LPGA Commish Whan Sees Best Schedule With 30 Events

At the media day for the LPGA's Tour Championship coming to Orlando in early December, Mike Whan spoke with Randall Mell of Golf Channel on a bevy of topics. While the Tour still faces some question marks in scheduling - including a permanent home for its title championship - Whan appears confident the LPGA Tour will grow by one or two events for 2011.

Delving further, Mell asked Whan what the perfect schedule would be.

“My mind says 30. Typically, the top players play 25, maybe 26 times a year. A few will play every event you’ve got. I think when you have 34, 35, 36 events, you start worrying about your fields. While 2010 was a terrible year for a tournament’s contract to end, a reason we did so well, that so many tournaments stayed with us, is that what we were bringing to town was pretty significant. The 30 best players in the world were all coming to tee it up."

The Commish has a point. The depth on the PGA Tour is tremendous and allows for a larger schedule, even with less star names in the field. LPGA talent has never been collectively stronger, but the list of strong players that also have name recognition is smaller. Having a smaller schedule works out better for the Tour from a business perspective because it ensures better fields every time.

That does come at the expense of rank-and-file who struggle for starts across a schedule flooded with invitational and limited field events, many of them abroad. With scant starts, those same players have a hard time finding consistent form which hurts their chances of breaking the rusty cycle. It's a vicious circle that almost reinforces the Whan vision for 30 events.

Complaints from men's golf corners, though, stem from the all-exempt tour having too many guaranteed places, too much money, and a diluted schedule. Going leaner could work for the LPGA Tour if it means consistent nursing of the schedule back to health, but not letting it get sedentary.