What will Olympic status do for golf in Brazil?

August 5^th 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 Rio de Janeiro’s perspective, the final piece of the Olympic jigsaw was put into place in June when, during the IOC Coordination Commission’s visit, the decision to build a new course in Barra da Tijuca, rather than to refashion the nearby Itanhanga Golf Club, was made. For the Rio 2016 Organising Committee it meant that the venue master plan was complete.

With the five-years-to-go point upon us, it gives golf fans a clearer picture of what golf in the Olympics will be like, with the International Golf Federation still working on the qualification premise it presented to the Olympic family when it successfully made its bid for inclusion in 2009: the top 15 men and women in the world rankings (with a limit of four per country) will be there, with the rest made up by working down the rankings with a maximum of two players per country until the sixty-player field is filled.

2016 Olympics in Rio

Concerns about whether all of the top players will take their places in the field in 2016 are frequent and, now at least, may seem relevant. One suspects that will be a moot point by the time the Games arrive for the simple reason that the entire multi-billion dollar global golf industry – players, tours, the International Golf Federation, golf courses and the golf apparel and equipment brands – all need the injection of renewed interest a successful Olympics will provide, especially in the wake of the Credit Crunch.

So what will Olympic status do for golf in Brazil? Well, just as for the golf world in general, the opportunity is far greater than two four-round Olympic events; it’s already put golf into a whole new stratosphere of Brazilian sport.

“After the IOC decided golf will enter in the Olympic Games, things have changed completely in Brazil,” says Rachid Orra, the President of the South American Golf Federation (the Federacion Sudamericana de Golf) and of the Brazilian Golf Confederation (the Confederacao Brasileira de Golfe).

“Golf in Brazil was growing steadily every year, but now with this new opportunity and with golf returning to the Olympics here in Rio de Janeiro, things are changing dramatically. Even the Brazilian government is interested in helping us develop golf in Brazil. It’s an opportunity that we have to take very seriously in order to take profit… to give big steps in the development of golf. The investment in money is not yet significant, but I’m sure this will grow very fast in the future.”

Hosting two successful tournaments is of paramount importance for Rio and Brazil but, as Brazil’s former LPGA player Candy Hannemann puts it, that is just part of a far bigger aim.

“It’s a project. Our goal is not just the 2016 Olympics. It is “how can we help the 2016 Olympics kick-start more of a golf tradition in the country? And then how can we go on from there?” I think the project is more than just 2016,” says the 32-year-old Hannemann, who played for five years on the LPGA until a wrist injury forced her off the tour in 2008.

Things are already changing…starting with attitudes. That’s beautifully summed up by another female professional, Maria Priscila Iida. A third-generation Japanese-Brazilian, Iida talks of moving to Japan eight years ago without a word of Japanese and experiencing a vastly different rural world to the megacities of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya that she had envisaged. However her tone of incredulity is just as strong when she describes coming back for the first time in six years to play the 2010 HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup.

“I had culture shock backwards. Everything was different. There are so many celebrities playing golf right now and you see it in the magazines. It is like, “What is this? Everybody knows about golf now?” I played with a Brazilian actor last year and learned that Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello takes lessons with my ex-coach,” explains the 32-year-old Iida, who played with Hannemann in Brazil’s junior national team before either reached their teens.

“The way I hear things it’s becoming much bigger. You can’t count the golf courses anymore; there are so many. They’re golf courses one here and one there. It’s bigger and it’s growing,” she adds.

Rio’s Dilemma

Rio’s challenge is that the Japeri Golfe Clube, the only public facility in the entire city, it is losing two of its nine holes because of road expansions prior to the Olympics. The other two golf courses, Itanhanga Golf Club and Gavea Golf and Country Club, are the high-end private members facilities.

“It’s a Catch 22!” says Candy Hannemann.

“It’s like the chicken and the egg story. Without the egg you don’t have the chicken, without the chicken you don’t have the egg,” echoes Enio Ribeiro of Brasil1, the biggest of the country’s sports marketing companies involved in the golf industry.

“There needs to be people playing for somebody to invest in it, but nobody will play unless there is a place to play,” Hannemann continues.

“Here the investment needs to come with a leap of faith; a belief that the game’s going to grow and be marketed in a way that will bring the game to the mass, because that’s when golf becomes big. We could have thousands of people out there with the potential to be PGA or LPGA golfers but we don’t know they have the talent because they don’t have the access to it,” she points out.

Right across the board in Rio there’s a consensus that the issue of accessibility to the sport needs to be solved if golf is going to benefit from the Olympics.

“The most important thing is the facilities. That’s simple math. Brazil has 200 million people and only 25,000 golfers. Argentina has 50 million people and 200,000 golfers. Because of the economy we definitely have around 10 million people that could play golf. What we need to do is have facilities that can allow them to try it,” says Ribeiro.

