Golf / Randy Harvey : LPGA Suffers From an Identity Crisis in Effort to Fend Off Senior Tour

A question that has been asked often in recent months is whether there is room in the United States for three professional golf tours.

Although the LPGA remains No. 2 to the PGA in the size of purses offered and attendance, the Senior PGA tour has made significant strides.

Since 1980, the LPGA’s schedule has been reduced from 40 to 36 tournaments. Meanwhile, the senior tour has expanded from 2 to 35 events.

The senior tour will be further strengthened within the next three years, when Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino become eligible on their 50th birthdays.

In a recent article about the LPGA, Golf Digest referred to it as the troubled tour. Golf World recently called 1987 a make-or-break year for the LPGA.

“I think that’s a little extreme,” said Don Stirling, the LPGA’s director of marketing.

“Obviously, we’re not on the brink. We’re playing for $11 million this year, which is almost $1 million more than last year, and we’ve got more live network exposure than we’ve ever had.

“But it has been and always will be a challenge. We’re one of the best-kept secrets out there.”

After 3 1/2 years as director of sponsorship sales for the NBA, Stirling, son of New York Knick General Manager Scotty Stirling, became the LPGA’s first full-time marketing director in January.

He said his first priority is to develop more marquee names among LPGA players.

Anyone wondering whether that is necessary has only to look at the GNA-Glendale Federal Tournament this week at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.

Even though the tournament has an outstanding field, including Pat Bradley, Jan Stephenson, Amy Alcott and Juli Inkster, there has been some disappointment because Nancy Lopez is not entered.

“We shouldn’t be in the position where our life is hanging in the balance of one player,” Stirling said. “Nancy would be the first to admit there should be more players who have instant recognition.

“Pat Bradley is the first LPGA player to win $2 million. She won more than $500,000 last year. But when you mention Pat Bradley, it doesn’t ring a bell like it should.

“It’s a tough sale, but we have our niche. With more national sponsors, additions to our schedule and television exposure, no one is going to have to ask who Juli Inkster is.”

One player Stirling does not have to sell is Stephenson. She has done a remarkable job of that herself.

“Sponsors want Jan Stephenson,” Stirling said. “Most marketing people want somebody very attractive. That’s been her marketing plan through the calendar, to sell the glamorous side along with her golf abilities.”

But Stephenson’s strategy probably would have failed had she not had considerable talent in golf.

“The bottom line is that most people in this country want to be associated with winners,” Stirling said.

Trivia Question: Which American professional golfers have won the most tournaments in the ‘80s?

(Answer to follow.)

Lopez will be in Southern California this week, but not to play in Glendale.

Before the 1987 schedule was released, she committed to appear along with Fuzzy Zoeller at an Oldsmobile promotion in Laguna Niguel. Coincidentally, Oldsmobile also is one of the Glendale tournament’s sponsors.

Her appearance in Laguna Niguel will be a violation of the LPGA’s conflicting events rule, which is designed to discourage players from participating in another golf function within 100 miles of a tournament.

The rule carries a fine to be determined by the commissioner, but each player is allowed one exemption a year.

Lopez earlier had been announced as one of the participants in a nine-hole skins game, starting at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Oakmont. The 72-hole tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday and end Sunday.

Inkster, the tour’s third-leading money winner last year, will replace Lopez in the skins game. Others are Bradley, 1986 LPGA player of the year, defending tournament champion Chris Johnson and Amy Alcott.

The format will be the same that is used in television’s Skins Game each fall. The first three holes are each worth $500, the next three $750 and the final three $1,000.

A player has to win the hole outright to win the money. If there is no winner on a hole, the money is carried over to the next hole.

Trivia Answer: Even though he hasn’t won a tournament since the Western Open in 1984, Tom Watson leads the PGA in victories during the ‘80s with 18. Lopez won her 18th tournament of the ‘80s two weeks ago in Sarasota, Fla., to lead the LPGA in victories. Two other LPGA players, Alcott and Patty Sheehan, have won 17 tournaments in the ‘80s.

Golf Notes Oakmont is the most challenging course on the LPGA tour. Jan Stephenson won the first tournament there two years ago with a 72-hole total of 290, two over par. Chris Johnson won last year, when the tournament was shortened to 54 holes because of rain, by shooting 212, four under par, but only one other player, runner-up Jane Geddes at 214, shot better than par. . . . The LPGA rates the par-4, 400-yard No. 8 at Oakmont as the tour’s most difficult hole. The par-4, 405-yard 13th is rated eighth.

Mac O’Grady told the Associated Press that he won’t enter the Los Angeles Open next year at Riviera. “You’re at the mercy of the frivolous conditions of a putting surface,” he said after finishing 45th in this year’s L.A. Open. “They are so inconsistent. That’s why the Nicklauses and the Watsons and those players don’t come back. It’s too much like a public golf course.” . . . There is a tournament at Rolling Hills Country Club on March 16 to benefit the infirm and retired priests of Mt. Carmel High School. For information on how to enter, contact Moe Chaney at (213) 425-8260 or Jack Putney at (213) 698-6741.

The California Women’s Amateur tournament, played for 20 years at Pebble Beach, has been moved to the Carmel Valley Golf and Country Club at Quail Lodge. It is scheduled for Dec. 1-6. . . . Channel 10 in Palm Springs has a new half-hour golf show Saturdays at 6 p.m. Produced by Kathy Bissell, it has segments on resorts, rules, advice from PGA tour professionals and interviews.

Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament at Muirfield is scheduled for May 28-31, the weekend after Memorial Day, so that it won’t conflict with the European PGA tournament. Nicklaus, who wants an international field, has invited Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ken Brown, Howard Clark and Jose-Maria Olazabal.