Connect with us

News

Morning 9: Whan emphasizes tour pay gap | Plenty of support for Fowler | WAGR revamp

Published

4 years ago

on
By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at [email protected] and find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram and golfwrxEIC on Twitter.

November 21, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans. Today is somehow my brother’s 31st birthday (and he’s soon to be a father). Tempus fugit! 
 
**Just a reminder we’re looking for advertisers for 2020. Drop me a line if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership.** 

 
1. Plenty of support for Rickie
There was, however, plenty of support for Fowler as the late addition to the team.
  • “Rickie loves the stage. A lot like a Phil Mickelson or now hanging around Kevin Kisner some, there’s some guys that like to walk out on the final green and make that putt, they want the ball with no time on the clock and Rickie’s that guy,” Davis Love III said. “It’s unfortunate for Brooks, but I think they picked up an all-around team guy both playing and in the team room, so I’m excited for him.”
2. Whan emphasizes pay gap in letter
Fresh off a contract extension, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan penned a letter to tour members and sponsors.
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”He put special emphasis on the LPGA’s opportunity to advance larger causes, including closing the gender pay gap.”
  • “Mike Whan doesn’t intend to leave the LPGA anytime soon. With his contract set to expire late next year, Whan confirmed with GolfChannel.com Tuesday that he has signed a contract extension.”
  • “If a company’s stated values are to provide equal opportunities for women to advance and succeed, why wouldn’t their marketing/sponsorship dollars reflect that?” Whan wrote. “How is it that nearly every company claims equal opportunity is a cornerstone of their business, but 95% of all corporate sports sponsorship dollars are spent on male sports? There is no doubt we’re at a tipping point and more executives, shareholders and investors are questioning whether their corporate values are reflected in every aspect of their company, including marketing and sponsorship decisions. Increased corporate support translates into more opportunities for women in golf and more opportunities for female athletes to be seen as role models of confidence, ability and accomplishment.”

Full piece.

3. Revamp for World Amateur Golf Ranking 
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”The World Amateur Golf Ranking is to receive a major revamp for the 2020 season. The R&A and USGA is instituting a new system called the “Power Method” to try to improve the way amateurs are ranked.”
  • “The governing bodies believe the new system will “better reflect the current performance of golfers by placing greater emphasis on current form and results by improving the algorithms used to determine the WAGR.”
  • “In the new structure, every event in the world will earn a power number based on the strength of its starting field, which will then determine the total number of ranking points on offer to the field. This will extend to a maximum of 1000 for amateur events, with players also able to gain ranking points from playing in professional tournaments.”

Full piece.

4. The hardest thing about the LPGA Tour? 
Golf Digest’s Keely Levins with this interesting tidbit…”Jeongeun Lee6 made the transition from the Korean LPGA Tour to the LPGA Tour in 2019, and her rookie year has been an undeniable success. She won the U.S. Women’s Open in May and had nine other top-10 finishes…”
  • “Through a translator, Lee6 noted that on the KLPGA, you can take a cart during the pro-ams. “But in LPGA,” she said, “you have to walk no matter what, even during the pro-am, and so that was like the most hardest thing I ever experienced.”
  • “Really? Harder than the grind of traveling across country? Harder than playing against elite competition every week? Harder than winning the U.S. Women’s Open?”
5. Wide open
The first of two pieces by Greg Hardwig at the Naples Daily News, syndicated in Golfweek…
  • “No more promotional photos for the top 5 or top 9 players with their hands on the $1 million box of cash this week.”
  • “Instead, there will be 60…Whoever wins Sunday will take home $1.5 million – to be clear, they automatically win the $1 million Race to the CME Globe and $500,000 for finishing first in the tournament. It’s the biggest winning check in women’s golf.”
  • “Previously, the winner of the Race to the CME Globe, which went through the entire LPGA Tour season, won $1 million, with the tournament champion winning $500,000.”
  • “The tournament purse also has been doubled, from $2.5 million to $5 million.”

Full piece.

6. Ramifications 
“NBC Sports Group today announced it has acquired EZLinks Golf, a PGA Tour-affiliated company, including Teeoff.com, its online tee-time marketplace for golfers, and its technology platforms, business solutions and customer service for golf course partners.”
  • “The move cements GolfNow as the 800-pound gorilla in the online tee-time category, but it won’t be welcomed by course owners and operators, The Forecaddie hears. An independent TeeOff.com, backed by the Tour’s marketing clout, was perceived as critical to a healthy, competitive marketplace. The combination of the two largest players in the category means that, more than ever, partnering with GolfNow becomes almost a cost of doing business.”
  • “Rumors of this move had been circulating for a few months. As one insider tells The Forecaddie, the industry should have felt “the tremors.” This puts into the hands of one entity upwards of 85 percent of the online tee-time inventory in the United States, according to sources.”

