A few months back, I really went to town on Sean Gregory, TIME Magazine, and Time Warner for their attitude toward Play Golf Designs and sex appeal in women's golf.  I don't want to revisit that subject.  (Though Sean Gregory now follows me on Twitter, and I give him big ups for that.  Unless he's plotting to bring me down somehow.)  Rather, I'd like to revisit the marketing of sex and golf in light of an Alan Shipnuck piece at golf.com on the Wilhelmina 7.

The Wilhelmina 7 is a group of seven attractive LPGA Tour players that are marketed for their looks and skills by the Wilhelmina modeling agency.  They believe that there's nothing wrong marketing players based on their looks if that gets fans into the LPGA Tour gates.  Further, they are close knit and act as a team.  If one player wins, they feel that they all do.

Shipnuck's profile of the girls themselves is very positive and kind of reads in the same tone as piece done in the San Jose Mercury News last fall.  I have no problem with that at all.  From any of the limited interactions that I have had with the girls - either in person or through a Stephanie Wei video featuring W7 member Anna Grzebien and former member Paige Mackenzie - they seem like great people.

Kim Hall has a pretty succinct opinion on why the W7 is no big thang, but actually great for golf.

"The LPGA has such a high retention rate for fans. The key is to get them to pay attention in the first place. Anything we can do to bring in new fans is a positive, and the tour has been very supportive of our efforts."

In other words, get 'em in the door how you can and then sort out how to keep them.  For their part, the LPGA Tour seems to embrace the work that the W7 is trying to do to get them in the door.  The LPGA is working on keeping the new fans.

"Any partners who recognize the overall appeal and talent of our players and find ways to market that potential is great for all of us," says David Higdon, the LPGA's chief communications officer. The W7 members did not seek the LPGA's blessing before signing with Wilhelmina, Higdon says, but the tour has subsequently looked for ways to work with the W7, realizing their potential for attracting a new breed of fans to the game.

Higdon - a reasonable man by any measure of my experience with him - was non-commital about Play Golf Designs in the Time piece.

"We haven't had a chance to evaluate the site and what it's really being used for."

Fair enough, Higdon was pretty new to the job when he was quoted by Sean Gregory.  Still, what Play Golf Designs is doing is really no different than what the W7, Anna Rawson, or other players do.  Again, I had to give the benefit of the doubt to David Higdon.  But, I won't give the benefit of the doubt to the Tour.  Stephanie Wei - again tapping into her player connections with the Tour (and two W7 members) - said this in her follow up to the Gregory piece:

From speaking with a few LPGA players and administrators yesterday, they firmly expressed that the PGD’s marketing campaign is not aligned with theirs, nor do they want their brand to be associated with it.

My question then becomes: how does the LPGA determine which groups to work with and which to avoid? 

I asked Kim Berard, Public Relations Manager for the LPGA Tour, how the Tour decides to align itself with privately-organized groups of players.  Berard reaffirmed Higdon's statement to Alan Shipnuck.

From player initiatives like the W7 to charitable initiatives created and executed by our members, the LPGA wholly supports all endeavors to connect with fans. We are open to helping promote player-driven initiatives via LPGA.com and via any of our other resources, or in conjunction with our tournaments and our partners.

Again, the idea seems to be that once someone is a fan of the LPGA Tour, they are a fan for life.  It is getting them to be a fan that can be part of the mission of groups like PGD and the W7.