Showing posts with label LPGA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LPGA. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2013

Can Youth Revitalize Women's Golf?

LPGA golf superstars like Cristie Kerr have been playing as a professional longer than the ages of many of the hottest young golfers standing beside her on the tee box. With eighteen teenagers poised to make history at the 2013 U.S. Women's Open, can youth revitalize a sagging Tour?

Golf Channel's "State of the Game" Roundtable Discussion at the U.S. Women's Open asked Kerr, Annika Sorenstam and Mike Whan about the state of the Ladies' game and whether teenagers are prepared to take on this revitalization movement.

Cristie KerrCristie Kerr mentioned that sponsorships and resources are now more available to younger players. Add to that the numerous mental and swing coaches that accompany each player and "they are a lot more equipped to play professional golf as a young age."

Annika Sorenstam believes that the younger golfers "bring a lot to the game"; they are mature and hit the ball a long way.

Mike Whan explained that, although you might see more teens competing in this event, it is because it is a USGA event as opposed to an LPGA tournament. Strict guidelines have been put into place to ensure that the LPGA is accessible to youth players, "but we kind of draw a line between access to play and be a member, because with membership, comes a lot more responsibilities and these two know better than ever."

Annika Sorenstam 1995 US Women's OpenAdvice from Annika? "Just have fun, enjoy. You have so many years ahead of you, don't rush it, because it's hard to be out there."

This week at Sebonack GC, Paula Creamer and Matt Lauer were on hand to participate in a golf clinic where over one-hundred youngsters attended, most of the kids from LPGA-USGA Girls Golf. Is this solid proof that the game is growing and moving forward for the youth of America? Jeanne-Marie Hamilton-Moore of the First Tee of Essex County said about Creamer after the golf clinic “She’s famous and she’s amazing, and I know that I can achieve that one day.”

It is inevitable that younger golfers will play a big role in the advancement of women's golf and, in my opinion, as long as teens are brought into the sport and moved along at the proper speed and with the right frame of mind, the game will continue to prosper.

photo credit: LPGA, Golfweek AP

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Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Golf Horoscope for 2013

Even though the foremost astrologers utilize the aspects of the planets and stars at a given moment, the future still remains unpredictable. Utilizing the past as a barometer, Golf for Beginners makes several predictions on the future of the game and some of its players in 2013.

1. Tiger Woods will win two golf tournaments this year and one major event. Based upon his past performance in the majors, the current number-two money leader in the world will win the PGA Championship...it's about time to collect another Wanamaker Trophy, isn't it? On his golf blog Woods said, "Looking ahead to next year, I'm just trying to win those big four tournaments."



2.The Rory McIlroy-Tiger Woods competition will continue to heat up and fans will see several final round close calls this season. McIlroy will easily win the Masters after remembering what he said after squandering a four-stroke lead at Augusta in 2012. "I'll get over it," said Rory, "it was a character-building day, put it that way. I'll come out stronger for it," and so he has with his major victory in 2012 at the PGA Championship.

3. The 2016 Anchoring Ban (belly putter) will force advocates such as Webb Simpson to change their putters and revise their putting strokes. Watch for new and unpredictable grips for belly-putter golfers and for new equipment on the golf course. Will we see Keegan Bradley trying out a new claw grip this season?



4. The LPGA future will further take root in Asia. American LPGA golfers will be asked to learn Korean and Mandarin to keep up with the further globalization of the Tour. Instead of "foreign" Tour players being penalized for not speaking English, ladies such as Cristie Kerr on the LPGA will brush up on Korean to follow the sponsors, "follow the money".

Could it be that, down the road, American LPGA golfers will be penalized for not speaking Korean?



5. Two female members will be allowed to join Muirfield's "Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers" (so one can play golf with the other without disturbing the men) with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club following suit after much ballyhoo.

Stay tuned for mystical Tarot predictions by Stacy Solomon throughout the 2013 golf season!

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Balancing Competitive and Social on the Golf Course

Many women face a dilemma on the golf course. By its very nature, golf is a social game. You are on the course for up to five hours yet are actually swinging the club only a few minutes of that time. There are a lot of opportunities to chat whether it is in the cart or waiting on the tee. That social aspect is great, but what if you want to be competitive as well? A balance of both is ideal, and the following three tips from golf writer Beth Myers will help achieve a perfect middle ground.

 

Learn from the Pros

 

Lpga

Golf Phoenix 2009 LPGA event with Michelle Wie

 

If you watch golf on TV, you likely don’t see a lot of chit chat between the players. That is because when the camera is on, they are getting ready for their next shot. If you were to go to an event in person, you would find the players actually talk quite a bit during the round. The key is to separate your time and not let one get in the way of the other. When you get to your ball, you need to switch into ‘golf mode’ and cut out the chatting. Focus on your shot, pay attention to details and do your best. The times when you are walking in the fairway or riding in the cart are best for being social. There is nothing wrong with doing both, just keep them apart.

 

Plan Post Round Activity


Not wanting to be rude, sometimes women feel required to be as social as possible on the golf course. If you have something like dinner or drinks planned for after the round, you won’t feel as pressured because you know there will be time enough to catch up later. That doesn’t mean you don’t talk at all on the course, but it will help keep you focused on the golf.

 

It’s Okay to Win


To our credit, we women are generally more considerate than men. That translates to the golf course when some women have a hard time really wanting to win. They want to golf well but don’t necessarily want to take attention away from others by winning the trophy at the end of the day. My advice is to let that instinct go and try your hardest to play your absolute best each time. Golf is a hard game and it’s a great feeling to have won something – anything – on the golf course.

 

Don’t sell yourself short. You have practiced a lot, improved over your years of playing, and you should be rewarded with a little recognition.

 

One of the best parts of golf is the social aspect. To be sure, that is a major reason that it is such a hugely popular recreation activity. You can entertain clients on the course or just have a great time with friends. There is no reason to take that out of the game. At the same time, you can still play your hardest and compete with yourself and with others. The next time you play, focus on finding a comfortable balance between socializing and playing golf. It is different for everyone but, when you find the right mix for you, your best golf is soon to follow.

 

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Beth Myers is a passionate golfer, mother & wife…not in that order .  She writes for East Coast Golf Sales on all things women’s golf - you could say she is a little obsessed.  Be sure to follow her on twitter @GolfBeth

 

 

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photo credit: Phoenix.about.com

 

 

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Monday, July 30, 2012

Battle of the Sexes Golf Debate: Do #girlsgolfbetter or do #boysgolfbetter?

Can a man who has played on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour beat a current LPGA Tour sensation? An age-old "Battle of the Sexes" match has just been announced between CBS Sports Commentator Gary McCord and the "Pink Panther" of golf, Paula Creamer, to determine if #girlsgolfbetter or if #boysgolfbetter.