“We need some big magic…not magic…we have to work harder,” adds Rachid Orra.

“It would be easier if we had a lot of public courses to put a lot of people from schools directly into playing golf, but the Brazilian reality is not like this so we have to work 10 times harder than in America for instance. We need much more driving ranges here. Brazil has a lot of land. The major new courses are the resorts, the hotels further out of the cities. In the Northeast of Brazil, the greater part of the new hotels in Brazil are planning golf courses. Tourists like to play golf in Brazil; it’s an economic need, which is good for golf in Brazil.”

The good news from Rio’s point of view is that, with almost every major stakeholder in golf engaged in the process of preparing for the Rio Games, help is more available than it has ever been in finding the fix to the Catch 22 issue.

“Everyone from here, that’s what they want to talk about: every single one of them. It’s a vicious cycle that we have to figure out how to break, and we can. It’s more about awareness,” says Jane Geddes, a two-time major champion and chairman of the International Golf Federation, during a short break between meetings arranged for her trip to the HSBC event.

Thriving Economy

Historically, the kind of investment golf needs has been an issue in Brazil where spiraling inflation prohibited long-term projects, but since 2000 the number of golfers has increased from 6,000 in that year, stabilising in more recent years at around 25,000. The number of courses has increased too in those 10 years, up nearly 25% to 110, while another 30 are under construction, but as Rachid Orra mentioned, some of that growth is far away in sparsely populated states like Bahia and Pernambuco catering only for European tourists a surprisingly short six-hour flight away.

The fact that this development is happening at all is a product of a period of growth that has seen Brazil develop into one of the world’s top 10 economies by gross domestic product.

“The economy in Brazil for the past 10 or 15 years has really been a stable economy and one where you see significant amount of foreign investment for a variety of different projects. One of the largest offshore oil finds in recent history, the Topi oil field, is offshore of Rio so there’s a lot of investment taking place in the oil and gas industry in and around Rio. Similarly in other parts of Brazil; investments in agriculture, investments in other industries are taking place,” explains David Kotheimer, Vice President of HSBC Bank Brasil.

“The economics are there. The financing capability is there. The economy in Brazil is there. From a demographic perspective, you see more and more people improving their socio-economic condition year-on-year and that’s predicted to continue over the next 30 years. The prosperity in Brazil is continuing to increase. The stability, you’ve had that in the Brazilian economy for a long time now and that’s why HSBC is here; we’re helping with that growth and we’re making those types of loans to companies that need to invest. That will continue on. I think the stability is there and the financing is there; it’s having a sufficient demand for that type of investment in a driving range or golf course,” Kotheimer adds.

So the financial climate ripe, and the socio-economics suggest a significant sector of Brazil’s population are in the process of moving into the level of wealth where golf becomes aspirational. Growing and meeting that demand, which you could break down as a combination of awareness and opportunity, stand hand-in-hand as Rio’s big obstacles.

The second part of Tim Maitland's article, Golf and Brazil's International Olympic Growth Potential, will be posted tomorrow is now posted on Golf for Beginners blog.

Photo credit: StanfordReview.org


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HSBC LPGA Golf Stars Issue Olympic Rallying Call

Two of the world’s leading golfers landed in Rio for the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup with a simple message for the sport: “Next Stop: Olympics - Let’s grab this opportunity with both hands”, Tim Maitland reports.

World number two Suzann Pettersen and number four Cristie Kerr believe Rio 2016 represents a once in a lifetime chance for the sport to establish itself in a country where less than one in every eight thousand people currently play the game.

Less than a week after battling it out in the final of the Sybase Match Play Championship in New Jersey, Pettersen and Kerr sat on lounge chairs sipping glasses of fruit juice on Botafogo Beach, hoping it would be the last occasion they will have time to enjoy Rio de Janeiro’s sun-kissed sand.

“We’ve got five years before we return for the Olympics in Rio and the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup is the one foundation stone our sport has to build on,” said Pettersen, in the build up to this weekend’s two-day, limited-field event at the Itanhanga Golf Club.

“We can’t miss this opportunity!” declared the Norwegian, who was one of the team that successfully argued the case for golf’s return to the IOC two years ago.

“Sitting in the shadow of Sugarloaf Mountain is spectacular and Rio is stunning, but if we’re going to grasp the Olympic opportunity we have to continue to grow here. We’ve got the best field of women’s golfers Brazil has ever seen, so this week is already a success but we need to keep getting bigger,” added Kerr, aware that golf needs a bigger base than the 25,000 players among the estimated 200 million people who make up the world’s fifth most populous country and a nation that boasts one of the fastest-growing major economies in the world.

Kerr and Pettersen also spent time swapping tips on bunker play with children from the R&A-funded Japeri Project, a community programme that is developing over 100 young golfers from one of the poorer areas of the city.

