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Morning 9: Whan emphasizes tour pay gap | Plenty of support for Fowler | WAGR revamp

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6 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt
Email me at ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com and find me at @benalberstadt on Instagram and golfwrxEIC on Twitter.

November 21, 2019

Good Thursday morning, golf fans. Today is somehow my brother’s 31st birthday (and he’s soon to be a father). Tempus fugit! 
 
**Just a reminder we’re looking for advertisers for 2020. Drop me a line if you’d like to talk about getting your message in front of the M9 readership.** 

 
1. Plenty of support for Rickie
There was, however, plenty of support for Fowler as the late addition to the team.
  • “Rickie loves the stage. A lot like a Phil Mickelson or now hanging around Kevin Kisner some, there’s some guys that like to walk out on the final green and make that putt, they want the ball with no time on the clock and Rickie’s that guy,” Davis Love III said. “It’s unfortunate for Brooks, but I think they picked up an all-around team guy both playing and in the team room, so I’m excited for him.”
2. Whan emphasizes pay gap in letter
Fresh off a contract extension, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan penned a letter to tour members and sponsors.
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”He put special emphasis on the LPGA’s opportunity to advance larger causes, including closing the gender pay gap.”
  • “Mike Whan doesn’t intend to leave the LPGA anytime soon. With his contract set to expire late next year, Whan confirmed with GolfChannel.com Tuesday that he has signed a contract extension.”
  • “If a company’s stated values are to provide equal opportunities for women to advance and succeed, why wouldn’t their marketing/sponsorship dollars reflect that?” Whan wrote. “How is it that nearly every company claims equal opportunity is a cornerstone of their business, but 95% of all corporate sports sponsorship dollars are spent on male sports? There is no doubt we’re at a tipping point and more executives, shareholders and investors are questioning whether their corporate values are reflected in every aspect of their company, including marketing and sponsorship decisions. Increased corporate support translates into more opportunities for women in golf and more opportunities for female athletes to be seen as role models of confidence, ability and accomplishment.”

Full piece.

3. Revamp for World Amateur Golf Ranking 
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”The World Amateur Golf Ranking is to receive a major revamp for the 2020 season. The R&A and USGA is instituting a new system called the “Power Method” to try to improve the way amateurs are ranked.”
  • “The governing bodies believe the new system will “better reflect the current performance of golfers by placing greater emphasis on current form and results by improving the algorithms used to determine the WAGR.”
  • “In the new structure, every event in the world will earn a power number based on the strength of its starting field, which will then determine the total number of ranking points on offer to the field. This will extend to a maximum of 1000 for amateur events, with players also able to gain ranking points from playing in professional tournaments.”

Full piece.

4. The hardest thing about the LPGA Tour? 
Golf Digest’s Keely Levins with this interesting tidbit…”Jeongeun Lee6 made the transition from the Korean LPGA Tour to the LPGA Tour in 2019, and her rookie year has been an undeniable success. She won the U.S. Women’s Open in May and had nine other top-10 finishes…”
  • “Through a translator, Lee6 noted that on the KLPGA, you can take a cart during the pro-ams. “But in LPGA,” she said, “you have to walk no matter what, even during the pro-am, and so that was like the most hardest thing I ever experienced.”
  • “Really? Harder than the grind of traveling across country? Harder than playing against elite competition every week? Harder than winning the U.S. Women’s Open?”
5. Wide open
The first of two pieces by Greg Hardwig at the Naples Daily News, syndicated in Golfweek…
  • “No more promotional photos for the top 5 or top 9 players with their hands on the $1 million box of cash this week.”
  • “Instead, there will be 60…Whoever wins Sunday will take home $1.5 million – to be clear, they automatically win the $1 million Race to the CME Globe and $500,000 for finishing first in the tournament. It’s the biggest winning check in women’s golf.”
  • “Previously, the winner of the Race to the CME Globe, which went through the entire LPGA Tour season, won $1 million, with the tournament champion winning $500,000.”
  • “The tournament purse also has been doubled, from $2.5 million to $5 million.”

Full piece.

6. Ramifications 
“NBC Sports Group today announced it has acquired EZLinks Golf, a PGA Tour-affiliated company, including Teeoff.com, its online tee-time marketplace for golfers, and its technology platforms, business solutions and customer service for golf course partners.”
  • “The move cements GolfNow as the 800-pound gorilla in the online tee-time category, but it won’t be welcomed by course owners and operators, The Forecaddie hears. An independent TeeOff.com, backed by the Tour’s marketing clout, was perceived as critical to a healthy, competitive marketplace. The combination of the two largest players in the category means that, more than ever, partnering with GolfNow becomes almost a cost of doing business.”
  • “Rumors of this move had been circulating for a few months. As one insider tells The Forecaddie, the industry should have felt “the tremors.” This puts into the hands of one entity upwards of 85 percent of the online tee-time inventory in the United States, according to sources.”

