Too harsh a golf lesson for Yuko Mitsuka of the JLPGA?

I rarely play a round of golf on the weekends. I'm tired of the 'Sunday drivers' and slow players who search for their brand new, once-hit TaylorMade golf balls while laying tracks on freshly seeded fairways.

There usually is no penalty handed out by the rangers other than a stiff and formal "move it along" with a retort coming from the foursome something like, "it's the guys in front of us slowing down play." The golfers are probably right as the publinks often send out way too many golfers in an effort to collect as much seasonal income as possible. Either way, slow play makes it impossible to enjoy a day on the links.

In the case of Japanese golfer Yuko Mitsuka, there were no excuses given when the JLPGA invoked a two-stroke pace-of-play penalty last week at the World Ladies Championship.

Okay, so Yuko didn't at first bow and willingly accept her punishment.

When first hearing of her incurred two-stroke penalty, Mituska acted like any teed off golfer who just hit a grounder and angrily dropped her golf clubs and walked off the course.

Because Mitsuka quit halfway through the event, a fine imposed by the JLPGA of two million yen (about $21K US dollars) added insult to injury.

Realizing that her behavior was more befitting of John Daly than of a young lady from Japan, Mitsukla accepted the punishment and voluntarily withdrew from a total of eleven events as a sign of self-reproach.

Is this a smart move for Yuko or is she cutting her nose to spite her face, opting out of a few of the larger pursed tournaments to make a point?

On the PGA Tour, $20,000 fines called "The Prize", have also been "awarded" in the past for slow play but "nobody ever does anything about it," chides Rory Sabbatini.

Are "shot clocks" and "ready golf" the best way to move golf along at a more rapid pace or are stroke penalties and dollar assessments more effective for both betting foursomes and professionals?

Although Yuko Mitsuka took her medicine, was the JLPGA too strict in its punishment? Not from the JLPGA's standpoint!

"This will be a lesson to other golfers," said JLPGA chief Hisako Higuchi. "She has to take responsibility for her actions."

Higuchi may be right. How many women golfers in future JLPGA events will consider walking off the course because a penalty was placed on them?

Sybase Match Play Championship celebrates LPGA golfers by naming brackets

Sybase Match Play Championship and the LPGA are celebrating the careers of Annika Sorenstam, Mickey Wright, Kathy Whitworth and Patty Berg by naming the brackets after the lady golfers with the most career wins in history.

The tournament’s number one seed will be placed in the Whitworth Group, while the No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds will be placed in the Wright Group, Sorenstam Group and Berg Group, respectively. All first-round matches will be drawn at a special media event at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18.

Hamilton Farm Golf Club in New Jersey will be the setting for this exciting event. Sixty-four of the top LPGA golfers will compete in match-play format for a purse of 1.5 million dollars.

This honor is probably as exciting as the ladies getting stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and well-deserved!

The new LPGA commissioner, Mike Whan, is sure to draw pats on the back for his thoughtful gesture as he commented, "As we celebrate 60 years of the LPGA, we salute the four champions of our sport with the most wins in LPGA history."


Here is a brief history lesson of these four great female athletes:


Kathy Whitworth
*Won 88 LPGA Tour tournaments in a career which spanned four decades, more than any other player in the history of the game, male or female.
*Six major championships including seven Player of the Year awards, seven Vare Trophies and eight money list titles.
*She still holds the record for the most consecutive seasons with a win at seventeen and records the most career seasons with a victory at 22.

Mickey Wright
*82 wins and 13 major championships in her career.
*The only player to win four LPGA Championships
*One of only two players to win the U.S. Women’s Open four times.
*She still holds numerous all-time records, including the most wins in one season with thirteen.
*Only player in LPGA history to ever hold all four major championship trophies at the same time.
*She won the final two major championships of the 1961 season, the U.S. Women’s Open and the LPGA Championship and the first two majors of 1962, the Titleholders and the Western Open.

Annika Sorenstam
*Won 70 times with 10 major championships.
*Eight Rolex Player of the Year Awards
*Six Vare Trophies
*Led the LPGA Money List eight times.
*The only LPGA player to ever shoot 59 in an official tour event
*First LPGA player since Babe Zaharias to compete in a PGA Tour event when she played in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial.
*The only player in LPGA history to sweep the Player of the Year, Vare Trophy and Money List title five times.

Patty Berg
*One of the 13 Founders of the LPGA
*Won 60 LPGA titles and a record 15 major championships
*Seven Western Open titles, seven Titleholders Championships, and one U.S. Women’s Open, the only time it was played as a match-play event.
*Led the LPGA money list three times, and three times she won the Vare Trophy. In 1955, she became the first LPGA player to achieve both honors.
*In 1978, the LPGA established the Patty Berg Award to reward outstanding contributions to women's golf, to honor Patty Berg and to recognize her diplomacy, sportsmanship, goodwill and contributions to the game.


If Babe Didrikson Zaharias could only see how far the LPGA has come! Did you know Babe met her husand, wrestler George Zaharias, while playing golf in a PGA tournament? Babe's participation in a men's event was sixty years prior to Annika Sorenstam, Suzy Whaley or Michelle Wie's attempts!


And yes, The Sybase Match Play event will be aired on television but sadly not on Network TV. Visit LPGA.com for more details.

Also, we are sorry to earn about the passing of LPGA golfer Erica Blasberg. Only 25 years old, she had much more golf to play.



About the Ladies Professional Golf Association

The LPGA was founded in 1950 and today boasts a membership comprised of world-class LPGA Tour professionals and more than 1,300 dedicated Teaching and Club Professionals (T&CP). Players on the LPGA Tour, who represent more than 25 countries, compete globally showcasing the very best of women’s professional golf.

LPGA T&CP members directly impact the growth of the game through teaching, coaching and management positions and oversee programs aimed at increasing the involvement of women, girls and youth in golf. The LPGA’s Vision is to inspire, empower, educate and entertain by showcasing the best golf professionals in the world. Its Mission is to be a leader in the world of sports, to promote economic empowerment for all members, and to serve as role models on and off the course.

Does TaylorMade, Dick's Sporting Goods TV spot help identify their brands?

TaylorMade and Dick's Sporting Goods are joining forces to help sell more product in the nationwide chain of stores. Will this new TV Spot, "Transported", help to develop both companies' "brand"?

If you cannot see this commercial, click here.

As for the tagline "Victory Lives Here", meant to bridge the identity of each campaign, I feel it misses the mark for TaylorMade but works well for Dick's Sporting Goods, a self-proclaimed "leader" in golf club sales.

Although it was mentioned in a PR piece by Michelle Edelman, president of NYCA (the ad company that created the TV Spot) that TaylorMade is "number one in drivers and number one in irons" this point was not convincingly conveyed in the commercial.

Should Rory Sabbatini have been chosen as a TaylorMade 'face'? He is hardly a positive role model. Just search his name on Google and you will find that Sabbatini is called everything from the "tour jackass of the week" to a "complainer". Do I like him? I met him briefly in Puerto Rico and I shall reserve comment.

Women were also left out of the loop. How about some representation by LPGA stars and TaylorMade Tour Staff pros Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer or Nicole Castrale? TaylorMade has a women's section on their website and Dick's Sporting Goods certainly sells women's golf clubs so why the lack of visibility?

The 30 second spot, which will appear on The Golf Channel and ESPN, is an enterprising decision between Dick's Sporting Goods Store and TaylorMade Golf but needs a bit more tweaking to ensure long-lasting positive results.