“Both Brazil and golf needs the kind of top-and-bottom approach that we have traditionally taken with our golf sponsorships in Asia and around the rest of the world. The sport needs growth in number of participants and it needs to spread demographically,” said Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship.

“At the top end, the sport needs to grow its profile and to build the profile of the top players. Improving the quality of the leading international tournament in Brazil is one step and the steps are only going to get bigger the closer golf gets to the 2016 Olympics, especially with the rate Brazil’s economy is growing.”

Note: Columbia's Mariajo Uribe won the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup, which took place the weekend of 28th and 29th May. The Brazil Cup, an unofficial two day event, offered prize money of US$720,000 and attracted four Major champions and twelve LPGA tournament winners in the thirty player field. Uribe won by a single stroke over Lindsey Wright.

Photo Credit: TheGlobeandMail.com


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Does Dinah Shore week help keep LPGA Kraft Nabisco alive?

Two of the largest party-driven events are converging in Palm Springs this week, the Kraft Nabisco Championship and The Dinah Shore Week, bringing women together for golf and a frolicking good time! Both are successful events but is it the legacy of golf or poolside hijinks which creates the hullabaloo?

It is unclear which will be the bigger event and which will fuel the other. Celebrities like Johnny Bench, John O'Hurley, William Devane and Alice Cooper bring crowds and glamour to the Kraft Nabisco, an event formerly promoted by Dinah Shore, a tireless supporter and honorary member of the LPGA Hall of Fame.

On the flip side, this first LPGA major of the year gains another distinction which probably helps it stay in the public eye, which is a good thing. Each year, right down the road in Palm Springs, the most popular lesbian party of the year takes place: Palm Springs Women's Weekend a.k.a. "Dinah Shore Weekend", which brings in a host of celebrities of its own.

The weather will be hot and sunny which means wet and wild pool/cocktail parties and hot entertainment including Natasha Beddingfield, Paula Poundstone, Estelle and Jessie and Wynter Gordon.

Certainly, the legendary LPGA Kraft Nabisco could easily survive on its own, without any help from the ladies party down the road couldn't it?

In its 40th year at Mission Hills, this has never been a "stodgy" event and is often compared to the Bob Hope Classic: celebs and pro golfers mingle with the crowds creating a carnival-like atmosphere right down to the traditional jump in the lake at the 18th hole, first begun by Amy Alcott. But, where are the crowds coming from?

Although I mentioned that this major could "easily" survive, Kraft Nabisco has implemented changes to its event from Legends Club access to more easily accessible merchandise tents. Larry Bohannan stated, "With Kraft not spending as much money on the corporate hospitality end of the tournament, local tournament officials have shifted the event to a community-based charity tournament. Those changes have required the event to modify even the way the event presents itself to the public.

Cause for concern? A loss of sponsors has downsized the LPGA Tour event schedule by twelve events (to 23 non-majors) since 2007. Ginn Resorts, Anheuser Busch, State Farm and Corning are just a few companies that have stepped away from sponsoring events.

Golf Digest states that, "Beginning with the LPGA Championship in late June, three of the next four tournaments are majors. From when the U.S. Women's Open ends July 10th to when the Safeway Classic begins August 18th, there are no events in the United States."

Does the lack of U.S. events mean that the LPGA should go global? The LPGA becoming a global Tour certainly has it's benefits especially with the onslaught of Korean and Japanese golfers within its ranks but then what becomes of the KLPGA for example? Does it become a "Futures Tour" for younger, more inexperienced golfers to hone their skills?

Perhaps merging a few of these Tours might make the ladies stronger. Instead of competing for dollars, join forces, make the purses bigger and cross-promote the tournaments to coincide with other festivities to bring more people to the gate who may not have even thought of watching a golf event.


Dyanne Ferk, Dean of the Business College at the University of Illinois Springfield said, "Businesses look at every penny going out and want to know the ROI." She continued, "there's more competition for a limited pot of money for advertising, philanthropy and nonprofit things."
Bringing together the Kraft Nabisco and the Dinah Shore women's party weekend as 'comrades in arms', going beyond the scope of golf, is a method that other LPGA events should adopt if the Organization is to survive and thrive.

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Golf opportunity of Olympic proportions

The LPGA is preparing for the most-important unofficial, small-field, two-round golf tournament anywhere in the world. The HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup is just one ingredient in the recipe that can make the sport’s return to the Olympics a success. Tim Maitland reports.

A 27-player, two-day tournament is not normally associated with the start of something big in the wide world of golf, but the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup could be the veritable small acorn from which a giant oak tree grows.

Prize money of just US $720,000 might not seem much, but the event is the closest thing to a fully-fledged global tournament in the nation that will provide the stage for golf’s re-entry into the Olympics in 2016. As America’s leading female golfer Cristie Kerr put it when she committed to making her first trip into South America, the Olympics is “the biggest single opportunity that women’s golf has ever had.”

