Retirement at 43: How Swede Is That?

If he thought he was busy as commissioner of the LPGA for the last 6 1/2 years, Ty Votaw is really kicking it into gear now.

He runs 30 to 40 minutes every day on the streets outside his home in Daytona Beach, Fla. He reads every day and just finished a 700-page book. He spends some time every day learning Swedish and has a handle on some of the basic stuff, such as “god morgon” is “good morning.”

And, also every day, he is learning to recharge.

Learning Swedish might be the most difficult part of his new life, said Votaw, but he also figures it might be the most worthwhile, because it would mean something to his girlfriend, Sophie Gustafson, an LPGA player who is from Saro, Sweden.

Leaning the days of the week and to count from one to 12 in Swedish was a breeze for Votaw, but figuring out how to speak a new language is not that simple, he said.

“It’s like Steve Martin said about learning French, ‘They have a different word for everything,’ ” Votaw said.

These days there’s a new word in Votaw’s vocabulary: retirement. Well, not exactly, but for a while anyway, until he figures out what he’s going to do next, how he’s going to follow up his term presiding over the most important period of growth in the 55-year history of the LPGA.

Last week at the Solheim Cup was Votaw’s farewell tournament, where new Commissioner Carolyn Bivens took over as the first female commissioner of the ladies pro golf tour.

Chances are Bivens will discover she has a tough act to follow.

Votaw was 37 when he took over the LPGA in 1999, a time when only 12 tournaments on the schedule offered at least $1 million in prize money. This year, there are 31 tournaments with an average of $1.4 million in prize money.

Votaw’s tenure coincided with an influx of international stars such as Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, Karrie Webb of Australia and Se Ri Pak of South Korea that made the LPGA more competitive than ever. And in addition to influencing the tournament purses to be beefed up, Votaw was at the helm for an increase in attendance, television viewership, sponsorship dollars and tournament value.

Some of these advances on his watch, such as the influx of South Korean players, might be traced to the simple evolution of the LPGA, but there’s usually nothing simple about the LPGA and it would be naive to undervalue Votaw’s impact on what was a small, niche sport.

Women’s golf may still be a niche sport, but it clearly occupies a larger niche than prior to Votaw’s arrival on the scene. That’s probably why he had one of those snapshot moments at the Solheim Cup.

“I don’t know if I could have picked a more perfect intersection of where the LPGA has been and where it’s going,” he said. “You had the international diversity represented on the European team and the great veterans and rookies represented on the U.S. team.

“It was a great week for me to make an exit.”

Votaw said he believes his greatest achievement was a players-only summit in 2003 where he sold the players on a fans-first platform, based on his now-famous “five points of celebrity.”

That list included performance, relevance, joy and passion, approachability and appearance -- but it was the last one that caught everyone’s attention.

The LPGA was selling the looks of its players? Exactly. The buzz that campaign produced is still around. It’s just that Votaw isn’t.

Right now, he’s somewhere else, picking his spots, willing to allow someone else to judge his performance.

“Defining legacy should be left to others, but I’m proud of what the organization achieved,” he said.

“I’ve taken the LPGA as far as I could take it and it’s time for somebody else.”

That would be Bivens, a sales and marketing expert. Having ability in both fields will come in handy now.

Votaw said he feels as though the LPGA is in a good place right now for his replacement.

“She’s got a lot of stories to tell and I think she’ll do a good job,” he said.

In the meantime, Votaw has stories to read. He has John Irving and Pat Conroy books on his list and he’s even thinking about writing one of his own. It won’t be a tell-all, he said, but an “observation memoir.”

If things go well, maybe he’ll even write it in Swedish.