Moving Into a New Age : LPGA Adds Events, Money as the Tour Gets Younger and Increasingly International

Hey LPGA, welcome to the young and the restless.

The organization is hardly a soap opera, but the influx of young players, foreign players and a new market-conscious commissioner has brought the 1996 LPGA tour interest and intrigue that could put it on the brink of unprecedented success.

Karrie Webb burst onto the scene by winning twice and finishing second in her first three tournaments.

She has gone on to win three and has 14 top-10 finishes in 23 starts. Already the rookie of the year, she can end up the as overall player of the year and money leader as well. That’s a trifecta that only Nancy Lopez achieved in 1978.

Webb, whose youth--she’ll be 22 in December--and attitude have already made her a gallery favorite, has been in a season-long battle with Laura Davies for the money and points crowns.

And Webb is not alone.

Liselotte Neumann of Sweden, 22, has also won three tournaments, the first of which was an impressive 11-stroke victory at the Tournament of Champions.

It was so easy, so fast that Neumann nearly apologized for it, saying, “I wish I won a smaller one first--I have nothing else to look forward to.”

Then there is Emilee Klein, who left Arizona State after her sophomore season because the amateurs weren’t good enough to compete with her. She has won two tournaments in 1996, including the women’s British Open.

Klein was disappointed, however, when she was passed over--because of her youth--by Judy Rankin to play in the Solheim Cup, the biennial match-play competition between players on the European tour and the American tour.

There was some irony in that, considering that Rankin joined the tour as a teenager and had far less success initially than Klein is enjoying.

On the other hand, Rankin’s job as captain of the victorious U.S. team may rank as the best in Cup history.

Certainly it was one of the most exciting. Michelle McGann’s performance while matched against the British Davies was a key to the U.S. victory.

If the LPGA is getting younger, it’s also getting an accent. Fifteen of the 33 tournaments so far in 1996 have been won by foreign players. Davies has won four tournaments--two of them majors--and is second on the money list. Swedes Annika Sorenstam, 26, and Neumann have won three times each, and Webb, an Australian, has also won three.

Not that the Americans have stepped aside. Dottie Pepper has won four tournaments, and Meg Mallon two. McGann, who joined the tour at 18 right out of high school, finally emerged last year, her seventh on the tour, with two victories, and she has three this year.

It seems the competition has rarely been better.

Even so, the tour still had some embarrassing scheduling gaps and no season wrap-up tournament as it began 1996.

New Commissioner Jim Ritts has acknowledged the problems and moved to correct them. The tour grew by two events to 39 in 1996--the significant addition being a tour-end championship in Las Vegas--and the 1997 schedule will have 43 tournaments.

Perhaps the most important addition for 1997 is a local one. The Los Angeles Women’s Championships will be played at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale Feb. 20-22.

Many on the tour considered the six- to seven-week gap in January and February a major detriment. The Los Angeles stop is expected to attract all the top players and, along with the Palm Beach National Pro-Am Feb. 6-9, give the tour continuity.

The money is growing too. In 1994, the LPGA’s combined purses amounted to $21.9 million. That figure grew to $24.4 million--an 11.4% increase--in 1995 and was up another 5.7% to $25.8 million this season. The purse will increase about 19% to $30.1 million for the 1997 tour.