Kerr really didn’t need to add “women”; golf itself has never had such a great opportunity, but to make the most of it the sport has to realise what the opportunity is and how its own strengths and weaknesses may impact on its ability to capitalise.

“I would have thought [the Olympics was] about ‘how would you feel about four days in Brazil?’ It has nothing to do with four days in Brazil, and it has everything to do with four years pre-Brazil!” LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan says, capturing the Olympic opportunity in a nutshell.

Perhaps because, unlike almost any other sport, the players effectively “own” most of the biggest events around the world, the focus has initially been on what the Olympic tournament itself might be like and what impact that might have.

Europe’s top-ranked woman golfer Suzann Pettersen was part of golf’s final presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen when her sport won the vote to get back into the Olympic movement in October 2009. She’s maintained her commitment to the cause by joining Kerr as one of the highest-ranked players ever to tee it up at Rio’s Itanhanga Golf Club.

Her exclamation that “we’re on a mission!”, translated rather pleasingly into Portuguese as “temos uma missao!", summed things up quite nicely, but naturally enough, her prime focus is on her part of the business; putting on a show in 2016.

“I think it’s important to get everybody on board: all the players need to be on board. I think you have 90 per cent – the majority – with you. You need the last ten percent going in the right direction, so we’ll get the best golfers competing in 2016. I think the concept is there. What else can you ask for?” enquires Pettersen, or Tutta, as she’s affectionately known in Norway.

“Competing in the Olympics, you have the sportsmanship, the values, the ethics; there’s nothing better in sport. For me it’s a dream come true. I grew up in Norway and it’s always been the biggest thing for me, to take part and compete will be fantastic.”

Next Stop Rio

From the viewpoint of a player who will be at or near her peak in five years’ time, Pettersen is correct: getting the golf tournament right at Rio 2016 is essential. Like their fellow newcomers Rugby Sevens, the sport is back in the Olympics for two games, but has only one chance to prove its worth to the Olympic movement before the IOC convenes to decide whether or not to retain either sport or to vote them “off the island”.

One chance is hard enough to take; harder still when you’re asked to do it in a nation and a region that is not a stronghold for either sport.

The current status of tournament golf in Brazil is a far cry from the 70s or 80s when Gary Player, Ray Floyd, Jerry Pate and Hale Irwin had their names etched on the Aberto do Brasil or Brazil Open trophy. It’s not even quite up to the level of 2000, when the celebrations of Pedro Alvaras Cabral’s “discovery” of the country in 1500 led the European Tour to include the Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open and Brazil Sao Paolo 500 Years Open in successive weeks on their schedule.  

(Trivia fans might like to note that Padraig Harrington finished runner-up to England’s Roger Chapman in the former – at the same Itanhanga Golf Club – and won the latter ahead of America’s Gerry Norquist, who would become a fixture and eventually a senior vice-president on the Asian Tour. Completists would need to note that the Sao Paulo event survived a further year and to memorise Darren Fichardt).

 The Aberto do Brasil, now also sponsored by the world’s local bank, remains the country’s most prestigious men’s tournament, with the 57^th edition in December 2010 won by Paraguay’s Marco Ruiz.

Additionally Brazil hasn’t featured as a venue for the Tour de las Americas in recent years and their players appear only slightly more frequently in the regional tour’s tournaments.

That there is a shortage of opportunities for Brazil’s professionals can be inferred from the fact that their names appear sporadically scattered around the world, although in most cases it owes as much to nomadic childhoods or a shared connection with countries with a stronger golf tradition.

In terms of tournament wins, in the professional era Brazil’s greatest triumph might be Jaime Gonzalez winning the European Tour’s 1984 St Mellion Timeshare TPC in Cornwall, but Jaime’s father Mario – winner of the 1947 Spanish Open as an amateur and a two-time Argentine Open champion – is the one frequently described as Brazil’s golfing “great”. Most other notable Brazilian players have those mixed roots.

Angela Park, who has Korean parents but holds dual US and Brazilian citizenship after moving to the States at the age of eight, won the LPGA Rookie of the Year award in 2007, but faded dramatically after her second season. Adilson da Silva, Brazilian born but raised in South Africa, has had a successful career on the Sunshine Tour winning seven times there. Likewise Maria Priscila Iida, a Brazilian-Japanese and a dominant amateur winning both Rio and Sao Paolo city and state titles repeatedly, appeared briefly on the LPGA’s Futures Tour in 2004 and more recently on the Japan LPGA and even the Ladies Asian Golf Tour.

Alexandra Rocha had bounced between the European and Asian Tours before becoming the first Brazilian to earn playing rights on the PGA Tour this year, but he hasn’t yet come close to matching the attention-grabbing performances that could do for Brazilian golf what Jhonattan Vegas’s 2011 Bob Hope Classic win has accomplished for the sport in Venezuela.

