Uncertain future for women’s golf tour

July 3, 6:48 AMBoston Golf ExaminerEmily Kay

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When the defending champ pulls out of an event on the same day that doubts surface about the tournament's future, it’s not good for the LPGA Tour.

An injured left thumb forced Paula Creamer to quit this week’s Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Sylvania, OH, and the sour economy may cause the sponsors, after 25 years, to pull the plug on the Farr.

Chalk it up to just another in a series of bad days for the LPGA, which is losing sponsors faster than a downhill putt at Augusta. As of Tuesday, the Kapalua LPGA Classic in Hawaii is no more, after organizers blamed financial problems for its cashiering the event and opting out of the last four years of its contract with the LPGA. LPGA officials promise to pursue “legal remedies,” according to a statement from LPGA deputy commissioner Libba Galloway.

Any legal constraint the LPGA may succeed in winning would amount to a band-aid on a broken limb, as sponsor after sponsor ditches the LPGA. After 31 years, the LPGA Corning Classic in Corning, NY, ended in May, while the future of the Michelob Ultra Open in Williamsburg, VA, remains up in the air. And even, the LPGA Championship, the Tour’s signature event, has no home or sponsor for next year, after McDonald’s ended its 16-year sponsorship in June.

Too much downtime. With no venue or even a name for its championship, the LPGA is in deep fescue and there seems to be no sure remedy in sight. Clearly, gifted women golfers playing great golf is not enough to ensure the future of what Ron Sirak, executive editor of Golf World and Golf Digest senior writer, calls “the most successful women’s sports league.”

Sirak counts only 10 full-field LPGA events in the U.S. for next year. He tweets, however, that that’s a “generous” count since two of the tournaments have no sponsors. The shutdown of the Kapalua tourney now means the LPGA will be off from October 4 through October 23 -- the later event being the first round of the China LPGA. And that’s after a 19-day lull between the end of the Women’s British Open on August 2 and the Solheim Cup, August 21-23.

As a result of the downtime, several LPGA caddies are taking off for the Nationwide Tour, Sirak says in a Twitter posting. “They cannot afford the number of off weeks,” he writes.

What’s next? Rumors are flying. Some believe the PGA will take over the women's tour, while others view as inevitable the merger of the LPGA with the Japanese LPGA (JLPGA) Tour and Ladies European Tour LET). Sirak wonders if a deep-pocketed company will buy the LPGA Tour.

“Question is,” Sirak says in a Twitter posting, “Will significant number of LPGA members play more on JLPGA and LET next year if tournament schedule continues to shrink?”

Shrunken coffers. Meanwhile, while Farr tournament organizers express optimism that they can arrange a new contract, the event has already diminished. The $1.4 million purse is one of the smallest on the LPGA Tour, and tournament officials slashed as much as $500,000 from its budget. Gone are lavish pro-am gift packages and courtesy vehicles for past champions, says the AP, and the event required fewer bleacher seats for spectators.

If the Farr tournament leaves the Toledo area, with its 13 percent unemployment rate, local charities will suffer greatly. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northwest Ohio receives some eight percent of its annual budget from the tournament, the AP notes. Without subsidy from the Farr, that charity and others would have to downgrade its services. The tournament has chipped in more than $6 million to more than 120 charities over its quarter-century history, according to the LPGA.

By the way, anyone interested in top-notch women's golf might like to know that Laura Diaz, Morgan Pressel, and Song-Hee Kim tied for first place at 7-under after the first round of the Farr. Suzann Pettersen and Michelle Wie sit just one shot back. Pettersen tweets that she aced a 154-yard par-3 hole with her seven iron.

These women sure can play.

Read about how a successful Cheyenne Woods (Tiger Woods’ niece) could boost interest (and sponsorship?) in the LPGA.