The 19^th Hole

April 30, 2006

Not Giving In

The LPGA Tour does not get a lot of air time on network television.  This weekend, the Tour got a few hours of its Ginn Resorts event in Florida broadcast on CBS.  There will be only five tournaments for the rest of this year that will be on network television.  Basically, any time that the LPGA Tour is on network TV is a blessing because it gives the circuit a much broader audience than it usually gets.  With no offense to ESPN or The Golf Channel, which broadcast a number of LPGA events between them, CBS is a much bigger deal.

That’s why a decision made by the LPGA Championship found, with support of the Tour, this week could prove to be a bad one.  CBS asked the LPGA Championship, one of the Tour’s major championships, to alter its scheduling to finish at 3pm on Sunday starting in 2007.  They made this request because CBS will be picking up the PGA Tour event during that same week as part of the new television contract and would prefer to show the PGA Tour in the afternoons because they draw higher ratings.  CBS probably expected that the LPGA Championship would concede the time change and the situation would be resolved.

Tournament founder Herb Lotman had other thoughts.  Instead of bowing to CBS pressure, he decided to take his major championship elsewhere.  Starting next year, the LPGA Championship will be broadcast exclusively on The Golf Channel.  (In the recent past, they broadcast coverage of the first two rounds of the tournament.)  The Golf Channel will give the event primetime billing and full team coverage during the week.  The LPGA Championship will get the royal treatment that is usually reserved for PGA Tour events.

But at what cost?  It is a rarity for sports that are not part of the Big Four to get network time and an opportunity to showcase its talent.  This new deal means that the LPGA Tour has one less chance to show just how far the Tour has come, even in the past few years.  That’s certainly a detriment in a time when the LPGA Tour has arguably never been better.  A crop of young talent has arrived on the Tour and is changing the face of women’s golf and how it is perceived.  Throw in the greatest female player ever and a supporting cast of other successful players and you have a potential winner.  And, for as much as some people hate to admit it, the Tour has sexed up its image to some degree and it has been effective.  The LPGA Tour is now an exciting, viable product and is now presenting one less tournament in a truly national spotlight.

Mr. Lotman made the right decision, though.  It is because the LPGA Tour product has never been more exciting that this migration had to be made. 

The Tour should not feel forced to bow down to network pressure just because this is an opportunity to catch some extra casual viewers looking for sports on a weekend afternoon.  With the Internet, cable television, and the explosion of media, the LPGA Tour has a lot of options to get its tournaments increased exposure and grow its fan base.  The Golf Channel will treat the LPGA Championship right.  The LPGA Championship will also benefit because TGC is likely to get more regular viewers because of their agreement to broadcast PGA Tour events starting next year. 

As it turns out, the LPGA Championship may actually be better off as a result of this move.  The tournament will finally get billing as a major championship with a significant history instead of getting the B-minus team from CBS Sports.  True LPGA fans will migrate to TGC for the event and viewership will probably not decrease.  Sometimes bigger is not better, and this is one of those times.

Ryan Ballengee is host of The 19^th Hole Golf Show, found at The Golf Newsnet.com.  You can also get The 19^th Hole on the go through podcasting by clicking here Feedburner.com - The 19th Hole Golf Show.  Contact Ryan via e-mail at the19thholeshow@hotmail.com.

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