CME Group Tour Championship notebook: LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan covers all parts of golf
Any golf fan would have been enraptured Friday when LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan talked about sister acts, role reversal, global golf, television, scheduling, growing the game and the future of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.
Whan delivered the potpourri of thoughts on the game during his annual State of the LPGA press conference, and in a little over an hour he touched on every possible subject in the game.
“When I started in 2010 we focused on two themes, role reversal and embrace global, that is part of what we are,” Whan said. “Those cultural changes created a culture that required us making changes, strange to think about today but then we knew.
"Jump forward to our schedule now and we have ANA and KPMG sponsoring majors, we’re going to announce a new long-term partner on the British Open and obviously Evian is already long-term and the U.S. Women’s Open continues to climb to new heights. Eight years ago we had six events at $2 million or more, no season-long points race and never addressed our history, women’s issues and things important to companies sponsoring us. The last thing we built in those early years was TV coverage, going from 200 hours annually on tape delay to 500 hours of live TV and from 11 countries to 107."
Whan indicated the LPGA staff has focused the last 18 months in three core areas: the breadth of the LPGA, leadership and the LPGA’s role in the game.
“For example, talking about bringing young girls into the game, we have gone from 1,000 teachers to 1,800 and from 4,000 girls to 80,000,” he said. “Our own players anchor the leadership and they ‘see it’ as Condoleezza Rice once said and we in turn are allowing women all the world to believe anything is possible."
Whan indicated the schedule that is announced in two weeks will include new events with new formats and a season-long Aon Risk Reward contest in conjunction with the PGA Tour that will reward $1 million to both a man and woman.
“When you see the schedule announced you’ll see the women will be playing on some of the greatest stages for over $70 million,” he said. “And I will tell you that Terry’s event (Terry Duffy, chairman and CEO of CME Group) will not be the highest purse on the schedule in 2019.”
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Whan did indicate the Tour Championship will continue at Tiburón.
“All I know is we’ll be here as long as Terry is here and he has a big commitment combining the CME and the leadership conference at the beach resort property,” he said.
Dennis Baggett, a senior vice president for the LPGA Tour, said an extension is being worked on with Tiburon, whose contract with the tournament goes through next year. The tour’s commitment with CME Group is through 2023.
“We’re all very happy with the partnership and venue, and plan to be here until 2023 and beyond,” Baggett said.
Race to the Globe still slowly moving: Ariya Jutanugarn birdied the last hole Friday to get to 3 under for the tournament. When Japan's Nasa Hataoka struggled, that put Jutanugarn back in the projected No. 1 spot in the $1 million season-long points race that concludes Sunday.
Jutanugarn bogeyed the first three holes.
"I had a pretty bad attitude," she said. "I'm just like mad and I'm not playing anymore. After that I try to come back and just be patient and try my best."
Even with Hataoka shooting a 76, she's still ahead of the other four as far as the tournament itself goes, but slipped back to fourth in the Race. Hataoka is tied for 13th in the tournament, and Jutanugarn is tied for 20th. Brooke Henderson is tied for 25th in the tournament after a 69 and is now in second in the Race.
Sung Hyun Park is tied for 37th in the tournament and in fifth in the Race. Minjee Lee shot a 75 and slipped to third in the Race and is tied for 43rd.
Whaley applauded as new PGA of American head: Women’s golf LPGA style has been in the spotlight this week but away from the CME Group Tour Championship chatter another female golf pioneer is preparing to grab the attention.
Suzy Whaley ascended to president of the PGA of America recently, allowing the 51-year-old to start a two year term in directing the membership of 29,000 men and women.
This is happening to a women who as a girl in junior golf was scratched off the entry list because she was not a boy and later became the first women in 58 years to qualify for a PGA Tour event, the 2003 Greater Hartford Open.
Whan was excited about the presidency Whaley will inherit in a 102 year old organization.
“She is the right person, a flag bearer for any young girl in the United States,” Whan said. “Suzy is special and I hope she is not the last woman to hold that title.”
“It was also enhance our relationship with the PGA of America and of course my board of directors are excited with 11 of the 15 women,” he said.
LPGA Hall of Fame member Amy Alcott was at Tiburon Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort earlier in the week and easily reflected on Whaley’s rise to the top of the world’s largest golf organization.
