the USA are women but they are part of a trend of people taking up the game and then dropping it.

The entire area of women's golf is underdeveloped in the United States," Fellows said. "All of us would like to see that corrected, and the health and well-being of the LPGA is quite important to that."

I don't think they'll be seeing a lack of great golf or personalities on Tour this season.  We've got a great rookie class with Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie, Vicky Hurst, and others.  Ji Yai Shin is a rookie, believe it or not.  Yani Tseng returns to try to build off of a very successful rookie campaign.  And there are still the big guns in Ochoa, Creamer, Kerr, Pettersen, and others. 

The question is if all of this great golf can compel sponsors to take a look at the LPGA Tour and commit to work with the Tour through this recession.  Or, perhaps the Tour can lure PGA Tour sponsors that are looking to remain involved with golf but not pay the PGA Tour price tag. 

After all, Ginn received great treatment from the Tour because it could have invested exclusively in the PGA Tour and made the choice to turn to the LPGA Tour first.  Could you imagine the treatment that such a sponsor would get in these times?  Probably very favorable.