 

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Forsgate Country Club will host head-to-head stroke play on its premier Banks Course and has called in David Feherty to add his colorful, irreverent analysis to this quirky golf match-up between a 64-year old who went 0 for 422 in PGA Tour event wins and a girl more than half his age who is a major tournament winner currently ranked thirteenth in the world.

 

Feherty remarked, "Battle of the Sexes? It's more like Beauty versus the Beast. My money is with Paula...plus I love pink."

 

Creamer queried, "I'm playing against Gary McCord? You mean the CBS Commentator? I didn't event realize he played golf! Wow...you learn something new every day."

 

McCord jabbed back, "Beating Paula will be fun and another win in my already memorable career."


The real challenge for the two golfers especially McCord, in my opinion, is that they will be hitting from the same tees. Does McCord have the sharper irons and short game needed to restrain The Pink Panther?


Expect more trash talking from Gary as this Battle of the Sexes gets closer to event date. McCord is not one to mince words which has ultimately made him persona-non-grata at The Masters to which Gary eloquently stated that he could give a s**t if the Masters ever invites him back and that the divorce has worked out famously for all concerned.

 

Although much of the taunting is pure fun, there is an edge to this quirky one-on-one, remembering back to the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs televised tennis matches in 1973 where a boastful, and much older, Riggs masterfully promoted the sport as well as his own abilities while demeaning King and all other women. The spectacle struck a nerve throughout the country and the term "Battle of the Sexes" was coined.

 

This isn't the first Battle of the Sexes event held at Forsgate Country Club although it seems to be the oddest pairing.

 

Annika Sorenstam played golf against PGA Tour pro J.B. Holmes and went up against  Brad Faxon in a similar May-September golf event @ForsgateCC but, in every match the winner is always the same, namely charity beneficiaries of The Forsgate Foundation, a non-profit organization that has donated over $400,000 to worthwhile organizations since 2003. This year's beneficiary is the Make-A-Wish Foundation which grants wishes of children with life threatening illnesses.

 

Forsgate Country Club will host two days of golf and entertainment beginning on Saturday, October 6th where Creamer will first come face-to-face with McCord, hopefully without too much blood shed nor too many epithets tossed about ;-)

 

For more information visit either Forsgate Country Club, ForsgateFoundation or call (732) 656-8911.

 

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So, whose team are you on? Pick your winner using the hastag #girlsgolfbetter if you are rooting for Paula Creamer or #boysgolfbetter if you think Gary McCord will cream the Pink Panther. For me it's #girlsgolfbetter...go Paula and use her Twitter handle too, @ThePCreamer!

 

Voice your opinion on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and friend on Facebook.

 

 

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Reputation management needed for Michelle Wie?


Michelle_wie In the span of a few days I received three press releases about LPGA golfers; two spoke about achievements in the sport and one, about Michelle Wie, offered insight into her “favorite things.”

 The achievements of the first two golfers, Lorena Ochoa and Paige MacKenzie, were self-explanatory. Ochoa is being honored with an EWGA Leadership award next month at the organization’s annual Golfpalooza gathering for her philanthropist efforts. MacKenzie is being appointed as sports ambassador for the National Association of Professional Women.

As for the press release regarding Michelle Wie, I concluded it to be a prime example of reputation management. Although Wie has shown herself to be a charitable sort thereby offering up a positive view of herself, some golf fans in a recent article referred to her as an overrated mishandled "has-been" with no clue how to win. (I didn’t say this folks. You can read comments here.)

The comments were in response to Michelle’s angry behavior demonstrated last week at the HSBC Women's Champions tournament in Singapore. Wie tossed her golf club and shouted an expletive (or two) after a mishit drive. Although she apologized after the round, her reaction did not go unnoticed by the media and by fans of the sport. The crowd was spurred on to criticize her most recent act while also reacting to her past seven years of unimpressive results and her flair for the dramatic.

A team from USGA, U.S. Women’s Open and Kohler immediately put together positive press to counter the growing resentment. Whether good or bad, isn't it important for women’s golf to get some publicity?

 Wie and Co. have created a money machine (Nike, Sony, McDonalds and Kia, to name a few of her sponsors) with her agents and parents very much in control of the purse strings.

The LPGA and women’s golf in general sorely need attention, good press rarely gets any visibility nowadays and Wie has always been a figure who is larger than life so why not utilize her to help get more eyes on the sport?
  
So, without further adieu, here are a few of Michelle Wie’s favorite things:
· Her dog, Lola
· Baking vegan cookies and muffins
· Painting and drawing
· Classic golf movies like “Caddyshack” and “Happy Gilmore”, as well as the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series
· Blogging and tweeting
· All kinds of music, from Justin Bieber to Lady Antebellum to The Jakes

And so, now Michelle Wie's positive side has been shown and we're all full of the "warm fuzzies". Which do you prefer to see and comment upon?

Voice your opinion on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and friend us on Facebook.

photo credit: outcomemag.com

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Can Morgan Pressel help unite World through golf?

LPGA star Morgan Pressel is traveling to Israel making Aliyah for the first time in her life this week to tour the country and host golf clinics for local children. Pressel will also be leading a roundtable discussion with Israeli and Palestinian youths in hopes of using golf as a medium for teaching valuable life lessons.

 

Morgan-pressel

 

The 2011 LPGA Championship runner-up will take a tour of some of Israel’s most historically-rich places including a private tour of the Western Wall, a visit to Yad Vashem (Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial Museum) and the Dead Sea. Morgan will also be meeting with various Israeli signatories and leaders, including former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

 

With the inclusion of golf at the 2016 Olympics, Morgan plans on leading more trips to Israel, to create additional awareness and support for the game, especially among young children and adults.

 

Perhaps more than just children can benefit from the lessons of the First Tee Program...?


 Recently, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney pledged to a group of Jewish conservatives that his first trip as Commander in Chief would be to Israel. I wonder if a foursome including Iranian, Syrian, Israeli and USA leaders would improve global diplomatic relations?

 

Voice your opinion on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and friend on Facebook.

 

Read an interview about how Morgan Pressel prepared for the U.S. Women's Open

 

photo credit: @wmgllc

 


 

 

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Yani Tseng, Karrie Webb, LPGA greats, plan ahead for HSBC Women's Champions

The HSBC Women’s Champions returns to Singapore in February, with LPGA legend Karrie Webb defending the title as the latest name in a roll of honour that is almost unrivalled in recent years. Tim Maitland talks to the stars of the women’s game to work out why the event has only ever been won by the best of the best.

 

Lorena Ochoa, at her most dominant, finished streets ahead of a returning Annika Sorenstam in 2008. A year later Jiyai Shin lifted the trophy at the start of her “rookie” season (she won three LPGA events as a non-member in 2008, including a Major) as part of a relentless charge that would make her the third number one in the history of the official rankings. In 2010, Ai Miyazato held the same silverware and shortly afterwards held the number one ranking, too. Then came Karrie Webb, who by the age of 25 had already qualified for the World Golf Hall of Fame and who, but for the Rolex Rankings only being introduced in 2006, was a number one in everything but name.