Full piece.

7. A golfer, a brain infection & one heckuva story
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall relays the story of Brett White…
  • “By the time he returned to the physician’s office, White was in terrible shape. He had a fever, was sweating uncontrollably and in a state that was as uncomfortable as it was unfamiliar. A lab nurse recognized White’s situation and called the doctor, who told White’s dad to get him to the emergency room, and fast.”
  • “When White was admitted to Spectrum Hospital, the medical staff believed he was suffering vertigo. Treatments for it, however, were ineffective, so they focused on White’s recent visits to South America, testing for malaria, Zika and Lyme disease. Those results were negative, leading to further examination, which included more blood samples, an MRI and a spinal tap.”
  • “After 10 days of analysis, White received an ultra-rare diagnosis of viral encephalitis secondary to Epstein Barr Virus (mononucleosis) infection with complications of ataxia. His brain was under attack by a virus and was swelling at an alarming rate.”
  • “I didn’t know, or wasn’t told, at the time,” White says, “but at that point my life was in serious jeopardy.”

Full piece.

8. Does the LPGA need American golfers to be good? 
That’s the question, in part, Greg Hardwig of the Naples Daily News, explores…
  • “The year-to-year, ongoing saga of where Americans stand on the LPGA Tour against the rest of the world appears to be in another downturn.”
  • “Does it really matter?…Maybe not to the tour itself, which has successfully marketed itself as a global tour and tapped into the Asian market, which continues to grow rapidly. Maybe not to the players that much. Golf’s an individual sport anyway, and many tour players are happy to have friends on the tour from other countries.”
  • “It matters to the tour in the aspect of people watching and your sponsors,” said former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis. “Your American players that are the ones that sell a little easier. On our side, for the players, we don’t care. I don’t see those other players as being Koreans or Japanese. They’re just people I want to beat.”

Full piece.

9. Rahm’s break
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”What prompted the break? Two reasons: next year is going to be a busier season than normal with the Olympics Games in Tokyo, and he decided to get a little practice as a family man.”
  • “It was more like a future thing. Knowing that with me getting married in Christmas, and the year we’re going to have, I needed a break at some point. I feel like that was the only time I could get a break to recharge a little bit and make sure, you know, I’m going to be fresh for next year.”
  • “Rahm and girlfriend Kelley got engaged last year, and the Spaniard has given himself quite a few brownie points ahead of the wedding.”
  • “I’m not going to lie. At first it was hard to step away from it a little bit. Honestly, I did nothing special. Just being a 25-year-old, enjoying time with my friends, enjoying time with Kelley. We spend so much of our life making decisions just for me and for my golf game, that it was nice just to, you know, tell her for a month straight, ‘What do you want to do?’ right, instead of what do I need to do. It was very nice to be able to do that. I wish I could do it every day of the year, but golf, it’s somewhat of a selfish sport in that sense.”

 

Your Reaction?
  • 3
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP1
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Related Topics:

GolfWRX Editor-in-Chief

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Jbone

    Nov 21, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    The LPGA is delusional. It’s a successful women’s sport but give me a break about wanting to get paid the same as the men. If you want to be paid like an elite athlete you have to compete with them. So come over and try to make that money on the mens tour

    Reply Report comment

    • Shallowface

      Nov 22, 2019 at 8:02 am

      No, we’ve seen that and it’s nothing more than a sideshow.

      If the LPGA or WNBA can figure out some way to draw the same size audience as their male counterparts, then the compensation will follow. But for anyone to expect more sponsorship dollars (which are in effect advertising dollars and advertising must reach a large audience. It’s why you see companies drop off the men’s tour. Often times it just isn’t money well spent) in the name of “equality” could certainly be characterised as delusional.

      Mike Whan understands that I’m sure, but part of keeping that job is to say the right things. So much of Corporate America today is about management appearing to be trying to do something, even if there is no possible way to accomplish it. The appearance is all that matters.

      Reply Report comment

  2. Shallowface

    Nov 21, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    The LPGA pay gap has nothing to do with discrimination due to gender and everything to do with attendance and television ratings.

    If Whan can bridge THAT gap, then the pay gap will close as well. All the best to him in that effort.