Building on the foundations

Even though the numbers of regular golfers in Brazil have grown from 6,000 in 2000 to 25,000 currently, that number seems to have stabilised in the past five years. The number of courses has increased nearly 25% in those 10 years up to 110, but more encouragingly  another 30 are under construction and there is a sea-change to more accessibility. Previously members-only clubs are said to be opening their doors to visitors and there is an increase in the proportion of “semi-public” and daily-fee paying courses.

Still, one could argue, with some justification, that the greatest exposure the sport has enjoyed in recent times was when the national football team chose to base themselves at a golf resort during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. So, golf, and perhaps especially women’s golf, needs to make the most of the toehold they have.

“Exactly right! We’d like to, from an early stage, showcase golf to that market,” Whan declares.

“At the same time we’d like to showcase that golf course, that city, that environment to the golfing population before we get there in 2016. One of the things we’d like to do, if we can figure out a way of turning the Brazil event into an official event, is not only show the golf tournament but show what else is going on. If [they] build a new course for the Olympics, [let’s] show the building of the venue, because we want to engage our fans into 2016, too.”

One senses that the world’s local bank would like the same thing, but as HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship Giles Morgan points out, they will have to do the due diligence of ensuring that such an expansion would give a return on such an investment in the world’s biggest little event.

“It’s hugely important. We talk about championing golf worldwide and, if you look at all of our investments worldwide, the one continent where we haven’t been overexposed to in golf is South America and South America hasn’t been overexposed to golf,” says Morgan.

“This year is important to us with the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup because we need to get a gauge of what the market is; what is the opportunity? It is fantastic for us to be hosting a professional golf tournament in the city hosting the Olympics where golf is first going to be played. As a starter for 10, it’s a great place to start, but this year is when we really look at what the opportunity is for golf, in the same way that four years ago we went into Singapore with the HSBC Women’s Champions to see what the opportunity was for women’s golf, and in the same way we did for China with the HSBC Champions in 2005. In those cases it’s mushroomed. I don’t think Brazil is going to be quite the same. There’s a fanaticism for golf in Asia and I don’t think it’s an exact parallel.”

But, and this a big but, Morgan is the first to point out that laying some foundations in Rio and producing a successful Olympic tournament, while essential, is about prolonging the Olympic opportunity. The opportunity itself is something completely different!

“The point of the Olympics for sports like tennis, football and golf – already hugely established sports in their own right that have their own world cups, top events or majors – is that it can broaden the base appeal to more countries. It’s very exciting and I hope both sports realise that’s what the opportunity is; it’s about development.

“That’s the opportunity for golf; now you’ll get funding from governments in all sorts of new countries saying ‘we’ve seen how Korea, for instance, can play golf. We can play golf, we can invest in that and we can medal’. That’s what’s exciting for both the sport of golf and rugby. They mustn’t look at their heartland, they must look beyond the heartland,” insists Morgan, who as well as managing the bank’s golf sponsorship portfolio also made them the first umbrella sponsor’s of rugby’s global Sevens tournaments: the HSBC World Sevens Series.

This is a point that may not have sunk in to the golf world completely. Certainly Mike Whan is brave enough to admit it was lost to him when golf successfully presented its case to the IOC two years ago.

“I wasn’t around for the vote and ‘should we go pros?’ [playing in the Olympics]. I don’t think I would have voted for it back then. I would have been naïve, back in the voting days. I would have said ‘c’mon we’re already worldwide and we already showcase the best players in the world’; I would have missed the extra excitement. I believe the Olympics is going to have a fundamental impact on the growth of the game. What I’ve seen as [LPGA] commissioner over the past year is what golf in the Olympics really means,” Whan confesses.

“The level of interest and support, and the excitement, is happening in individual countries – countries where it happens around Olympic sports, but doesn’t happen around non-Olympic sports. I was at the China Golf Association back in October and to see the training facilities that they’re building and the commitment to finding young athletes to become Olympic athletes from a golf perspective and what it’s meaning for women’s golf throughout Asia and throughout the world… I would have missed all that.  It’ll impact Canada and the US and Europe, too; everyone’s going to want to keep up, that’s what happens in great sports whether it’s swimming, track or golf. It’s going to give a different plateau.”

As Morgan says, the impact is felt most immediately where an established sport will notice it least. Pettersen, for instance, says she’s noticed an immediate difference back in Norway.

“Once golf was taken in there’s obviously a lot of money involved and the distribution down from it. The [golf] federation can now start to build a team and do the stuff they want to do for the young players to have them ready for 2016,” says Pettersen.

“Money is one thing, but also wherever you go in the world you’ll find a golf course and you’ll find people playing golf; so I think it’s good exposure for golf.”

Investment x Interest = Growth

The combination of increased investment and added interest has the potential, as Whan quickly points out, to create a snowballing effect.

