Boston, MA, May 11 -- LPGA Tour commissioner Michael Whan would love to return professional women’s golf to Boston.
“This is a phenomenal market,” Whan said in an interview prior to Monday night’s Francis Ouimet Scholarship Fund annual banquet. “Our TV viewership and website [numbers] prove that.”
Dig deep. With a shrinking LPGA tournament calendar and a weak economy, the issue, as always, comes down to the Benjamins. Some 1,450 well-heeled donors were expected to dine with Whan, LPGA Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, and other national and local golf luminaries, sparking the tour commish to suggest hitting them up for sponsorship bucks.
“Two-hundred-and-fifty dollars from everybody in that room tonight,” Whan joked, “and we’re back here next spring.”
A Sorenstam comeback? Sorenstam, in town to receive a Ouimet Fund award, said she would not rule out a return to competitive golf. Just don’t count on it, the 72-time tour winner cautioned.
“I do not have any plans to [return] and I don’t have any plans not to,” Sorenstam said enigmatically during a pre-banquet press conference Monday afternoon. “I’m taking everyday as it comes and I’m enjoying where I am today.”
Sorenstam, who expressed surprise that recently retired and former number-one player Lorena Ochoa left golf when she did, noted that she herself purposefully shied away from using the word, “retirement.”
Not retiring. “There was a reason I said I’m not retiring, that I’m ‘stepping away from the game,’” Sorenstam said. “Because I love the game and you never know; one day I may wake up and have the motivation to practice again...and continue to play this wonderful game.”
While teeing it up with sponsors suits Sorenstam just fine for now, the 39-year-old Hall of Famer perked up at the idea that she and Ochoa might team up to play exhibition matches.
“That sounds like fun,” Sorenstam offered, noting that she’s older and has been away from the game longer than the 28-year-old Ochoa. “I might have to ask for a few strokes.”
Sorenstam suffered from the same neck problems currently afflicting Tiger Woods. Read how the former LPGA great believes Woods can successfully recover from his neck injury.
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