Mike Whan: Sure, Asia Could Host an LPGA Tour Major
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 26, 2010 12:41 PM EST
in Pro Golf
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PrintI am a big fan of Mike Whan. His brief tenure as LPGA Tour commissioner has been a resounding success. The guy knows when to look forward and when to harken back to the more insular days of the tour.
To date, one of the criticisms levied against him - and his predecessor - were that too many new events are coming from outside of the United States. Well, for those of you that believe in Pat Buchanan's trade policy, get ready to be upset.
Mike Whan would be alright with the LPGA Tour playing a major in Asia.
"There is certainly zero doubt that the (Asian) markets we are in can handle a major, that we can get media coverage, that we can get television coverage and that the players would come," Whan told Singapore's Straits Times newspaper.
"All of those check marks are checked and so is it feasible? The answer is yes, it is."
For those of you none too pleased with the twelve to fourteen hour time difference created by staging events in Asia, how would you feel about watching an entire major on tape delay?
The experiment has never fared very well in the United States with men's tournaments. Perhaps the most recent examples were the lousy audiences for the Presidents Cup in Australia and South Africa. (Despite that, the Pres Cup is returning Down Under of '11.)
Then again, the bread and butter of the LPGA Tour is not located in the United States. It's in Asia. So when all of you protectionist fans say that Asians are killing the tour, that's simply not the case. They're keeping it alive.
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Ryan,
this is something that has been discussed several times….Easing and I have from the start contended that for the LPGA to survive, that they needed a truly INTERNATIONAL TOUR..I don’t know who would run the show, but the influx of top talent from other areas of the world just make this good common sense….this talent pool is not going to diminish, only get stronger…If the so called US players want to contend, they simply have to step up their games…This is a bit off subject, but it goes to desire and work ethic…If you watched the women’s team speed skating, you saw the Koreans and Chinese squaring off….I never saw so much raw desire as both teams showed…AS for the US team, they were a joke…this same desire and work ethic is what I see when I watch the LPGA now…STUB
Whan said could, not would. I could see the LPGA Championship being held in Asia, on a periodic basis.
Placebos, of course, are things you have to swallow even though they contain nothing that actually helps you. It's like American health insurance in a pill. -BiPM
DM
don’t you think this kind of puts the handwriting on the wall?…There had to be some interest for the question to even be asked of Whan…that could translate into getting it done…The Asian mind works a lot different than most….STUB
Whan is IN Asia
and talking to Asian reporters. You don’t think he’s going to alienate an entire continent do you?
Placebos, of course, are things you have to swallow even though they contain nothing that actually helps you. It's like American health insurance in a pill. -BiPM
Yeah, I would go with that. I just don’t want them to go all Champ Tour on us and have five majors.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 26, 2010 1:32 PM EST up reply actions
Why Not Have 5 Majors?
Who said that there could only be 4 majors? For a long time the LPGA had at times only 2 or 3 majors, even the men up until the 40’s and 50’s had 3. It wasn’t until the Masters took off in that time frame, that the men had 4. I think the LPGA could support 5. The talent level is much deeper than that of the Champions Tour, and much more international too. I think if done right and spread out, 5 majors would be great. After all, the LPGA doesn’t have WGC events or anything of the like, so i think it would be great
To me, having 5 majors dilutes the achievemnt a bit
4 is enough…and if I ever hear the Players mentioned again…
I wholeheartedly disagree with that. The nunber of majors each tour has should be supported by the depth of talent in addition to the number of different nationalities on any given tour. The LPGA could support 5 majors just fine. Winning a major is winning a major, period. Whether there are 1 or 5 or whatever, it makes no difference. And yes, I believe the PLAYERS should be a major, for the aforementioned reasons above, but mostly because it’s the one event that is mainly administered by and for the players, none of the other 4 have that.
There has been 4 majors for quite a while now in the mens game.
to suddenly have 5 would make past achievements look less credible. To make the Players a major is a joke. Without the 17th hole, no one would watch it. It is a US tour event, albeit a large one. the US has 3 already. If there was ever going to be a 5th, the Australian Open or the French Open has a far bigger case. As the game expands worldwide, look for more events outside the US, as is happening in the womens game. But as in tennis, 4 majors is enough.
Please, not another comparison of tennis to golf, it’s like comparing apples and oranges. As far as a 5th major goes, i never said it had to be held in the U.S. I think it should be held in Asia, especially since the popularity of the LPGA is so strong. I disagree about having 5 majors making past achievements look less credible. Are you saying that the Harry Vardon’s and the Walter Hagen’s and the Louise Suggs and the Babe Zaharias’s of the world major championship victories are less credible because they were won in an era with less than 4 majors per year? I certainly think not. Again, there is no magic number when it comes to the number of majors that any given golf tour has.
As there have been 4 majors in the mens game for so long,
it’s too late to add a 5th…you did say you thought the Players should be a major, is that not in the US ?The ladies game however, is fast moving to a world tour and US ladies know they must travel. As their game is evolving faster than the mens as far a world tour is concerned, 5 majors may seem feasable, like the Champions tour.
As I have said many times..
America is but part of the world. Ryan, to say some would not be pleased about a 12-14 hour time difference (USA) the rest of the world does that now. In a world game, America will just have to get used to it.
I was thinking that
Thank you for writing the obvious.
Placebos, of course, are things you have to swallow even though they contain nothing that actually helps you. It's like American health insurance in a pill. -BiPM
I agree, I’m cool with it.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Feb 26, 2010 4:08 PM EST up reply actions
If a major went overseas...
it might entice some of the big corporations to step back in, like maybe McDonalds (since we’re talking LPGA Championship). The LPGA is certainly a bigger draw over there right now, so it might be seen as a better investment than the PGA.
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
I wouldn't want McDonald's back
They greatly undervalued the event and took it off network television, something that, contrary to popular belief, Carolyn Bivens DID NOT do since the LPGA at the time didn’t own the event.
I'll put my bet on the LPGA Championship becoming a rotating-location event...
…and, uh, let’s see, being sponsored by, uh, Toyota? Sony? My guess is a big Japanese multinational that wants to go transnational. Especially if Ai Miyazato becomes the next #1 (she’s #3 in the Rolex Rankings, .01 behind Ji-Yai Shin and less than 2 points behind Lorena). I could see 10 or more JLPGA players with dual membership on the LPGA by 2015—why wouldn’t the Japanese sponsorships follow, a la the ’80s and ’90s when Ayako Okamoto was one of the best in the world?
I think HSBC is pretty committed to its Champions events and would love the LPGA to embrace a WGC-style 2nd-tier of quasi-major events.
by The Constructivist on Mar 1, 2010 11:23 PM EST reply actions
Great point, TC. I think there’s a struggle with the Tour right now in deciding how far it wants to take having limited-field events on the schedule. Almost all of the new events are limited-field, which crushes a lot of the rank-and-file. That was kind of Bivens’ goal, though, to create great small events every week. The problem is that the then means the DFT really has to be much wider and get more support.
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroomryan, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
by Ryan Ballengee on Mar 3, 2010 11:43 AM EST up reply actions
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