“After each Games, you get some profit sharing back into your sport and when we go to the Olympics and are able to reinvest monies in the different countries that participate, it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy where the Olympics made it important, and participating in the Olympics enables you to continue to fuel the growth,” says the LPGA commissioner.

However, to maximise the opportunity, golf does need to fully realise and fully adapt to the fact that its historical structure might work against it in making the most of the Olympic opportunity.

The rules, heritage and traditions of golf have been jointly governed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (until 2004 when The R&A was created to take over the role of “engaging in and supporting activities… for the benefit of the game”) and the United States Golf Association (USGA). 

Why is this an issue? Well, for instance, the new Executive Director of the USGA, Mike Davis, was recently quoted as saying “one of the things that has never been in the USGA’s mission is growing the game. We have never directly attempted to grow the game.”

Meanwhile the global remit, in big picture terms, has until very recently been in the hands of one single member’s golf club. True, the R&A in its new guise distributes GBP5 million annually from the profits from the Open Championship, but half is spent in the UK and Ireland.

The structure of the professional game could also be regarded as a weakness when it comes to making the most of the Olympics. The tours are, generally speaking, rival businesses run for their “shareholders”, the players. The International Federation of PGA Tours only formed in 1996 when the European Tour, Japan Golf Tour Organization, PGA TOUR, PGA Tour of Australasia and Sunshine Tour finally got around the same table.  

It was only with the push to join the Olympic movement that it truly opened its doors to become fully inclusive, admitting women’s golf for the first time as the Canadian Tour and the Tour de las Americas were elevated from associate member status, and full membership was offered to the China Golf Association, Korea Professional Golf Tour, Professional Golf Tour of India, LPGA, Ladies European Tour, Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour, Japan LPGA, Korean LPGA; and the Ladies Asian Golf Tour.

“Now you have to set up an Olympic structure; governing bodies for each of the countries that are going to develop and find the talent. Just creating governing bodies for golf, that’s one simple step but the Olympics takes you down that path. Then the governing bodies start coming together to ask ‘how are we going to develop programmes that not only grow the game but also develop superstars?’” says Whan, correctly identifying the process as a positive for the sport.

95% of jackpot is national

The reason that all of this matters is that the Olympics and the money that comes directly from being in the Olympics is not the big opportunity. The money that will be injected into the sport for playing their part in Rio 2016 will be small change compared to the investment that is really out there to be capitalised on.

Badminton, when it was fighting to retain its Olympic status prior to the 2004 games, did an audit of its member associations. While the TV money from the Athens Olympics would bring in around US$6 million over the next four years, the investment from National Olympic Committees and Governments was worth US$110 million over the same period.

In other words, 95% of the benefit from being in the Olympics comes from funding at local and national levels!

While Rugby Sevens may appear to have the bigger challenge in making a successful first impression in Rio – in TV terms it seems unlikely to beat golf – it is certainly better equipped to take advantage of Olympic status. It has one governing body, The International Rugby Board (founded in 1886), that sits over regional and national rugby unions in a far more conventional structure. It’s in the middle of its second long-term strategic plan (The Mission: Growing the Global Rugby Family), central to which is maximising the benefits of Olympic participation.

None of this is intended as criticism of golf, but the IRB’s structure gives it a global overview and development role that golf is going to have to work hard to catch up with.

Put simply, at IRB’s Dublin headquarters, Mark Egan, their Head of Development, can reel off a head-spinning array of numbers and details of where and how Sevens Rugby is growing exponentially all over the world even before the Olympic coffers are fully opened. More importantly he heads a department whose role it is to make sure those chances are taken advantage of. Does golf have someone who could match him? Probably not.

The Good News

Fortunately, as long as golf puts on the right kind of show in 2016, and survives the vote and stay in the Olympics, there will be plenty of time to catch up.

“The good news is that on this one we’re completely linked on objective. All of us agree that we want to put on the best world showcase of the sport as we can AND make sure that that showcase turns into future growth. Like anything, it starts if you’re on the same page to begin with and the good news is we’re on the same page,” Whan declares.

So, while designers like Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman, Robert Trent Jones Jr., and Lorena Ochoa, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros are jostling for position to design the course that will host the historic return of golf to the Olympics, the HSBC LPGA Brasil Cup, regardless of how small it may be now, is the one cornerstone on which the golf world can build the foundation for it to be a success.

“I can tell you, if you’re looking for a corporate sponsor today, you’d look long and hard to find one better than HSBC. Not only are they a sophisticated, multicultural business – they really understand global events like nobody understands global events – they also have a passion for the game. It’s really important for them to not only bring a global event but also understand and respect the local culture. They really do embrace what’s going on locally and make sure we show that market a global experience, but we probably learned more about making sure we understood what was happening in a local market from sponsors like them,” Whan says, before casting his mind forward to what the medal presentation might be like in five years time.