 

Has any other tournament consistently crowned such worthy champions in this time span? It’s a question that prompts plenty of head scratching.

 

“Maybe Kraft is one?” ponders current world number one Yani Tseng of Taiwan.

 

[[posterous-content:pid___1]]Yani Tseng, w/Honda LPGA Thailand trophy

 

“The British Open?” she asks, cracking up laughing because her main motivation for mentioning it is the fact that she’s won it the past two seasons.

 

Of the Majors, the Ricoh Women’s British Open might be the nearest comparison to the HSBC Women’s Champions roll of honour, with Yani winning in 2011 and 2010 while Jiyai claimed it in 2008, but 2009 champion Catriona Matthew might be the first to point out that she doesn’t quite belong in the conversation if we’re talking about the greats in the game. The same applies for Stacey Lewis and Brittany Lincicome, winners of the Kraft Nabisco Championship in 2011 and 2009 respectively, in between wins for Yani (2010) and Lorena (2008). The LPGA Championship also comes close with Cristie Kerr in 2010 and Yani in 2011 and 2008, but 2009 winner Anna Nordqvist hasn’t yet thrust her name into the highest echelon.

 

New to Major status next year, the Evian Masters won by Ai, Jiyai and Ai in the past three years comes close, and another of the Asian Spring Swing – the Honda LPGA Thailand – also belong in the conversation, with Yani, Ai and Lorena its most recent champions.

 

One can talk oneself around in circles debating the argument. The certainty is that in short order the HSBC Women’s Champions has become something special.

 

“It’s one of the best tournaments we ever play!” is Yani’s take.

 

“I think the HSBC event is the biggest LPGA event in Asia!” is Jiyai Shin’s verdict.

 

“It’s great from when we first arrive to when we leave. We get looked after very, very well. We stay in great hotels, there’s great hospitality and we play on a great challenging golf course!” declares Karrie, who has certainly earned the right to talk about greatness.

 

“We’d like it like that every week,” the Queensland legend adds.

 

Yani, like Webb, expands on her statement by citing the overall package of the tournament week, rather than purely the golf.

 

“It’s a good one. They’re all the best players in the world challenging that week. It’s always very tough to win that tournament. You have to play so well to be among the great players, which is fun. It doesn’t matter what your score is; it’s always very enjoyable in Singapore, the hospitality there. And you know I love Singapore; I have so many good friends there. I always look forward to going back. I have so much fun and have so many good friends come,” says Tseng, last year’s double Major champion, seven-time winner and Player of the Year on the LPGA with 11 total wins worldwide.

 

Jiyai meanwhile backs up her description of the event being Asia’s best with the following explanation: “All the events are very important, but it feels like a really big tournament.  It’s a beautiful course and a nice city. The tournament is early in the season, and when you win it feels like a good start and it gives you confidence at the beginning of the season, too.”

 

Roll of Honour

 

The first sign that something unusual was happening in Singapore was, perhaps, when Ai Miyazato declared eight months after her 2010 win that it was “an honour” to have added her name to a list of winners that had only two others on it. At the time she was speaking as the reigning world number one.

 

Karrie Webb is the youngest member of an exclusive club of five other legends to have won the LPGA’s Career Grand Slam of Majors, joining Louise Suggs (1957), Mickey Wright (1962), Pat Bradley (1986), Juli Inkster (1999) and Annika Sorenstam (2003). Yet the Aussie is unswerving when asked whether joining the HSBC Women’s Champions roll of honour registered with her.

 

“Definitely!” says the Aussie.

 

“It’s a quality field there. Anytime you win with that sort of field – you can win an event another time of the year and not every one of those players is there – when you win with that quality of field: I held off Yani at the end and since then she has completely dominated the tour. She’s done it for two years, really, but I take a lot of pride in that.”

 

What’s interesting is it’s hard to put a tag on the Singapore winners, beyond the fact that they have all been at the very top of the women’s game. As Jiyai Shin explains, it doesn’t seem to be the style of the player, more just the ability to play at a world-class level for four demanding days.

 

“Ai and me, we’re a pretty similar game type. Karrie plays quite safely and Lorena plays aggressively, so we’re all a little different. The LPGA Tour has a lot of long hitters and the course is pretty long, but you need consistency. It’s got really narrow fairways, lots of bunkers, pretty tough greens: it’s a good course for consistent players,” Shin says of the highly regarded Tanah Merah Country Club’s Garden Golf Course.

 

[[posterous-content:pid___0]]credit: Tanah Merah Garden Golf Course


The runners-up over the years also defy a stereotype as golfers, but do have a common trait. Chie Arimura, who fought Webb all the way last year, is described by caddies on the Japan tour as mentally tougher than any other player out there. Cristie Kerr, runner-up to Ai in 2010, happily calls herself as “a scrapper, a mudder and a grinder”. Annika needs no introduction, while Katherine Hull, pipped by Shin in 2009, thrives in a battle.

 

“I agree, they’re tough players,” says Shin.

 

“They’re all good players. They all hit good iron shots and have good control over their second shots. They really focus only on their own game.”

 

What’s Luck Got to Do with It?

 

While the tournament doesn’t seem to favour any particular aspect of the game – despite the length of Tanah Merah, it certainly can’t be described as a long hitter’s haven – there is a consensus that it does bring out the best from the best.

 

“I think so. You have to have good skill and a good mentality to win the tournament. You can’t be lucky and win that tournament; you have to play good for four whole days,” says Tseng.

 

Her statement, that there will never be a lucky winner, is greeted with all-round agreement.

 

“That’s true. The golf course is difficult enough; it’s like a Major tournament,” Miyazato concurs.

 

“I agree. If you miss a shot, your next shot is a tough shot,” says Shin.

 

“We play great golf courses around the world, but on some holes you can miss a shot and it’ll come back and you can escape. When you miss a shot a Tanah Merah you lose a shot, so we have to hit good shots all the time. For me, it’s fun!”

 

England’s Karen Stupples, who won the 2004 Women’s British Open at Sunningdale by starting her final round with an eagle and albatross in successive holes, is another to wholly back Yani’s point of view.

 

“That’s absolutely right. It’s about quality shots. You can’t get away with having a lucky bounce and banking it onto the green, because if you miss the green the chances are it’s going to bounce into some trouble. Kicking off a mound and bouncing onto the green doesn’t happen there. She’s right. You’ve got to hit good drives, good shots and you’ve got to golf your ball; that’s the bottom line,” declares the 38-year-old from Kent.