“Look how far we’ve gone in recent years as an organization and now Suzy becoming president of a mostly male organization,” Alcott said. “We can always do better but the progress we have made makes me smile.”
“I’m so thrilled she will have this opportunity and I hope a lot of young women come into the game because of her,” said Julie Inkster, the 2019 Solheim Cup captain. “This is a major moment in women’s golf, further enhancing our progress.”
Whaley understands the moment and front of her and spoke to the Associated Press.
“I wanted to have a seat at the table, a voice in the room,” she said.”I didn’t look at it as male or female, I felt I had something to contribute. It’s also an enormous opportunity for equality, and to showcase to women what they can do. Golf is an $84 billion industry and we want to contribute to.”
Night of Celebration with Rolex LPGA Awards: The LPGA acknowledged and announced several awards Thursday night at the annual Rolex LPGA Awards at the Ritz-Carlton Gold Resort.
So Yeon Ryu and and Jessica Korda were announced with major awards voted on from their fellow members.
Ryu, a native of Republic of Korea and a resident of Dallas, received the William and Mousie Powell Award who exemplifies the spirit, ideals and values of the LPGA
“I am overwhelmed, a huge honor and my fellow players and caddies have taught me what real sportsmanship is,” Ryu said.
Korda received the Heather Farr Perseverance Award which honors a player who has demonstrated perseverance and spirit in fulfilling her goals as a player. Farr died in 1993 following a four year battle with breast cancer.
Korda endured a three hour operation last December 7 to correct a severe overbite that caused her to use only 20 percent of her teeth when chewing. The surgery broke her nose, top jaw inn three places and bottom jaw in two places.
“The love I felt from the players is incredible I’m truly honored to be an LPGA player,” she said.
Ten players were recognized as first time winners and Ariya Jutanugarn received the Rolex Player of the Year Award for the second time in three years.
Sports Editor Greg Hardwig contributed to this article.
Saturday's third-round tee times
No. 1 Tee
8:30 a.m. -- Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Chella Choi, Hee Young Park
8:41 a.m. -- Caroline Masson, Georgia Hall, Tiffany Joh
8:52 a.m. -- Austin Ernst, Pornanong Phatlum, Moriya Jutanugarn
9:03 a.m. -- Brooke Henderson, Wei-Ling Hsu, Katherine Kirk
9:14 a.m. -- Ariya Jutanugarn, Danielle Kang, Sei Young Kim
9:25 a.m. -- Nasa Hataoka, Azahara Munoz, Anna Nordqvist
9:36 a.m. -- Lydia Ko, Ashleigh Buhai, Yu Liu
9:47 a.m. -- Gaby Lopez, Mi Hyang Lee, Lizette Salas
9:58 a.m. -- Jessica Korda, So Yeon Ryu, Cristie Kerr
10:09 a.m. -- Pannarat Thanapolboonyaras, Carlota Ciganda, Megan Khang
10:20 a.m. -- Nelly Korda, Marina Alex, Charley Hull
10:31 a.m. -- Lexi Thompson, Brittany Lincicome, Amy Olson
No. 10 Tee
8:30 a.m. -- Hannah Green, Jane Park, Sakura Yokomine
8:41 a.m. -- Jeong Eun Lee, Sung Hyun Park, Jaye Marie Green
8:52 a.m. -- Mo Martin, Ally McDonald, Peiyun Chien
9:03 a.m. -- Jenny Shin, Aditi Ashok, Mariajo Uribe
9:14 a.m. -- Emma Talley, Minjee Lee, Thidapa Suwannapura
9:25 a.m. -- Brittany Altomare, In Gee Chun, Mirim Lee
9:36 a.m. -- Su Oh, Haeji Kang, Dani Holmqvist
9:47 a.m. -- Lindy Duncan, Ayako Uehara, Maria Torres
9:58 a.m. -- Angel Yin, Annie Park, Celine Boutier
10:09 a.m. -- Wichanee Meechai, Eun-Hee Ji, Bronte Law
10:20 a.m. -- Jin Young Ko, Sarah Jane Smith, Jacqui Concolino
10:31 a.m. -- Mariah Stackhouse, Ryann O'Toole, Pernilla Lindberg