“I remember Michael Jordan said one time that he didn’t expect standing up there with a gold medal to hit him the way it did. For some of our players, too, you might go down to Brazil to play four rounds of golf and you might stand on the podium and realise that it was bigger than a round of golf,” he says.

Photo Credits: Getty Images,  Golfblogger.uk

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Will eavesdropping on PGA, LPGA golfers bring more reality to golf TV?

Golf fans previously immersed in the FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup are now being fed more reality-based PGA Tour and LPGA events where golfers are mic'd up during their round. Golf Channel continues to test this format on TV with the assistance of a few willing participants.

Will this experiment in unrehearsed 'golfer to caddy chat' increase viewership?

In a nutshell, here are four choices for golf television viewing October 7-10.

In two out of the four events, professional golfers will have microphones attached so that fans can hear conversations with their caddies.

The McGladrey Classic

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Venue: Seaside Course, Sea Island Golf Club, St. Simons Island, Ga.

• Davis Love III Mic’d Up – Continuing a test with PGA TOUR players with microphones in 2010, Golf Channel will fit PGA TOUR professional Davis Love III with a microphone during Thursday’s opening round of coverage.  Viewers will have the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations between Davis Love III and his caddy throughout the opening round of play. 

Navistar LPGA Classic presented by Monaco RV

                 Dates: Oct. 7-10

                 Venue: The Senator Course, Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Ala

•        Amanda Blumenherst Mic’d Up – LPGA Tour professional Amanda Blumenherst will be fitted with a microphone during Thursday’s tournament coverage and also will be the network’s Spotlight Player.
         At the Turn and Walk and Talk Featured – Val Skinner and Stephanie Sparks will interview players as they are walking the fairways during all four days of coverage as part of the network’s Walk and Talk feature.  On the weekend, they will interview players between holes 9 and 10 in the At the Turn feature.
          Battle for No. 1 Continues: Rolex Rankings No. 1 Ai Miyazato and No. 3 Cristie Kerr headline a field that includes No. 6 Na Yeon Choi, No. 8 In-Kyung Kim and No. 10 Paula Creamer.  Creamer, the reigning U.S. Open champion, will make her first appearance in Prattville.

Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Venue: TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, Potomac, Md.

 

 

• Season’s Final Major – An elite field headlines the Champions Tour’s final major of the year, including Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Fred Funk, Corey Pavin, Jay Haas, Mark Calcavecchia, Hale Irwin and Tom Watson.

•  Langer Going for Three Major Victories – Bernhard Langer will attempt to match Jack Nicklaus as the only Champions Tour professional to win three major championships in one season.
• Homecoming for Funk – The Maryland native and former University of Maryland golf coach returns to a familiar venue and will attempt to equal Langer’s achievement in 2010 by winning back-to-back Champions Tour majors.

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Kingsbarns Golf Links, Kingsbarns, Scotland

Carnoustie Golf Links, Angus, Scotland

Old Course, St. Andrews Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland

World-Class Field: Nine members of the successful European Ryder Cup Team and captain Colin Montgomerie headlines the world-class field that also includes three-time major champion Ernie Els, two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, major champions Michael Campbell, Paul Lawrie and John Daly, who returns to the site of his 1995 Open Championship victory.

Sports and Entertainment Celebrities Featured – International celebrities will compete this week, including Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant, Kyle MacLachlan, Huey Lewis and Michael Flatley.  Sporting legends from the world of soccer, tennis, soccer and skiing are also scheduled to compete.

Unique Tournament Format – Contested on three of the world’s best known and respected courses – the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Championship Course at Carnoustie and Kingsbarns Golf Links – 168 teams consisting of one professional and one amateur will play the first three rounds on the three courses in rotation.  The top-60 professionals and ties, plus the 20 leading teams, will play the final round at the Old Course at St. Andrews on Sunday.

Michelle Wie "out", Creamer "in" as new face of LPGA?

In his recent blog, Chuck Curti said that, as golf fans are waiting for Michelle Wie to live up to her potential and become the "Tiger Woods" of the LPGA, Paula Creamer may be stepping in to become the next "heroine" of women's professional golf.

"We’re still waiting." Curti woefully conveyed. "Wie has not yet lived up to her potential, and her performance at the U.S. Women’s Open last week was nothing short of putrid."

Where the Wie conundrum is certainly true, Paula Creamer, the girl who up until her win this weekend at the U.S. Women's Open never won a major, has now "earned the right to be the face of women's golf?"

Although Paula Creamer has nine career wins and is still a youngster at 23, how many golf fans have watched the LPGA  golf to get a glimpse of the Pink Panther making a tremendous save? How many more will do so now that Creamer is a major winner?

Perhaps Creamer's career "incentive" of working through a thumb injury to perform at the level it takes to win at Oakmont will be her "aha moment" and create the stuff of legends.

