LPGA Officials continue to tighten schedule
The LPGA has 96 players from 24 countries in its membership.
VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- With an eye toward stronger fields and bigger purses, the LPGA Tour released a 2005 schedule Thursday that features one less tournament and a record amount of prize money.
As expected, the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic, conducted for the last 15 years in the Mahoning Valley, was not on the schedule.
The LPGA managed to stretch its season from Feb. 11 in South Africa to Nov. 20 at the ADT Championship in Florida by taking eight weeks off over the course of the year as it takes its game all over the world.
Two events will be played in Mexico to capitalize on the popularity of Lorena Ochoa. The LPGA will play the first Women's World Cup at Fancourt in South Africa. It also will go to France and England, along with its late-season swing through South Korea and Japan.
Prize money
It adds up to 31 official tournaments, plus the World Cup and Solheim Cup, for official prize money of $43.3 million.
"We've had a fundamental question we've asked ourselves," commissioner Ty Votaw said. "Are we a world tour that happens to be based in the United States, or are we a U.S.-based tour that happens to play a number of events outside its boundaries? I think we're a world tour that happens to be based in the United States."
That much is clear in the membership, which has 96 players from 24 countries around the world. Even this week at the season-ending ADT Championship, there are 17 foreign-born players in the field of 30.
Votaw said that has contributed to financial stability, noting that a television rights deal with Korean-based SBS will be the largest in LPGA history.
"Our international television revenues have grown tenfold since 1996," he said.
The LPGA Tour lost four other tournaments from the 2004 schedule -- the traditional season-opener in Tucson, Ariz.; the Kellogg-Keebler Classic outside Chicago; North Augusta, S.C.; and the Wachovia Classic that Betsy King hosted in Kutztown, Pa.
Those were replaced by two tournaments in Mexico and a return to Hawaii, where the LPGA Tour's official season will begin Feb. 24-26 in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay.
"Certainly, I'm disappointed that there won't be an event in the Mahoning Valley next year," said Votaw, a graduate of South Range High School.
"We appreciate everything Giant Eagle has done for the past 12 years; they've helped generate millions of dollars in charities," he added.
Votaw said he's never experienced a year in which so many tournaments folded, but noted that the number of new tournaments -- also five -- is larger than usual.
"Sponsorship is a fact of life in pro sports," he said. "The Champions Tour and even NASCAR have lost some events this year.
"If you look at the collective purses of the five tournaments we lost they were $5 million. The collective purses of the five tournaments we've added are $6.2 million."
Votaw couldn't project whether the LPGA will return to the Valley.
"You never say never, and the support that the fans of the Mahoning Valley displayed over the years shows a solid foundation from which to start," he said.
Votaw also has a $2 million event on the schedule the week after the U.S. Women's Open, although he said it would be a few weeks before those details could be released. It probably will be a match-play tournament.
TV contracts
The LPGA also has extended television contracts with ESPN and The Golf Channel. ESPN2 said it will televise up to 10 tournaments annually in the new five-year deal.
The prize money is a 37 percent increase from 1999, when the LPGA Tour had 43 tournaments. Since then, Votaw has tried to trim the schedule to put more emphasis on better fields, better golf courses and more money.
The richest event continues to be the U.S. Women's Open, to be held June 23-26 at Cherry Hills outside Denver. The purse was $3.1 million last year and could get a slight increase.
The other three majors all increased their purse to $1.8 million, while the Evian Masters in France is $2.5 million. The average purse is $1.39 million.