Full piece.

7. A golfer, a brain infection & one heckuva story
Golf Digest’s Joel Beall relays the story of Brett White…
  • “By the time he returned to the physician’s office, White was in terrible shape. He had a fever, was sweating uncontrollably and in a state that was as uncomfortable as it was unfamiliar. A lab nurse recognized White’s situation and called the doctor, who told White’s dad to get him to the emergency room, and fast.”
  • “When White was admitted to Spectrum Hospital, the medical staff believed he was suffering vertigo. Treatments for it, however, were ineffective, so they focused on White’s recent visits to South America, testing for malaria, Zika and Lyme disease. Those results were negative, leading to further examination, which included more blood samples, an MRI and a spinal tap.”
  • “After 10 days of analysis, White received an ultra-rare diagnosis of viral encephalitis secondary to Epstein Barr Virus (mononucleosis) infection with complications of ataxia. His brain was under attack by a virus and was swelling at an alarming rate.”
  • “I didn’t know, or wasn’t told, at the time,” White says, “but at that point my life was in serious jeopardy.”

Full piece.

8. Does the LPGA need American golfers to be good? 
That’s the question, in part, Greg Hardwig of the Naples Daily News, explores…
  • “The year-to-year, ongoing saga of where Americans stand on the LPGA Tour against the rest of the world appears to be in another downturn.”
  • “Does it really matter?…Maybe not to the tour itself, which has successfully marketed itself as a global tour and tapped into the Asian market, which continues to grow rapidly. Maybe not to the players that much. Golf’s an individual sport anyway, and many tour players are happy to have friends on the tour from other countries.”
  • “It matters to the tour in the aspect of people watching and your sponsors,” said former world No. 1 Stacy Lewis. “Your American players that are the ones that sell a little easier. On our side, for the players, we don’t care. I don’t see those other players as being Koreans or Japanese. They’re just people I want to beat.”

Full piece.

9. Rahm’s break
Golfweek’s Alistair Tait…”What prompted the break? Two reasons: next year is going to be a busier season than normal with the Olympics Games in Tokyo, and he decided to get a little practice as a family man.”
  • “It was more like a future thing. Knowing that with me getting married in Christmas, and the year we’re going to have, I needed a break at some point. I feel like that was the only time I could get a break to recharge a little bit and make sure, you know, I’m going to be fresh for next year.”
  • “Rahm and girlfriend Kelley got engaged last year, and the Spaniard has given himself quite a few brownie points ahead of the wedding.”
  • “I’m not going to lie. At first it was hard to step away from it a little bit. Honestly, I did nothing special. Just being a 25-year-old, enjoying time with my friends, enjoying time with Kelley. We spend so much of our life making decisions just for me and for my golf game, that it was nice just to, you know, tell her for a month straight, ‘What do you want to do?’ right, instead of what do I need to do. It was very nice to be able to do that. I wish I could do it every day of the year, but golf, it’s somewhat of a selfish sport in that sense.”

 

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Jbone

    Nov 21, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    The LPGA is delusional. It’s a successful women’s sport but give me a break about wanting to get paid the same as the men. If you want to be paid like an elite athlete you have to compete with them. So come over and try to make that money on the mens tour

    Reply Report comment

    • Shallowface

      Nov 22, 2019 at 8:02 am

      No, we’ve seen that and it’s nothing more than a sideshow.

      If the LPGA or WNBA can figure out some way to draw the same size audience as their male counterparts, then the compensation will follow. But for anyone to expect more sponsorship dollars (which are in effect advertising dollars and advertising must reach a large audience. It’s why you see companies drop off the men’s tour. Often times it just isn’t money well spent) in the name of “equality” could certainly be characterised as delusional.

      Mike Whan understands that I’m sure, but part of keeping that job is to say the right things. So much of Corporate America today is about management appearing to be trying to do something, even if there is no possible way to accomplish it. The appearance is all that matters.

      Reply Report comment

  2. Shallowface

    Nov 21, 2019 at 3:41 pm

    The LPGA pay gap has nothing to do with discrimination due to gender and everything to do with attendance and television ratings.

    If Whan can bridge THAT gap, then the pay gap will close as well. All the best to him in that effort.

    Reply Report comment

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News

Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

Published

3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

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I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Tour Photo Galleries

Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

Published

4 weeks ago

on

Jul 29, 2025

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

General Albums

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See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.

 

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BK’s Breakdowns: Kurt Kitayama’s Winning WITB, 3M Open

Published

4 weeks ago

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Jul 28, 2025

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM10 (52-12F, 56-14F), Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60-K*)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0PT

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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