Fresh Off of Summit, LPGA Tour Back to Golfing

by Ryan Ballengee on May 6, 2009 10:41 AM EDT

If you haven't had a chance to read any story about the LPGA Tour Player Summit that was held prior to this week's Mickelob Ultra Open, then read Dave Fairbank in the Daily-Press. He has some awesome one-liners about the summit that seemed to go well, as evidenced by the 8 or 10 new LPGA Tour players now on Twitter. (Just remember, if they reply to you, it's like a digital autograph!)

I'm not going to write a post ridiculing the Summit because I think it was a good idea in theory. I know these kinds of things are more like a Tony Robbins six-tape set than a real learning experience, but this picture and caption is unintentional humor at its best.

Anyway, it's onto the actual golfing of the week tomorrow with the start of the Michelob Ultra Open. The men celebrate Father's Day with the finale of the US Open. Similarly, the LPGA Tour has developed a solid tradition with the event in Virginia ending on Mom's Day.

Annika Sorenstam would be the defending champion, but she is both retired (supposedly) and pregnant (definitely). So, instead, let's say the major story is Lorena Ochoa going for two in a row. Or, it could be that Paula Creamer isn't in the field in order to play in a JLPGA Tour major for a ton of appearance money. Other than Creamer, the other nine of the top 10 in the world rankings will be in the field and 17 of the top 20.

Also, Michelle Wie and Vicky Hurst are in the field with Hurst coming off of her best finish as an LPGA Tour pro. Brittany Lincicome will try to bounce back from a very disappointing Corona Championship to redeem her major winning name.

I really like Kingsmill as far as resort courses go. Seems like the LPGA players do, too. I think we'll be treated to some great golf this weekend. For more information on the LPGA Tour's "fifth major," check out the Constructivist's preview or Hound Dog's prologue.

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Pretty good stuff. Aside from his lame attempts at humor (The “Stella Artois Wannabe Open” and “LPGA bigfoot player…Cristie Kerr”), that was pretty good reading. Apparently the LPGA front office did a good job pulling the ladies together to let them know what needs to be done. (but we haven’t heard from Beth Ann Baldry yet – she might want to start another fight).

I understand how Billie Jean King continues to make a living as the feminist ideal – but I’m still waiting for some women’s group to point out more of the facts. She screamed about the men’s vs women’s purses being different in tennis – but nobody points out that it’s the sponsors dollars that decide the size of the purse. So she switched gears and blackmailed the majors into equal purses for men and women, saying that they do the same work, they should get the same pay – but you never hear that the men play 5 set matches and the women play 3 set matches. By her logic, shouldn’t the women’s purse be 60% of the men’s ? Oh well.

He pointed out that this sort of thing doesn’t fly with the men – but the women seem to enjoy it because of their nature. (hey wait – I said the same thing and got called all sorts of names !! Humph) :-)

It sounds to me like the LPGA is doing a good job keeping the troops fired up and pointed in the same direction.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on May 6, 2009 12:55 PM EDT reply actions