 

Further proof to support the argument comes from the fact that every winner of the HSBC Women’s Champions has had multiple wins in the season of their Singapore triumph. Karrie doubled up in her next outing to take the RR Donnelley LPGA Founders Cup. In 2010, Ai had four other LPGA wins and a domestic Major at the Japan Women’s Open. Jiyai claimed two other titles and the Rolex Rookie of the Year award as well as a win on the Japan LPGA, while Lorena went wild in 2008, winning seven events in total, including a Major at the Kraft Nabisco Championship during a spell of four wins in four successive weeks.

 

Not a Game of Perfect

 

That’s not to say all the winners have played perfectly. Jiyai Shin was one over par after two rounds in 2009 when she headed to the range and found a fix: it worked. The next morning she started her third round with almost no-one watching her, but by the time she had completed back-to-back rounds off 66 she had everyone’s undivided attention.

 

Karrie Webb’s win was based on one part of her game working brilliantly and that perhaps helped her believe in the rest.

 

“It was one of those events where my short game was probably the best weeks I’ve had, especially in the last five or six years. My ball striking I wouldn’t say was my best, but under the gun, even when it was a little erratic, I hit some great shots and trusted myself. I hadn’t won on the LPGA for a couple of years and I think I always felt I had to be at my best to win; I took away from that week that I didn’t have to be 110 per cent to win. I just need to find a way to get it in the hole,” she says, echoing what Karen Stupples means when she uses the phrase “golf your ball”.

 

In contrast, Ai Miyazato killed the course with consistency in 2010, carding three 69s in her four rounds.

 

“I’d won the first event in Thailand, so I felt good about my game at that time. I just tried to make simple plays; trying to hit the fairway and trying to hit the greens. That golf course is always in good shape, but the greens are really difficult. You need to make sure you know where you’re going to hit your second shot. You need to be really smart on the golf course. I played really well. My putting was really good all week. I always remember the 16th, the short par four: I made eagle hitting driver to a back pin, getting on the front and making the putt. I played really good the whole week, really solid,” Ai said.

 

The Japanese star has little doubt as to the stand-out winning performance of the four.

 

“Lorena shot 17 under or something?” she asks.

 

It was actually 20 under par.

 

“That’s ridiculous!” she declares.

 

“I think shooting 10 under par on that golf course is really good. I played with her when she won the tournament and she was playing totally different golf. It looked so easy. Annika finished second, but Lorena was so solid and Annika couldn’t touch her!” Ai adds.

 

That win becomes even more impressive when one considers the context. Lorena had risen to number one in April 2007 when Annika was struggling with ruptured and bulging discs in her neck. By the start of 2008 Annika had announced her return to fitness and not just verbally; she won the SBS Open in Hawaii and 10 days later, with Lorena opening her season in Singapore, it was on! Annika beat the rest of the field, but was a massive 11 shots behind Lorena’s winning total.

 

A Chess Match

 

So what is it about Tanah Merah’s Garden Course that tests the best in women’s golf? It starts with the fiendish mind of Phil Jacobs and his 2004 redesign. The end result is a course where the current world number one says you have to think several shots ahead and there is hardly a shot out there that allows you to relax.

 

“Maybe for tap-in putts! All the other shots you have to think in a different way and you have to think about what your strategy is, because it might cost you when you get to your second shot or third shot. You’re always thinking ahead about what you’re going to do. It’s a really fun course to play,” says Yani.

 

“You play all the 14 clubs in your bag. Even though you’re using all 14 clubs, you still have to hit a lot of different shots. There are different winds; all the challenges make you think and make you think you’re enjoying the tournament and having fun with the challenges of the course. It doesn’t feel stressful. You have to have the challenge and some stress, but that’s why it’s so much fun.”

 

For Karen Stupples, one of the things that stands out is the number of times you find yourself with nowhere to make a ‘good’ mistake.

 

“There are some holes you play and you think ‘where is the out?’ and there is no out. Typically a golf hole has an out – one side or another that is favourable to a miss. There are some holes where there is nowhere to miss it. That’s a bit brutal! It’s like the 17th at Sawgrass; there’s no get out! There’s a tiny little bridge, but that’s it. You’ve got to bring it!” says the Englishwoman.

 

“There are some holes that are incredibly challenging, like 10. Last year, 1 and 10 were incredibly tough holes. You’re going in there with four irons; there are not too many courses that we go into with four irons with elevated greens and bunkers or water.”

 

For Jiyai, the enjoyment comes from the way Tanah Merah tests everything you’ve got.

 

“It’s a really strong course for the women: long distance, tight golf course, firm greens. So we need really good ball control with every club. We need the whole skills. It’s pretty tough because the greens are mostly elevated above the fairway, so if you miss, the ball is going a long way,” she explains, adding that her duel with Katherine Hull in the final round three years ago shows how slim the margin is for error.

 

“Katherine and me, she made only one mistake, but it made a big difference. She played good and could have made a lower score, but if you make one mistake it can lose you a lot of strokes, easily. You have to focus each and every shot. Number 18 is pretty tough. If you lead by one shot, you can easily lose one or two there. You have to really focus. It’s easy to make bogey or double-bogey. So nobody knows before the finish.”

 

Sheer Willpower

 

All those factors demand a level of resolve that Na Yeon Choi, currently the highest rated Korean in the official rankings, believes plays into the hands of the women at the top of the global game.

 

“We have to have really good course management on that course. The top players never give up and always do their best until the last hole on Sunday, and the top players get better results because of that,” adds the winner of the 2010 LPGA Official Money List.

 

In a nutshell, it’s a course that demands you get into the designer’s head and understand the questions he’s posing. In Phil Jacobs own words, he does everything from test the golfer’s self-discipline to “constantly have that question in a player’s mind: ‘If I’m going to miss it, where should I miss it?’” And in the case of the hardest holes, he tests their game to breaking point.

 

“It asks you to miss in the right places and to be aggressive when you can be, and I think I did a good job of that,” says Webb of last year’s victory.

 

“When I missed greens, I missed in places where I could get up and down. With my putting that week, I didn’t give myself 12 or 13 unbelievably great birdie opportunities each day. I gave myself six or seven and probably made five of them. I just took advantage of the opportunities I had. It was just about getting the ball in the hole.”

 

Webb reckons that all the factors – a great course, a great field enjoying their entire week at the time of year, when everyone is raring to go – is what has combined to produce the almost unparalleled list of victors… that with the more unusual challenge of the holes that run along the side of Changi Airport.

 

“I think with the quality of the field, you’re bound to get a good winner and it’s the start of the year, so it’s whoever is ready to go straight out of the blocks. It’s whoever is ready mentally to overcome those things and to overcome not making that birdie on the first day, and the heat and the wind and the planes, and all of that,” she explains

 

Stupples, however, feels the final preparations for the tournament – the speeding up of the greens, the growing in of the rough and the other adjustments made to take something a weekend warrior can survive, and morph it into a monster – play a big part, together with the fact that the most successful players make more minor adjustments during the winter break.