Creamer's thoughts?

"It just shows, you know, how much the mental side of golf can really take over. You know, I believed I could do this. I believed I could do this when I had a cast on my hand.

That's what I just kept thinking about was Oakmont, Oakmont, Oakmont."

Michelle Wie's take on the U.S. Women's Open MC? “A complete fail,” Wie said, adding, “There are a lot of things I need to work on.”

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Michelle Wie sings the U.S. Open blues

Round one of the U.S. Women's Open is underway and it looks as if Michelle Wie is already struggling to stay above the cut line! Yet another climb to mediocrity for the golfer who was once on everyone's lips as the female Tiger Woods!

 

The LPGA leaderboard currently has Wie's score at +9 with three double bogeys, several bogeys with a few pars thrown in to add a little spice to the mix. Perhaps it would have been better if Michelle would have failed to qualify as it was during the 2009 Open where Wie wound up missing the cut by one stroke.

 

Sure Oakmont Country Club is a tough test but major tournaments are meant to bring out the best golfers and everyone is playing under the same conditions so, since there is plenty of golf left to play, get busy Michelle.

“It’s always a grind,” Wie says of the national tournament. “It’s a tough golf course. I just have to play the best I can and come out on top.”

 

Recent tweets by Michelle Wie ("themichellewie"):

On Oakmont CC  10:08 AM Jul 6th: So excited for the US Open this week! We are playing at Oakmont CC, so challenging but so beautiful! http://fb.me/AWfNyiHT

 

Is the U.S. Open all about the shoes for MW?   8:50 AM Jul 7th:  As for Check out my US Open surprise shoes from Nike Golf! I loveee them!!! http://fb.me/sxRa1SXi   via Facebook

 

Really want to get to know Michelle Wie? Check out her blog: http://ablackflamingo.blogspot.com/

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LPGA Tour Players on Display!

LPGA Tour players have been hitting the newsstands this year. Here are all the covers below from LPGA.com.

Click on the link to see more!

Cristie Kerr Golf Week - July 2	Anna Nordqvist Lady Golfer - July	Se Ri Pak KoreAm - June	Anna Rawson Golf Week For Her - May 19
Lorena Ochoa Casas & Gente - May	Natalie Gulbis Golf Fitness - Spring	Suzann Pettersen Norsk Golf - Issue 1	Lorena Ochoa Golfweek - April 30
Yani Tseng Golfweek - April 9	Brittany Lincicome Lady Golfer - April	Kristy McPherson Golfweek - March 26	Anna Nordqvist Caras Golf - March
Paula Creamer Ladies Links Fore Golf	Natalie Gulbis Golf Digest Singapore	Crisie Kerr Golfweek - February 19	Mike Whan Golf World - February 15
Sandra Gal Golf Digest Czech Republic	Beatriz Recari Green	Jiyai Shin Golf Digest - January	Anna Rawson Lady Golfer - January

Stacy Solomon
golfforbeginners@aol.com
Golf for Beginners, because we're always learning!
Follow Golf for Beginners on Twitter!
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Great golf photos and finishes at the Sybase but not for Michelle Wie

After a wonderful day of watching the best LPGA golfers on Tour, I have a great picture diary to share with my readers. I suggest that, if you ever get the opportunity to see a professional golf event live, GO! For those people living in the New York, tri-state area, there are still tickets available for the final round of the Sybase Match Play Championship, under an hour from New York City.

Hamilton Farm Golf Clubhouse

We arrived just before the Quarterfinal matches and watched the LPGA ladies prepare at the driving range and on the greens. Here is Amy Yang in her backswing and in her downswing. It's amazing what you can do with a speedy shutter!

Michelle Wie and Yang on the putting surface:

Watching the professional golfers tee off. Amateur golfers can learn a great deal from the LPGA finish position:

For golf aficionados, it's amazing how close you can get to the action!

Here are a few more pictures from the 9th green.

Although all of the ladies were cheered on, the one with the throngs of followers was none other than Michelle Wie.

I was standing next to the loudest of Michelle Wie's cheering section, Christina Kim, who mentioned that she wasn't "tweeting" today, but I was! You can see my cell phone action pics on Twitpic.com and you can always friend me on Twitter.com/Golf4Beginners.

As for Michelle Wie, she was eliminated by six-time LPGA winner Jiyai Shin. After winning 2&1, Wie was asked about her game and she said, "I didn't play as well as I wanted. I think I know exactly what I need to work on. I'm going to work hard the next two weeks and try to win."

Perhaps Wie shouldn't have been so concerned with changing outfits during the break...

Too bad both Ai Miyazato and Michelle Wie were knocked out of contention at the Sybase event but there will be great final round golf action tomorrow when Shin rallies against Sun Young Yoo and Angela Stanford battles against Amy Yang.


For more information visit the Sybase Match Play Championship or LPGA.com website.