What constitutes a win in 2020? Stacy Lewis wondered if the LPGA would get to play at all the rest of this year. She wasn’t alone.
While the PGA Tour rolled across the United States in June and July, tweaking its protective bubble and providing entertainment for a sports-craved world, LPGA players teed it up in whatever events they could find: The Cactus Tour. Women’s All Pro Tour. Eggland’s Best Tour. Rose Ladies Series. Clutch Pro Tour. Irish Scratch Series.
The paycheck amounts didn’t matter. Just the feel of a scorecard in the back pocket and the rush of adrenaline that comes with tournament golf.
Will the best fly to Scotland next month to tee it up in the LPGA’s first major of 2020, the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon?
The Forecaddie wouldn’t be surprised if a few chose to stay home after weighing the risks that come with traveling in the era of COVID-19. Many international players already decided not to come over for the tour’s July 31 restart at the LPGA Drive On Championship in Toledo, Ohio, including Inbee Park, So Yeon Ryu, Charley Hull and Georgia Hall.
A total of 14 LPGA events have been canceled so far in 2020. There are 17 events left on the calendar, including four majors and the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship.
If fans aren’t allowed in certain hot spots around the country, more events might decide to skip this year. The LPGA business model relies more heavily on pro-ams and ticket sales in the absence of a big television rights windfall than does the PGA Tour. But the majors should be able to carry on “behind closed doors,” as the Brits like to say.
With China recently canceling all international events for the remainder of the year, the LPGA lost its fall Shanghai event. There are three Asian tournaments in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan still left on the schedule.
Perhaps the LPGA will look into adding a second event in South Korea for the fall swing, given how successfully the Korean LPGA has carried on since May. In looking ahead to December, the last two events on the LPGA calendar – the U.S. Women’s Open and CME Group Tour Championship – together offer $10.5 million in prize money.
Who cares if anyone is there to see it in person? The Man Out Front is here to tell you that a fan-free zone does nothing to diminish the triumph of winning and hosting big events in the wake of a global pandemic. There will be an asterisk beside these events, but not because it took any less moxie to win them.
The financial hardships of the women’s game have been exposed even more during this turbulent time in the simple fact that not a single woman has been seen on television playing live golf – for charity or otherwise – in this country since last winter.
Mercifully, that’s about to change. Gwk
This article originally appeared in Issue 3 – 2020 of Golfweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.