 

“They set it up particularly well. It’s a tough, quality golf course, particularly that early in the season. You’ve got to be ready to play and typically you’ll find that the quality players will always be ready to go. That’s what you’re finding there,” she explains.

 

“They’re ready for it. They’ve had a very good season the year before, so they’re coming off good finishes, so the confidence is already pretty high. They’ve done a little bit of maintenance work over the winter, but they haven’t had to do swing overhauls or any of that crap. They’re ready to go. They’re primed. All they have to do is go and play a quality golf course, which is what it is. You have to hit good shot after good shot after good shot, make good putt after good putt. That’s what the course does for you and that’s why you get the winners you do there.”

 

Digging the Vibe

 

Another of the factors seems to be the feeling of the whole week. To understand that, one has to remember just how many weeks of the year these players spend on the road and, especially for the internationals, how much time they’re away from their real homes. It’s also worth bearing in mind just how hard women golfers have had to fight over the years to establish their tour and to be taken seriously in a sport where, in certain parts of the world, to this day women golfers aren’t always welcomed.

 

So when Singaporeans throw open their arms and the red carpet is both literally and metaphorically rolled out, it’s universally appreciated.

 

“I love the tournament atmosphere, too. It’s very special for everything. Very organized and the people are very nice. Because the tournament atmosphere is so good, that’s why everyone is playing so good,” says Ai, referring as much to what is available away from the golf course as to what they get on it.

 

“The hotel is really nice and you can go shopping or do whatever you like. That’s really special as well. That tournament is almost too good!” she exclaims.

 

“It is a terrific event. Every which way, it’s top class!” says Stupples, who appreciates some of the “home” comforts all the more having gambled her house, furniture and car to move to the States in a bid to make it on the LPGA at the start of her career.

 

“I love Singapore! I feel very comfortable in Singapore. With my British background, how could you not feel comfortable in Singapore? The sockets are UK sockets. There’s a kettle in the room and you can make a cup of tea… even if the weather is a little warmer. You’ve got Raffles just across the road and Marks & Spencers! It feels very comfortable. I love Marks & Spencers! I’m old now, what can I say?”

 

The answer to Stupples rhetorical question is ‘lots’. We leave her as she enters into a charming monologue about all the reasons why she would be the perfect person for the British retailer to sponsor.

 

Who’s Next?

 

If you start asking who is most likely to be the next to add their name to the prestigious list, one shouldn’t overlook the chances of the event producing its first back-to-back champion. Karrie Webb has an unusually strong record going back as the title-holder, despite the fact that conventional wisdom suggests it is one of the harder things to do in golf.

 

“I’ve always enjoyed it. I obviously played the best there last year. I always feel it gives me an advantage: it gives me good vibes going into the event. I enjoy it,” says Webb, whose CV backs her up.

 

Among the Aussie’s multitude of triumphs are repeat wins at the US Women’s Open title in 2000 and 2001, as well as The Office Depot tournament in Florida, Washington State’s Safeco Classic and at two very differently named editions of an event at Murrells Inlet in South Carolina.  At the Australian Ladies Masters in her native Queensland, she monopolized the trophy from 1998 to 2001, and more recently won the MFS Women’s Australian Open title in 2007 and 2008.

 

Given that an HSBC Women’s Champions victory has more often than not been the early signal as to who the year’s dominant player will be, Na Yeon Choi might be a contender after a year of constant English lessons. The difference it has made to this engaging, but previously shy and nervous 24-year-old is heart-warming. With her multiple wins in 2009 and 2010 and the fact that last year she was close to Yani’s levels in making the top 10 in over half of her events in 2011, the more outgoing Na Yeon could be set for a career year, simply because her new-found language skills have made her life less stressful. 

 

“I wasn’t scared, but I think I was uncomfortable. If I was walking through the clubhouse and someone was smiling at me, I would worry about what they were about to say to me. I didn’t have the confidence with my English and that was why I seemed uncomfortable with maybe the LPGA players and with all the fans. I’m a lot more comfortable with American people or with Asian people who are speaking English. I have fans on facebook from Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand; I like it! It’s made me a better player I think, a more confident player!” she reveals.

 

The most logical choice, however, is the most confident player of all: Yani Tseng.

 

Third behind Webb and Arimura last year, Yani has turned into a winning machine. She now understands that to add the HSBC Women’s Champions to her rapidly increasing list of titles she has to find a balance between the self-styled “Birdie Machine” approach that helped her become the youngest player ever, male or female, to win five Majors and being more selective about when she attacks.

 

“Being more patient is better, playing smart. Some of the holes are sometimes really hard to make birdie. You can still be aggressive, but sometimes you have to play smart, too,” she says.

 

“I’m getting closer and closer. I was pretty close last year! I played well and did my best. Everyone wants to win, but it’s not like I’m playing bad. This year I have a chance, because I know the course better, better than the last four years. I know how the strategy is on the golf course and how to play on the golf course. I’m looking forward to playing this year, because it’s a fun course and it’s a very good challenge.”

 

 

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Friday, November 11, 2011

Hawaii retiree, Humanitarian, LPGA veteran named PGA First Lady of Golf

Mary Bea Porter
Mary Bea Porter with Alexis Thompson
at 2008 Junior PGA Championship
Mary Bea Porter-King of Kapaa, Hawaii, a celebrated four-sport collegiate athlete, LPGA Tour veteran, a pioneer in junior golf within her state, and one of the country’s most respected Rules officials, has been named the recipient of the 2011 PGA First Lady of Golf Award.


Porter-King, 61, will be honored at The PGA of America Awards, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, during the 59th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center’s Chapin Theater in Orlando, Fla.


Born in Everett, Wash., and raised in Costa Mesa, Calif., Porter-King began playing golf at age 7, mentored by LPGA co-founder Betty Hicks. Porter-King paved her way in junior golf by conducting a golf clinic at age 8 with Hall of Famer Patty Berg. She went on to become a four-sport star athlete at Arizona State University before devoting her career to golf. She was a co-founder of the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association in 1998; and served from 2001-06 as a member of the USGA Executive Committee and from 2006-09, as an Independent Director on The PGA America Board of Directors. As a member of the PGA Rules Committee, Porter-King has officiated for nearly two decades at golf’s premier events, including all of the game’s men’s and women’s major championships.


“Mary Bea Porter-King’s remarkable career of service to our game is on display within her home state in a junior golf program that has produced countless success stories, and is a model for how our industry may improve the future of so many young people,” said PGA of America President Allen Wronowski. “Mary Bea also has served golf at the highest levels, a record that includes an unwavering commitment to the integrity of our sport as a premier Rules official. It is with great honor that we may now refer to her as our next PGA First Lady of Golf.”


