New chief Michael Whan tries to point LPGA in right direction

Michael Whan considers himself somewhat of a fix-it man, so his association with the LPGA Tour is sort of a mixed blessing.

The good news is he’s here, having taken over as LPGA commissioner in October and instantly becoming the man who could save the LPGA Tour, someone veteran golfer Juli Inkster calls “decisive and organized.”

The bad news is that this is a tour in need of saving.

The LPGA has been hemorrhaging tournaments and title sponsors over the last two years, partly because of the downturn in the economy and partly because of mistakes made under the leadership of Carolyn Bivens, the commissioner he succeeded.

But Whan has reason for optimism as he prepares to oversee the Kraft Nabisco Championship beginning Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Over the last three months, he has managed to add three tournaments to bolster a seriously thin LPGA Tour schedule and said Wednesday that another will be announced in the next 30 days.

That will bring the 2010 LPGA tournament schedule to 26 official events, still well short of the 34 that were played in 2008 but better than the 22-tournament schedule he inherited from Bivens.

“This is probably a sick thing to admit, but every place I’ve gone in my career, I’ve gone when the business was less than perfect,” said Whan, who had been a veteran executive in the world of sports equipment. “And this is no different. Everyone is aware that the LPGA business is not perfect, but I find that’s when you can make the biggest impact.”

His biggest impact so far has been to quiet the turmoil that has plagued the tour for the last two years. And that is plenty.

“He’s very honest with us and he tells us the way it is,” Inskter said. “He’s got passion and he really wants to make this work. He’s going at it like he doesn’t know it all and he doesn’t pretend to know it all. He’s not afraid to ask for help and get guidance and I think that’s a sign of a good leader.”

When he arrived, the outlook was grim. Longtime sponsors were dropping out throughout 2008 and 2009. Some, such as Ginn Resorts and Stanford Financial, were victims of the bad economy. Others, however, simply refused to give in to additional financial demands placed on sponsors by Bivens and her team.

Bivens, who could not be reached for comment, had asked sponsors to pay additional money to help offset television broadcasting fees, among other things. It didn’t help that she had created a storm of controversy during her term over several issues, including pushing players to become proficient in English. Sponsors, already wary, balked at paying more and the LPGA lost tournaments, which is a quick way to grab the attention of the players.

In July 2009, a group of high-profile players — among them Lorena Ochoa, Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer, Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel — revolted in what is best described as a coup. A few weeks later, Bivens resigned.

“More tournaments is the most important thing for the LPGA right now,” said Sherri Steinhauer, one of seven LPGA player-directors, who are the liaisons between players and tour management. “I know commissioner Whan is trying his hardest to fill those gaps. He wants playing opportunities. He hears us in that we want more opportunities to play. It’s not easy with the economy the way it is, but we know he’s going to be working his magic.”

His “magic” is a lot of talk right now — communicating regularly with sponsors and potential sponsors. He said he has spoken with every sponsor that left the tour and is in serious negotiations to bring at least two of them back.

He also secured several new sponsors, a difficult feat in tough economic times. Title sponsors generally pay in the $3-million to $4-million range.

“There’s a whole number of things that we looked at to make sure that this was worth the investment,” said Michael Sprague, vice president of marketing for Kia, which sponsored last week’s Kia Classic, and also signed an endorsement deal with Michelle Wie. “We liked the brand of the LPGA. We think it’s a brand in transformation.”

Whan used the term “re-emerging” to describe the current state of the LPGA. In addition to the loss of tournaments, the LPGA has lost television time. New television contracts with the Golf Channel and overseas partnerships with Korea’s J Golf will help bring viewers back to the tour, but television deals won’t help if there aren’t tournaments to televise.

“I realize it’s not an overnight thing,” Whan, 45, said. “You’re talking to somebody about three or four million a year, it’s not the kind of thing that someone will say let’s go. It’s not a fast process.”

Getting the sponsors is only part of the issue. Keeping them, preferably in long-term deals, is another.

“We’re tied to the business partners we’re with,” Whan said. “If they’re hurting, we’re hurting. And quite frankly, one of the things we learned in 2008 and 2009 is to really respect that. If they are hurting, we need to be helping. Maybe in 2008 and 2009, we missed some opportunities to be that helping hand.”

But nobody expects things to change overnight.

“Of course we’d like more tournaments,” Inkster said. “But everybody knew going in to this year where we were at.…We all kind of expected it, but it was better than I thought it was going to be. You know, 2011 might be a little skimpy again, but I really think we’re going to be just fine.”

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