    Reply Report comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Equipment

Rickie Fowler’s new putter: Standard-length Odyssey Jailbird 380 in custom orange

Published

4 mins ago

on

May 8, 2024

By

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

…The Jailbird craze hasn’t really slowed down in 2024, either. According to Odyssey rep Joe Toulon, there are about 18-20 Jailbird putter users on the PGA TOUR.

Most recently, Akshay Bhatia won the 2024 Valero Texas Open using a broomstick-style Odyssey Jailbird 380 putter and Webb Simpson is switching into a replica of that putter at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Now, Fowler, who essentially started the whole Jailbird craze, is making a significant change to his putter setup.

Fowler, who has had a couple weeks off since the 2024 RBC Heritage, started experimenting with a new, custom-orange Jailbird 380 head that’s equipped with a standard 35-inch putter build, rather than his previous 38-inch counter-balanced setup.

According to Fowler, while he still likes the look and forgiveness of his Jailbird putter head, he’s looking to re-incorporate more feel into his hands during the putting stroke.

He told GolfWRX.com on Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Championship that the 38-inch counterbalanced setup “served its purpose” by helping him to neutralize his hands during the stroke, but now it’s time to try the standard-length putter with a standard-size SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip to help with his feel and speed control.

Although Fowler was also spotted testing standard-length mallets from L.A.B. Golf and Axis1 on Tuesday, he confirmed that the custom Odyssey Jailbird 380 is the putter he’ll use this week at the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship.

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

Your Reaction?
  • 1
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL0
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

Equipment

Details on Justin Thomas’ driver switch at the Wells Fargo Championship

Published

4 hours ago

on

May 8, 2024

By

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a piece our Andrew Tursky originally wrote for PGATour.com’s Equipment Report. Head over there for the full article. 

So, with a couple of weeks off following his latest start at the 2024 RBC Heritage, Thomas sought to re-address his driver setup with the remote help of Titleist Tour fitting expert J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. About two weeks ago, Thomas and Van Wezenbeeck reviewed his recent driver stats, and discussed via phone call some possible driver and shaft combinations for him to try.

After receiving Van Wezenbeeck’s personalized shipment of product options while at home, Thomas found significant performance improvements with Titleist’s TSR2 head, equipped with Thomas’ familiar Mitsubishi Diamana ZF 60 TX shaft.

Compared to Thomas’ longtime TSR3 model, the TSR2 has a larger footprint and offers slightly higher spin and launch characteristics.

According to Van Wezenbeeck, Thomas has picked up about 2-3 mph of ball speed, to go along with 1.5 degrees higher launch and more predictable mishits.

“I’d say I’d been driving it fine, not driving it great, so I just wanted to, honestly, just test or try some stuff,” Thomas said on Tuesday in an interview with GolfWRX.com at Quail Hollow Club. “I had used that style of head a couple years ago (Thomas used a TSi2 driver around 2021); I know it’s supposed to have a little more spin. Obviously, yeah, I’d love to hit it further, but if I can get a little more spin and have my mishits be a little more consistent, I felt like obviously that’d be better for my driving…

“This (TSR2) has been great. I’ve really, really driven it well the week I’ve used it. Just hitting it more solid, I don’t know if it’s the look of it or what it is, but just a little bit more consistent with the spin numbers. Less knuckle-ball curves. It has been fast. Maybe just a little faster than what I was using. Maybe it could be something with the bigger head, maybe mentally it looks more forgiving.”

Head over to PGATour.com for the full article. 

 

Your Reaction?
  • 3
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK2

Continue Reading

News

5 fall golf trip destinations you should book right now

Published

4 hours ago

on

May 8, 2024

By

The 2024 golf season is in full swing with the warm weather settling in and those long summer days right around the corner, but what if we told you that you should be thinking about golf this fall? While it may seem to be a ways away, now is the perfect time to start putting together your end-of-season fall golf trip. 

Courses are in great shape, the weather is more enjoyable as temps cool off, and your golf game is in peak condition after playing all summer! The best part about fall golf trips is that there are some great deals to be found at golf destinations across the country! Additionally, you can get away to the Caribbean on an all-inclusive trip or travel across the pond for some links golf in the UK or Ireland before the end of their golf season in October. 

If you are happy to stay stateside this fall, here are the best golf destinations you should book for your fall trip.