Porter-King served on the USGA Girls’ Junior Committee from 1994-2000, and since 2001, she has been a member of the U.S. Junior Championship Committee. In 1998, she co-founded the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association, which annually engages more than 500 juniors from elementary to high school age. The program has produced hundreds of collegiate golfers, with several program graduates including current LPGA standouts - Michelle Wie and Kimberly Kim.


“I am very humbled by this honor; first to be honored by The PGA of America, an organization I have revered all my life, and secondly, it is so special to have my name listed with all of the previous honorees, women of whom I have so much respect,” said Porter-King. “I love this game and have spoken for many years to encourage all of us, The PGA, LPGA, and USGA, to combine efforts to develop the next core golfers.


“All of us, who love the game, need to do everything we can to make sure all future generations who are given the gift of golf understand, play by, and protect the core values of the game while maintaining its integrity. It is so important we all work together to develop the next core golfer to ensure that the future of the game is in good hands. Who will fill the next shoes in our sport? It is up to all of us.”


Porter-King was inducted in 2001 into the Arizona State University Sports Hall of Fame in four sports. Competing from 1968-73 in the pre-Title IX era, she excelled in volleyball, softball, golf, and basketball. Before graduating in 1973, Porter-King was a starting second baseman for the 1971 ASU College Softball World Series Championship team, and earned 1972 All-American honors in golf, and was a member of the school’s 1970, ’71 NAIA Women’s Golf Championship teams.


Porter-King began her professional golf career in 1973, earning LPGA Tour Qualifying School medalist honors. She captured the Golf Inns of America Classic in 1975. She left the Tour from 1983-85, and returned in 1986 and competed until her retirement in 1998.


She is a past president of the Kauai Junior Golf Association, and in 2004 was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame. Traveling more than 100,000 miles a year, Porter-King has officiated at 14 U.S. Women's Opens, 10 U.S. Men's Opens, 10 U.S. Senior Opens, five Masters, four PGA Championships, and one Open Championship.


Porter-King earned universal praise for a courageous act on March 16, 1988, during a qualifying round for the former LPGA Standard Register Turquoise Classic in Phoenix, Ariz. Having hooked a second shot badly on the 13th hole of Moon Valley Country Club, Porter-King approached the fence to look for her ball and saw a family in peril. Jonathan Smucker, then a 3-year-old from Ronks, Pa., had fallen into a swimming pool and was lying lifeless. Porter-King was helped over the fence by her caddie, administered CPR, awaited arrival of paramedics, resulting in saving the life of the child.


For her action, she was later that year the first recipient of the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association Mary Bea Porter Humanitarian Award, honoring a heroic or humanitarian act that enhances human life. The same Association presented Porter-King this year with its MGWA Distinguished Service Award.


Porter-King and her husband, Charlie, live in Kapaa, Hawaii. The couple has a son, Joseph, 29, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; and a daughter, Sherry, 39, married to Mike Niethammer, with three sons, Charlie, 7, Will, 4, and Max, 2, of Oahu, Hawaii.


The PGA First Lady of Golf Award, inaugurated in 1998, is presented to a woman who has made significant contributions to the promotion of the game of golf.

PGA First Lady of Golf Recipients
1998 Barbara Nicklaus
1999 Judy Rankin
2000 No recipient
2001 Judy Bell
2002 Nancy Lopez
2003 Renee Powell
2004 Alice Dye
2005 Carol Semple Thompson
2006 Kathy Whitworth
2007 Peggy Kirk Bell
2008 Carol Mann
2009 Donna Caponi-Byrnes
2010 No recipient
2011 Mary Bea Porter-King


photo credit: PGA

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Monday, October 17, 2011

Michelle Wie Promotes Education during golf day in Asia

American superstar Michelle Wie added her voice to a campaign by the United Nations’ children’s charity UNICEF for universal primary education in Asia during a brief stop in Hong Kong. Tim Maitland reports.

Michelle Wie_Jiyai Shin

Wie was speaking at the annual HSBC Champions Charity Golf Day at Hong Kong’s Clear Water Bay Golf & Country Club, which raises awareness and funds for UNICEF’s campaign.
 “I believe everyone should have the opportunity to get, at least, a primary education,” declared the 22-year-old.
“I’ve learned so much about myself going to college, not just from studies but about myself in general: moving away from my parents, having to do everything for myself, having to manage everything, I met some amazing people and I think everyone deserves that opportunity. Hopefully I’ll graduate in March. Getting my education, obviously, I believe very strongly in that… and I think it aligns very strongly with this day,” added Wie, who was en route from last week’s LPGA event in Malaysia to Stanford University in California where she is finishing her fifth and final year of a degree in communications.
The Honolulu-born Wie, who as a 12-year old became the youngest qualifier for an LPGA tournament, was making only her second trip to Hong Kong. He first, a family holiday twelve years ago, was ruined by a typhoon.
She cited “YE” Yang Yong-Eun’s achievement in becoming Asia’s firs male Major champion and the current domination of Taiwan’s current world number one Yani Tseng in the women’s game as proof of what Asians can achieve when they’re given the chance.
“She’s an amazing golfer. I’ve competed against her since I was fourteen and the way she has improved is very inspiring. She’s a very strong force out there whenever she is in contention, which I think is very impressive and it makes me want to become a better player because I’m kind of in her situation. There are so many players on tour from different places; you have the American players but you have Yani, Shanshan (Feng of China) and all the Korean players and players from Asia where opportunities may not be as available but when one is given the opportunity it’s amazing what they can do with it: that’s so important. It’s just giving people the opportunity and seeing what they can do. If they aren’t given the opportunity you never know what might have happened. You might have the next genius, but they can’t get into primary education; it’s important to give people a chance.”
Michelle Wie also took to the golf course as part of the event, which was the culmination of HSBC charity days across Asia that had already raised HK$ 1.5m for the UNICEF Child-Friendly Schools programme in over 20 countries. The events are part of the bank’s build up to next month’s WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai; the continent’s highest-ranked men’s tournament.
Wie singled that tournament out as an example of what Asia has been able to achieve once it got the chance to host top-quality golf. The HSBC Champions has been a World Golf Championship event since 2009. Meanwhile the women continue their “autumn swing” playing the inaugural Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship this week and the Mizuno Classic in Japan in two weeks time. They’ll return to Asia in February for the “spring swing” which normally includes the Honda LPGA Thailand and the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore.
“I think over the last few years the women’s tour has become very global, but watching the men’s tour on TV it’s also become very global as well. I think HSBC does a fantastic job of making world-class events and in Singapore and Shanghai you can see the results of that. Players love coming over here. It’s always a fun time. I love coming back to Singapore every year,” Wie said.

