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Ogilvie: Champions Tour, LPGA should join forces

November 19, 2010

Joe Ogilvie clearly has an active mind, which might not be conducive to great golf ("Next to the idiotic, the dull unimaginative mind is the best for golf," Sir Walter Simpson, the old Scottish philosopher once wrote), but makes for better conversation.

Ogilvie, who again will have to return to Q School, has proposed via Twitter a way that the Champions Tour and LPGA might mutually enhance their brands, while cutting costs. He suggests that they hold tournaments simultaneously at the same sites, provided the sites have 36 holes.

-- "As Champions Tour grows more international, doesn't it make sense to hold most US events at same 36 hole venue w/LPGA Tour the same week?"

-- "Staffing would be less, buildout less, cheaper for Golf Channel, more total fans, cheaper for host organizations, final day at same course."

-- "At 36 hole facility you could do full field sizes and then cut and play one course Sunday with both tours on same course."

-- "LPGA & Champions Tour would be enhanced by this model & math would start to work, under current model math doesn't work despite great talent"

It is an idea worth exploring, at least on a one-off basis, if for no other reason than the novelty and the attention it would attract.

-- John Strege