A Five-Step Plan To Revive The LPGA

On Jan. 22, the LPGA will mark the 60th anniversary of its first tournament winner: amateur Polly Riley, whose 295 beat Louise Suggs by five strokes in the Tampa Open. The new tour played 14 tournaments in 1950 and with a small number of bankable stars -- Suggs, Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg and Betsy Rawls among them -- the LPGA was on its way.

By 1953, the tour had 24 tournaments. Now, after a year of turmoil marked by poor decisions and an even worse economy, the LPGA season concludes at the Tour Championship in Houston, an event fittingly without a title sponsor. It will be the 27th tournament of 2009, the fewest for the LPGA since 21 in 1971.

After 60 years of scratching and clawing -- but always surviving -- the LPGA now must redefine its business model if there is to be a year 61. With that in mind, a wide variety of stakeholders in the game were asked about the future of the LPGA. These included tour officials, both past and present from the men's and women's game, executives from tournament management, sponsors, TV executive and players.

From those discussions were gleaned shared ideas that would radically change the business model of the LPGA, changes that seem not only inevitable but unavoidable. But, as an extremely wise man told me during the depths of the financial crisis, "Sometimes situations like this force us to make decisions we should have made long ago."

If I am correctly hearing the words of those who understand professional golf, marketing and media, here is what the LPGA needs to do:

1. TAKE ON A BUSINESS PARTNER

You have to spend money to make money and the LPGA has no money to spend. Part of the tour's operating revenue comes from a 6 percent cut of prize money. The total purse dropped by more than $13 million in 2009 and will be even less in 2010. You do the math.

Where can this capital come from? One possibility is for the PGA Tour to take over the LPGA. The upside is enormous for both. They can coordinate schedules to provide better TV exposure for each tour, especially since the LPGA and PGA Tour have long-term deals with Golf Channel.

The PGA Tour and LPGA could also create innovative ideas for competition. What about having an LPGA event and PGA Tour event on the same course at the same time with alternating threesomes of men and women playing different tees with the men competing against the men and the women against the women?

What about a mixed team co-ed event that counts on both money lists? And, if the Fall Finish should fade away in 2011 as more of those events are moved into the FedEx Cup portion of the PGA Tour schedule to fill in for departing sponsors, LPGA tournaments could cover the fall portion of the Golf Channel programming schedule.

Another possibility for a cash influx would be the behemoth International Management Group. IMG's founder, the late Mark McCormack, had innovative ideas about marketing women's golf years ago. Those ideas -- a more global tour with smaller fields -- could come into play now.

Most menacingly for the LPGA would be for someone to form a competing women's tour that would not be bound to any of the existing TV or sponsorship contracts. What if Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch got together and used their enormous financial resources, business savvy and media outlets to create an alternative tour? More on this later.

2. CREATE A TWO-TIER TOUR

Many of the top players want fewer tournaments and smaller fields -- somewhere in the 60 to 90 range instead of 144. When the LPGA purchased the Duramed Future's Tour this became a real possibility. But to make it work purses on the Futures Tour must be high enough for second-tier players to make a living. This year, the Future's Tour leading money winner earned $88,386 and No. 5 made only $42,939. That's not enough to cover expenses.

There are several advantages of fewer tournaments and smaller fields:

• If there were 24 events, for example, the stars could play all of them. There would be no weak-field tournaments.

• With no cut, like the recently completed Lorena Ochoa Invitational with 32 players, sponsors don't have to worry about the stars not playing on the weekend.

• The value of a pro-am spot is enhanced since all of the competitors will be "name" players.

How would you determine which 60 or 90 get to play? How about two-thirds of the field qualifies off the Rolex Ranking and the rest is filled out through sponsor exemptions? This allows sponsors to add box-office attractions who may have fallen in the rankings and it provides an opportunity to get fresh young talent into the field.

3. GET BETTER TV EXPOSURE

The single most important thing the LPGA needs to increase its popularity is better TV exposure. When people see the product they love it, but they have to see it. One problem is no one knows what channel has the LPGA -- a problem solved by the 10-year cable-exclusive Golf Channel deal that goes into effect in 2010. Another problem is too much delayed tape -- and that is not helped by the Golf Channel deal.