In addition to talking about the new Blue Bay event, Whan announced a new sponsor for the International Crown event -- UL, a large company headquartered in Chicago IL -- and that the 2018 event will be held in South Korea. (The 2016 event will be in Chicago again, but Whan said that was because he wanted more control over the first two events while they worked out the bugs.) But that's only the beginning of what he talked about.
Although we've known for a while that the LPGA will begin the 2015 season in Florida at the new Coates Golf Championship, we didn't know for sure exactly how many more events Whan hoped to create. He told us on Monday -- maybe one more. Here's his logic:
- Unlike the PGA Tour, he tries to schedule events to have a week off after every three or four tournaments.
- He wants to avoid conflicts with the men's majors.
- And also unlike the PGA Tour, he wants roughly a two-month off-season because he believes that's important for the ladies.
Beyond that, he has three goals in mind:
- Something still has to be done about the long-term health of the Kraft-Nabisco Championship. Just as the LPGA Championship has been morphed into the Women's PGA Championship, Whan wants to establish the KNC so it will continue uninterrupted for a number of decades.
- He'd like to see a pro-am event on the LPGA, something like the AT&T on the PGA Tour. Given how much the LPGA works with their sponsors, that's almost a no-brainer.
- And since the LPGA no longer has a yearly match play event, he'd like to get a new one on the schedule.
All-in-all, it appears that the LPGA is in even better shape than we thought.
You know, I remember when Michael Whan's "crazy ideas" drew criticism for being too impractical. His critics should be very glad that he doesn't hold a grudge.
http://golfweek.com/news/2014/oct/21/pga-of-america-suzy-whaley-frontrunner/
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