Myrtle Beach, SC 

Commonly known as the “Golf Capital of the World”, this coastal destination is home to over 200 golf courses making it the ideal location for a golf trip! If you’re looking for golf and accommodation onsite, choose from a wide range of resorts including favorites like Barefoot and Legends. Alternatively, you could rent a house or stay by the beach and play top tracks like Caledonia, Grande Dunes, Pine Lakes, True Blue, TPC Myrtle Beach and many more! With a plethora of options, you will be able to customize your trip to stay within budget! Fall in South Carolina is a golfer’s paradise with minimal rain, sunny skies, and temperatures in the low 80s (dipping into the 70s in later fall with lower humidity), the perfect combination for a golf trip.

Scottsdale, AZ 

If you’ve never played golf in the desert, fall is the best time to do so and there is no better selection of desert layouts than Scottsdale. With a wide variety of golf resorts, courses, and attractions, it is easy to see why many professional golfers call this place home. Enjoy a golf and city trip with a stay close to the nightlife in Old Town and a tour of the local courses like Raven, McCormick Ranch, and Ocotillo. Head north of the city with a resort stay at The Westin Kierland or Hyatt Regency and play some Championship courses like TPC Scottsdale, Troon North, or Grayhawk. Or head out to the fabulous We-Ko-Pa Resort  and Golf Club and indulge in the ultimate desert golf experience. The weather in Scottsdale will be very warm (mid to high 80s), with cloudless skies and green grass contrasting the desert landscape.

Orlando, FL 

The golf mecca in the state of Florida, Orlando is a great golf destination any time of the year, but fall is really where it flourishes. Course conditions are impeccable, the weather is warm with fading humidity, and there are a multitude of off-course activities for the whole family. Stay & play at some of the best golf resorts like Reunion and Omni Championsgate or tick off a bucket list course when you visit Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill. A few other reasons this destination is so popular is the wide variety of rental houses throughout the area, perfect for a large group and the quality courses to choose from including Waldorf Astoria, Celebration, Shingle Creek, and the three Disney courses! With easy accessibility through the MCO Airport, Orlando is a no-brainer for a fall golf trip.

Las Vegas, NV 

PAIUTE GOLF RESORT – LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

A destination often overlooked when it comes to golf, Las Vegas in the fall is a wonderful treat! A stay on the iconic Las Vegas Strip gives you a wide range of 3 to 5-star hotel options within walking distance to the city’s biggest entertainment venues, casinos, restaurants, and more! For golf options, you will need to travel outside of the city (roughly 20 mins) to play some incredible desert layouts like Rio Secco, Revere, Cascata, and the trio of courses at Paiute Golf Resort. If you fancy a longer day trip, you can always take the hour-long drive up to Mesquite and play Wolf Creek and Conestoga for a pure desert golf experience. 

Alabama – Robert Trent Jones Trail 

If you’re a golf nerd (like me) and you’re looking for something a little different for your trip, look no further than the incredible RTJ Trail in Alabama. The Trail spans 11 different locations across the state with over 400 holes of golf all designed by legendary course designer Robert Trent Jones, Sr. The more popular courses on the trail are in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Auburn, making it perfect for an extended trip. Some of the best courses on the trail include Ross Bridge, Grand National (2 courses) and Capitol Hill (3 courses).Weather-wise, fall is the best time to hit the trail with average temps hovering around 80s (dipping into the 70s as fall goes on) with a limited amount of rainfall. The summer months are usually where the pricing is the highest so you can find the best deals in the fall with courses still in good condition. 

There has already been a huge uptick in fall golf trip bookings, so make sure to start planning now to get the travel dates and tee times you want for your group! 

Editor’s note: This article is presented in partnership with Golfbreaks. When you make a purchase through links in this article, GolfWRX may earn an affiliate commission. 

RELATED: 7 PGA TOUR courses you need to play

  

Your Reaction?
  • 1
  • LEGIT0
  • WOW0
  • LOL1
  • IDHT0
  • FLOP0
  • OB0
  • SHANK0

Continue Reading

WITB

Whats in the Bag54 mins ago

Akshay Bhatia WITB 2024 (May)

Akshay Bhatia what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. Bhatia is deciding between drivers. More photos...
Whats in the Bag1 hour ago

Emiliano Grillo WITB 2024 (May)

Emiliano Grillo what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Callaway...
Whats in the Bag23 hours ago

Webb Simpson WITB 2024 (May)

Webb Simpson what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver:...
Whats in the Bag24 hours ago

Keegan Bradley WITB 2024 (May)

Keegan Bradley’s WITB accurate as of the Wells Fargo Championship. >14 clubs pictured. Obviously, Bradley will reduce that number to...

Facebook

Trending