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 Michelle Wie in Asia: photo credit

Friday, September 23, 2011

No slam-dunk for former WNBA President leading Golf 2.0 initiative

Donna_orenderThe PGA of America has engaged former WNBA President Donna Orender as a consultant to lead the Golf 2.0 "Connecting with Her" strategy, a key component in the industry's overall goal of reaching forty million golfers by 2020. 

Golf 2.0 is the new long-range strategic plan for the golf industry to substantially increase the number of golfers, the rounds of golf played and the revenue generated from golf over the next decade among current and potential consumers of the game with three core strategies: "Retain and Strengthen the Golfing Core;" "Engage Lapsed Golfers;" and "Drive New Players" to the game.

If Orender wants to be successful in reaching her goal, start by attracting more women to the publinks. According to Greg Nathan, VP of the National Golf Association, "When women are made to feel as welcomed and comfortable at public courses, their play will go up.” Women also bring with them the "power of the purse" which will increase revenue in other areas of the sport such as clothing and golf  equipment.


Although I feel welcome, I am in the minority as I am comfortable with my level of play. I also actively make it my business to go out as a single golfer and meet and greet other players. Most women feel more confident playing golf with their peers, playing from the same tees. Waiting at the front desk of a public course, you will see about one in every ten golfers is a woman. 

In order to reach potential women golfers, it's also not enough to provide TV coverage hoping that women will see other women playing a sport and want to play it themselves. This new consultant is going to have to cross the great divide reaching out to sports fans in tennis and basketball to make golf more visible, fun and easy to start for non-golfers interested in fashion, travel, and exercise for example.


Orender, who served as Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) President from 2005-10, after working 17 years with the PGA Tour, is the founder of Orender Unlimited, a marketing, media and strategy company in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

During her tenure with the PGA Tour, Ana Leaird, PGA Tour’s Director of Public Relations and Media Operations said of Donna Orender, "Since she’s been here, tremendous opportunities have opened up for other women. I call it the ripple effect.”


Does she play golf? Not that it's necessary for Orender's new position but, in my opinion, it's important to be able to identify with the core group you will represent in order to understand their needs and desires. And, the answer is yes, she does, according to her tweets, @DonnaOrender.



 In her consulting role with Golf 2.0, Donna Orender will:

  • steer industry efforts to grow women's golf participation;
  • identify and shape female-specific programming;
  • create a welcoming environment for more women to enter the game.
  • guide the establishment of partnerships with top women's organizations to leverage knowledge and resources in support of facility adoption and programs. 
  • position golf as an anecdote for women achieving balance in their busy lives, all the while pursuing good health, business networking, and family time in a fun-filled environment.

Perhaps Orender should also be working with Mike Whan and the LPGA to stop the losses of golf tourneys?

According to Golf Digest’s Ron Sirak, "women will have played a woeful 23 contests this year -- only 11 of which fielded 144 or more golfers -- and competed for the fewest dollars since 2001."

"The PGA is thrilled to retain Donna Orender to lead in the strategic development of our 'Connecting with Her' initiative for Golf 2.0," said Darrell Crall, PGA senior director, Golf 2.0, for The PGA of America.  

"Donna's expertise in steering the growth of women's sports at the highest level will be critical in guiding the golf industry, as we tap new initiatives to appeal to women, who represent our game's fastest growing demographic."  

Among Orender's many accolades are being named to the 2005 Sporting News' Annual Power 100, 2005 Fox Sports.com's 10 Most Powerful Women in Sports, and the 2007 BusinessWeek's Power 100 Sports lists. 

"Donna Orender's name is synonymous with the growth of women's sports nationwide," added Crall. "We are delighted that she will serve as an advocate in the development of new programs for women to positively connect with the game of golf." 

"I'm excited by this incredible opportunity to make a difference in people's lives through the game of golf," said Orender. "Our goal is to build dynamic and engaging growth-of-the-game programs that passionately appeal to women on both a personal and professional level."



Will Orender be successful retaining/bringing more women into golf?
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Monday, August 01, 2011

Is Yani Tseng the next Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam?

Tiger_Woods_Bridgestone
The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is where Tiger Woods has decided to make his first comeback since opting out of the Players Championship after the first nine holes.

Woods has conjectured that he might also play golf in the Australian Open as well as the Presidents Cup. Just for attending the Australian Open, Woods is expected a huge payday thanks to their government.


Questions abound:

Is Woods feeling better, just tired of sitting on the sidelines or is he in it for the payday?

Why the Bridgestone? Confidence? Tiger has won the event seven times in fourteen years.

Are his injuries healed?

Who is...Why did...Tiger Woods choose childhood friend and head of his golf course design company, Bryon Bell, as his new caddie? Can he take the place of Steve Williams?


Another big golf story this week comes from the LPGA/LET and all of the ladies in the game. Meet Yani Tseng, number-one golfer on the LPGA Tour and considered by many to be the next Annika Sorenstam and/or the new Lorena Ochoa of the game.



yani_tseng_british_open
Yani Tseng holding the British Open trophy Zimbio.com



Watch out when Tseng is in the field; she is proving herself to be a force during any (major) golf tournament. With her come-from-behind win this weekend at the Women's British Open (she won last year's Open too), Yani has won four of the last eight major tournaments and five overall.

And, Yani Tseng is only twenty-two-years old!

Comparisons to Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam abound.

As a matter of fact, according to an article on ESPN.com, "Sorenstam was thirty-two when she won her fifth major title, at the 2003 LPGA Championship. Tiger Woods was twenty-four when he won his fifth, at the 2000 PGA.

What can Yani Tseng learn from Tiger Woods?

According to her first American golf instructor, Glen Daugherty (and this great article in GolfDigest.com), "Her place in history is likely dependent not only on her health, but also her putting."


Daugherty continued, "The sky's the limit for her (Yani), but you have to putt well consistently. That's the tool that bails players out."




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Tiger Woods photo: Wtam.com

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

NBC ready with major coverage of 2011 U.S. Women’s Open Championship

NBC Sports Group is primed to deliver an unprecedented 25-plus hours of combined, live tournament and wrap-around news coverage of this week’s 2011 U.S. Women’s Open Championship – the third major championship on the ladies schedule this year.


More than 25 Hours of Live Tournament and On-Site News coverage. As long as NBC doesn't switch from the coverage mid tournament or during final round Sunday in favor of higher-rated programming, then hurray for the ladies!

“Altitude and wicked greens will be the story, as well as whether world No. 1 Yani Tseng can complete the career grand slam and extend her current winning streak to three in a row.”
...Dottie Pepper


“Paula Creamer’s breakthrough U.S. Open victory at Oakmont while enduring the pain of an injured thumb was a fairy tale. It seems the U.S. Open produces that type of story every year. I’m sure this year’s Open will be no exception.” analyst Charlie Rymer

NBC Sports Group is primed to deliver an unprecedented 25-plus hours of combined, live tournament and wrap-around news coverage of this week’s 2011 U.S. Women’s Open Championship – the third major championship on the ladies schedule this year.


