Why LPGA Tour Golfers Have A Legit Reason to Complain
by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 29, 2009 12:33 PM EDT
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PrintAfter my rant about Camilo Villegas from a few weeks ago, The Constructivist was a little worried about incurring my wrath for a post he wrote yesterday. (It was all in jest.) The post detailed just how tough it actually is for the LPGA Tour players to tredge through their season on the road. And, unlike Camilo, The Constructivist rightly contends that many of the LPGA Tour players do have a serious gripe.
The LPGA Tour players are playing fewer tournaments in a more spread out fashion. At multiple points in the season, rank-and-file players have experienced month long gaps in the schedule. This creates havoc for a player's ability to make a living on one Tour. As a result, many of the LPGA Tour regulars split time between this tour and another, or multiple other tours around the world in Asia or Europe. This is the kind of globetrotting that is both stressful and tiring, as opposed to playing six events in the United States in eight weeks.
In that same vain, though, The Constructivist tries to make the point that traveling across the USA is much more taxing compared to players accustomed to traveling all over Japan or South Korea. They're both smaller nations and the tournaments are closer together. The players that make the transition from those tours to the LPGA Tour probably do experience a significant learning curve in adjusting to the rigors of traveling this country.
Collectively, the LPGA Tour players compete for less money than the men do. Whereas the PGA Tour had 104 millionaires last year on the money list, many of the LPGA Tour's purses next year will max out around $1.5 million. This means that rank-and-file players earn closer to $200,000 per year. After taxes and expenses, that does not turn out to be that much money. Honestly, it's not all that much more than I make at my day job.
I'm pretty sensitive to the luxury gap - er, canyon - between the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour. And don't think for a moment that the LPGA Tour players are not acutely aware of it either. The difference between them and the PGA Tour is that the ladies are far less likely to complain than the men.
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Totally agree. I think the point of the matter with Camilo, is you have an opportunity for a $10 MILLION DOLLAR payday. That’s huge. To have that chance alone should bewilder any thoughts of complaints of over playing.
it’s tough out there for sure. A lot of players were forced to take 7 weeks off in the middle of the season, and when you’re a player like Mindy Kim, those 7 weeks are probably so grueling.
Not to mention the lack of advertising opportunities for some of these ladies. Take Jiyai Shin, who still does not have any sponsors on her bag. For someone as good, and charismatic, and really trying, it’s a real shame. Luckily she got the million last year at the ADT!
Jamie in the Rough
http://jamieintherough.tumblr.com
by jamie.r.saengsawang on Sep 29, 2009 12:38 PM EDT reply actions
here we go again...
I see Comrade Ballengee has reared his head again. Nobody disagreed that Villegas was a wuss for his comment – but THIS ? Have you sent this to Chairman Obama ? Does he realize that these women who are INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS are struggling because some MEAN OL’ CORPORATIONS don’t want to spend their money…the money that the Chairman has made very difficult to come by…and because the RETURN ON INVESTMENT with LPGA tournaments isn’t what they need ? Where is Akorn ? Where is the ACLU ?? Where is Helen Reddy ???
Wow – I can see your concern that these women are having a tough time because the LPGA Tour can’t demand that corporations pour money they don’t have into tournaments so 144 women can make a living a little easier…even though they don’t actually work for those companies…at least not yet.
Ok – Econ 101 again – Supply and DEMAND. There is more DEMAND for the PGA Tour product – and not as much DEMAND for the LPGA product. Therefore, more money goes into the PGA Tour product than the LPGA product. Businesses that spend more money than they take in go out of business.
The management of the LPGA ran off a significant percentage of tournament sponsors. Again – not the PGA Tour’s fault – and not the fault of the LPGA players – but the players don’t have a right to demand money from sponsors, nor do they have a right to demand that tournaments be scheduled for their benefit.
The players DO have a right – within the bounds of the LPGA itself – to reqest that the Tour schedule a little better – something that is tough to do right now because the tournaments that remained with the Tour have already scheduled dates and these things would have to be negotiated. If they can, they can work out schedules with other tours around the world – but they aren’t required to do that, either…at least until the UN gets ahold of things.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
I’m not really trying to make an argument about independent contractors and economics, blah, blah. Not at all.
This has nothing to do with fairness or anything like that.
Rather, as a point of comparison between the opportunities that Villegas/PGA Tour players have and what is/is not available to LPGA Tour players.
Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.
by Ryan Ballengee on Sep 29, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions
you can't separate the two
Read what you wrote again – and the headline. Villegas being a wuss has to do with one thing – when he said what he said – he didn’t appreciate what he has.
What he said does not give the women a “legit reason to complain”.
What you wrote has to do with the LPGA not having a fuller schedule with more money in the purse – nothing to do with Villegas. You talked about the LPGA players having weeks off at a time and lots of long travel. Again – nothing to do with Villegas.
In any of those cases, the LPGA players can only complain to the LPGA offices – who, as we have seen the last month or so, are working their collective buns off to get sponsors and tournaments back on board. (no nautical pun intended)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
By the time Michelle Wie turns
twenty-one and is winning 7-8 tournaments and 2-3 majors per year, the LPGA will back on track. Hell, with Michelle pulling all the weight, I think they should the LPGA Commissioner job to court…
...from the land of pleasant living, Baltimore.
by One-Eyed Golfer Guy on Sep 29, 2009 1:59 PM EDT reply actions
Hold the phones
Ryan and TC have written about THEIR OWN PERCEPTIONS about inequalities between PGA and LPGA income opportunities. No one has quoted a single LPGA player complaining about that inequity. So why is CG whining? Probably because he thinks the US reached its pinnacle of greatness during the Hoover administration.
Truth has a well-known liberal bias.
Reagan, dear...
It took the Eisenhouer administration to get us out of the WWII hole – then JFK and LBJ managed to get us into Vietnam without taking any heat, which was passed along to Nixon and his huge ego, then Ford held down the fort, then Carter REALLY screwed things up (check your history – Carter is the one who started us down the road that ended in this real estate and banking mess), REAGAN got the country rolling again in our generation…One good Bush, the Clinton Whore House, and one lame Bush leads us to the brink of the Soviet Socialist Republic of America. Yeehaaa.
Geez D – that opinion really sucks !! (bah-dum-bum)
(I actually used that joke on a boss back during college – he just bought a new vacuum cleaner and put me to work cleaning up. He came around later and asked what I thought about it. I told him “It really sucks.” He stomped off to his office thinking I was complaining about it – but came out a few minutes later cracking up. It took him a while)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
None the repubs you name (many of whom I voted for, by the way) could win a primary election today because they’re not wingnutty enough. Only birther-tenther-teabaggers need apply to the party these days. When did y’all decide to stop working for the common good?
Truth has a well-known liberal bias.
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