OPINION: The LPGA Just Tore Out Its Own Heart

Eliminating the long standing ANA is a major disservice to women’s pro golf.

It was the spring of 1988. Amy Alcott stood on the 18th green at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage, California, with 3 putts to win her second career Nabisco Dinah Shore. After tapping in from a couple of inches, Alcott and caddie Bill Kurre became trendsetters following their shared hug.

Totally spontaneous, Amy Alcott and Kurre took a running leap into what is now known as Poppie’s Pond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by The Chevron Championship (@anainspiration)

Three years later, Alcott repeated her major win at Mission Hills and leaped into the pond with her caddie once again. This time, Dinah Shore, the Hollywood icon who founded the tournament to help grow the game of women’s golf, joined Amy in taking the plunge. It’s an image chiseled into the stone tablet of LPGA memories.

It’s been a tradition for every winner of the Dinah Shore, now the ANA, since 1994.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 The only other professional golf tournament that has been played consecutively in one location for longer than this LPGA is the Masters. That’s how big this tournament is. Or should we now say how big this tournament was?

Sadly, the new top management of the LPGA is turning that “is” into a “was” because the 2022 edition of the ANA is the end of the line for the first major of the year. And honestly, this is one of the most insulting things the LPGA could do to their tour and women’s professional golf.

Forget tradition. Forget history. Forget status and celebration. Forget Dinah’s legacy of fighting for equal pay and equal playing fields for women in the work and sports world. Forget the unique that is splashing into Poppie’s after winning. Forget what this tournament is all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by KINONA GOLF & LIFE (@_kinona)

New LPGA Tour leader Mollie Marcoux Samaan is throwing this all away for a bigger check and TV coverage while simultaneously destroying their stone tablet legacy. And this makes me sick to my stomach.

Now, as a general manager for a media company myself, I get the need for growth. The LPGA has remained relatively stagnant for many years in viewership and attendance and news to grow.

Now my personal work goal is to raise revenue and return for my clients whose businesses also need that boost by using the right products and solutions. Simultaneously I’m finding the right products to help our customers that also help my company’s owners and investors.

There are times when you’ve just got to say, “Dammit, I know we need a big refresh here. Despite calls for eliminating this, we’re going to work to preserve the brand while growing the future, and if it takes a little while longer to get where we want it to be then so be it. Work smarter and grow better to get where we need to be.”

I was faced with possibly tearing down a long standing radio brand in my cluster that was very long in the tooth. We looked at every possibility and realized the brand was still held in high regard as a name but the product was being terribly delivered. Destroying this heritage moniker would’ve been a disservice to the community we serve. Instead, we completely retooled, redesigned, and reset the future for that station. How’s the performance been since? This brand has grown by almost 35% in revenue this year alone. Listeners have returned because we brought it back with a proud, strong presence and a much better product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The thing about the ANA, or Dinah Shore if you like, is that it wasn’t and isn’t on life support. Yes, it needed to possibly be moved or adjusted schedule wise, but to throw the baby out with Poppie’s Pond’s water? No, not at all, and for nothing more than instant greed.

ANA wanted to pull back after financial challenges from the international travel slowdown of the pandemic. OK, and I get this. Couldn’t the new sponsor of the future Texas event and host of the 2022 edition keep this tournament in California? 

No offense to many of my friends who live in the Lone Star State (I do have a good number of them), but recent actions against women’s health and choice don’t really jive with Dinah’s legacy or make the idea of hosting this major look like the best PR move either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Masters and Augusta National have been a PGA staple longer than the ANA but also endured and survived its own controversies than anything ever in Mission Hills hosting history. But The Masters wasn’t moved. We look at the Masters with the reverence it deserves. Why isn’t this the same for the second longest tournament in pro golf at the same site?

It’s because Mollie Marcoux Samaan is short of sight. Yeah, a big check for six years is nice, but it’s not going to be in Rancho Mirage, it’s not going to have the iconic pond celebration, and it’s not going to be about the legacy and work for equality and growth by the Dinah Shore.

This major is now going to be just a big check and a cheap replacement for one of golf’s great traditions. So I say congratulations to Mollie, because with one stroke of the pen the new boss of the LPGA Tour just tore its own heart out.

Cover Image Via Instagram