Contested on the East Course at the historic Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colo., NBC-TV will present six hours of live coverage over Saturday and Sunday, with Golf Channel providing wrap-around news coverage originating from the course throughout the week.There will also be online coverage of the U.S. Women's Open championship, including live chats and a special weekend wrap-up show offered exclusively online.


NBC
Dan Hicks will host NBC's coverage alongside analysts Johnny Miller and Dottie Pepper, who competed in nineteen U.S. Women's Opens during her illustrious career. They will be joined by tower reporter Gary Koch, and on-course reporters Roger Maltbie and former LPGA players Jane Crafter and Kay Cockerill.


NBC-TV live coverage (all times ET):
Saturday: 3-6 p.m.
Sunday: 3-6 p.m.


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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Golf and Brazil's International Olympic Growth Potential (part 2)

 August 5th 2011 marks five years to go before Rio de Janeiro hosts South America’s first Olympics and golf returns to sports’ biggest stage for the first time since 1904. Tim Maitland looks at how the sport is evolving in Brazil as 2016 inches nearer, from building awareness in the sport to golf as an international business. Read the first segment here, What Will Olympic Status do for Golf in Brazil?


Building Awareness

Typically, tournament golf is one of the biggest drivers of awareness in any emerging golf market, but the days when Gary Player, Ray Floyd, Jerry Pate and Hale Irwin etched their names on the Aberto do Brasil or Brazil Open trophy in the 70s and 80s are a distant memory. And the European Tour’s Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open and Brazil Sao Paolo 500 Years Open as part of the celebrations of Pedro Alvaras Cabral’s “discovery” of the country in 1500 did no more than mark the anniversary and quickly disappeared.

For the moment, it’s left to the limited-field unofficial HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup to fly the flag as the only truly international tournament. From a perspective of golf’s heartlands it might be hard to believe that a US $720,000 event could sustain the role, but the feedback locally says otherwise.

Rachid Orra, with his South American Golf Federation hat on, described the victory by Columbia’s Mariajo Uribe at the end of May over a field that included both Cristie Kerr and Suzann Pettersen, as being as significant to the region as Jhonattan Vegas’ victory at the Bob Hope Classic in January; even though Vega’s win has single-handedly changed Venezuela president Hugo Chavez’s attitude to the sport.

Mariajo Uribe

“Symbolically, it’s the same thing because it’s a girl that has beaten some of the best players in the world!” declares Orra.

“It’s very important for us. It’s an example for the young girls that want to play golf to see one girl from Colombia – a country like Brazil – can win a very important tournament. The coming of the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup was a very important step for us, taken three years ago. This is another one. Both are very, very, very important.”

Before the event, Rio’s biggest newspaper, O Globo, shoved aside some of its wall-to-wall soccer coverage to give Pettersen and Kerr posing at a photocall on Botafogo beach prime position on the second page of its sport section, briefly relegating the news of Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco da Gama. Such coverage of golf hasn’t been seen in recent memory.

It was fantastic. That helps a lot. I think the last time was back in the 70s when there were fewer things to cover and it got more space, but it was still very limited and very few people read newspapers at that time,” says Ribeiro.

“The HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup is a huge driver in terms of creating interest. People are not accustomed to seeing golf. The exposure on TV is very limited normally. The Majors and big championships are on just one cable channel or maybe on the Golf Channel, which is still very small. The HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup is covered by SporTV, which has five times more viewers than all of the channels that carry golf combined. Just with that we’re reaching five times the average audience for golf.”

Naturally, the LPGA is eager to expand its tournament, but the business of tournament golf is caught in the same Catch-22 in Rio; for events to grow there need to be more people who have got the golf bug, but to get the golf bug you have to get infected first, and for most people that means swinging a club somewhere…but where?

Counter-intuitively, one of the best ways of developing tournament golf in Rio de Janeiro may be to move out of Rio for the time being. One could argue that taking the seedling that is international tournament golf to the more fertile nursery of Sao Paulo, one of the biggest financial centres and richest cities in the world where there are almost fifty golf courses, would allow more rapid short-term growth. There, an event could forge closer links with the international business community, moving back to Rio as a more robust sapling once the opening of the new Olympic facility had created the significant increase in the city’s golf population that such an event needs.

Golf’s International Business

That’s not to say that relatively slow spectator growth has to hamper the development of the tournament as a whole. As Kotheimer explains, having the only international event in a sport that resonates with the international business community is a powerful tool to educate and inform potential clients about his business’s ability to cross borders.

We have a tournament with thirty golfers and if you look at the list of players you see a Canadian golfer, an Australian golfer, an Argentine golfer, Spain, Chile, the US, Brazil, England, Paraguay, Taiwan, Sweden, Columbia, Norway, and Korea. The global connectivity of this sport pretty much mirrors the connectivity of HSBC around the world. Our focus for our clients in Brazil is the connectivity between Brazil and China, Brazil and Mexico and so on. There’s an alignment with what golf is doing internationally with what we’re doing internationally,” he says.

Yet, even if Rio doesn’t solve its dilemma quickly, things are still evolving exponentially. It would be wrong to say that Olympic status has opened doors for the sport because, such is the elite nature of golf’s status in Brazil that most of the great and good were all ready members of Itanhanga or Gavea, but it has thrown golf right into the middle of much bigger conversations.

The landscape is changing, too. The Confederacao Brasileira de Golfe has just announced a domestic national tour, starting small with a plan for three events in 2011. By the end of the year the Tour de las Americas is likely to be absorbed into a far larger Latin American PGA Tour covering South America and the Caribbean and providing the region’s top players a direct route into the Nationwide Tour and, hopefully, following Brazil’s Alex Rocha and Jhonattan Vegas into the big leagues.

“It’s a big effort. It’s a very, very important thing, because it’s a new tour made for South America and the money-size of South American tournaments and with the help of the biggest tour in the world. It’s a big step. This will help to form new players and make them grow. We hope in the future we will have many Jhonattan Vegases and a Tiger Woods from Brazil,” Orra states.

High Society Meets the Favelas

Golf is reaching out, which given its high-end origins is one of the most impressive aspects of the way the sport is changing. Maria Priscila Iida is talking during a short break between helping teach groups of children from Rio’s favelas, the city’s infamous hillside slums and shanty towns, the day before the 2011 HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup at the Itanhanga course. The idea of clinics for disadvantaged children before a professional tournament is nothing new to the golf world, but it represents an enormous quantum shift in the mentality of the Brazilian golf community caused by Olympic status.

“This thing with the children is incredible. Who would have thought we could do something like this?” Iida asks rhetorically.

“Most of the golf courses are private; if you came here nobody would let you through the gates, but now they’re calling out and trying to make something bigger.”



Photo credit: PGA.com
1959 Brazil Open Golf Championship Medal Commemorative on eBay


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