Sybase News Is Good, Not Great
by hound dog on Jan 28, 2010 6:17 AM PST
8 comments
Tuesday's announcement of the new Sybase Match Play Championship was a pleasant surprise. Scheduled for May 20-23, it filled one of three consecutive off-weeks in the Tour's spring schedule and increased the number of official events for 2010 to 24. I've seen a couple of folks report the number is now 25 but their calculations apparently include the Korea event which is currently not listed on the schedule available at LPGA.com. The true number is, unfortunately, still 24.
The other unfortunate part of this news is, while it is a domestic event which for all intents and purposes is replacing an international one, the Sybase is not a full-field event. I'm glad the Tour schedule now includes a match-play tournament - it's a nice change-up from the week-in-week-out normality of stroke play. But what the LPGA really needs is a couple more full-field events to give its rank-and-file more opportunities to simply make a living. Here are the full-field non-major events on this year's ledger:
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LPGA Classic Presented by J Golf Tres Marias Championship Bell Micro LPGA Classic State Farm Classic ShopRite LPGA Classic Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Safeway Classic CN Canadian Women's Open P&G NW Arkansas Championship Acapulco LPGA Classic Navistar LPGA Classic CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge |
That's right - there are only twelve events that players in the #130+ Priority range (the last third of Category 11 and beyond) have any real chance of starting, compared to 15 a year ago and 21 in 2008. Sure, they could go through qualifying to make the U.S. Open but none of these players will be making more than 13 starts in 2010 and the ones at Position #150 or higher will make significantly less.
The trade-off of Korea for Sybase is (for me) a small net gain for the LPGA but it could have been so much better. If the Korea event can be rescued (and Commissioner Whan and his team have several months left to do that), the Sybase addition will be a larger feather in the cap. I'm saving my excitement for that Atlanta/Hawaii/Corning announcement which is hopefully in the works.
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I've said this elsewhere, but...
limited-field events are still a step in the right direction, as long as the qualifications are based on how you play and are easy to understand. Maybe only the top players can make it to a limited-field event, but you can also argue that they can only play so many total tournaments. If the top ladies play the limited-field events (which appeal to sponsors because they cost less to bankroll), that should open more spaces in the full-field events for the rank-and-file players. Anything that helps the LPGA keep going until the economy improves is probably a good thing.
Granted, the full-field events need the top players as well. But when times are tough, you do what you can… and since the ladies don’t have as many options as the men, they are more likely to figure a way to support both.
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
I AGREE RUTHLESS
I also think we don’t need to add events just to have them. We need to make sure the events we add, be it full field or not, are quality tournaments. Their has been a bad history of signing up new events and then only lasting the first term of their contracts and then disappearing. The tour needs to be careful and methodical in building the schedule. If they add 10 events just to get them on the schedule and they all disappear after 3 years, then we are back at square one. I would rather the tour add 5 events that will last for 20+ years as opposed to the aforementioned scenario. The tour doesn’t need to add events just for the sake of having them.
A little birdie
Told me two more new tournaments or old tournaments coming back to life, will soon be announced by the LPGA. More full field events are coming.
Maybe things are finally turning around for the ladies. I certainly hope so.
Mike Southern
www.ruthlessgolf.com
by Ruthless Mike on Jan 29, 2010 8:37 AM PST up reply actions
two other things
1) The LPGA won’t announce its Korea event in the late fall until the KLPGA announces its 2010 schedule. There may be more than 1 LPGA-KLPGA event in Korea, if Marty Evans’s comments a few months ago have been followed up with serious negotiations.
2) 14 spots in the match play will be determined by a 36-hole qualifier at, and position on the money list after, the Bell Micro event the week before, so it’s not like you can’t play your way into the match play event (provided you can get into the Bell Micro). An LPGA Match Play event is fairer to the rank-and-file than the HSBC Women’s World Match Play used to be, as so many international players are ranked highly by Rolex.
by The Constructivist on Jan 29, 2010 7:10 PM PST reply actions
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