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Tour mismanages marketing
Posted: Tuesday June 06, 2000 09:53 AM
MURRELLS INLET, S.C. -- Even with Karrie Webb's four wins, the great play of Juli Inkster and Annika Sorenstam, and now hot new rookie Grace Park, who captured the Kathy Ireland Greens.com Classic Sunday, the LPGA is still starving for attention. Last week was a perfect example of how the LPGA is missing out on a golden opportunity to promote itself. Part of the problem is bad luck, while the other is just a lack of direction.
The LPGA leaderboard, on the other hand, looked like a major championship -- Inkster, Park and Pat Hurst -- despite having the weakest tournament field of the year. ESPN tried to fill time, interviewing Park and running old highlights, but the day was a wash, with players heading back on the course at 6 p.m. -- the same time ESPN went off the air. (The conclusion was shown on ESPN2.) Another comment often heard is that the tour isn't marketed properly. Sometimes the best marketing is the free kind -- coverage in newspapers, magazines and on television -- which is where the tour is missing the boat. As I was ready to leave the pressroom Sunday night, just before 10 p.m., I glanced at Debbie Eareckson, the LPGA media coordinator for the week. The 23-year-old, fresh out of Virginia Tech, looked to be at wits' end. And understandably so. Maybe the reason she looked like she wanted to pull her brown hair out of her head was that she had been manning the pressroom for 12 hours -- by herself, basically, for the sixth straight day. Maybe it was because 20 Korean reporters invaded Wachesaw East Golf Club in anticipation of Park's first win, or because the phone was endlessly ringing off the hook with people wondering where the stats or the money breakdown were. Maybe she had enough after hearing a local TV station complain that the tour didn't provide them Inkster for an interview. Or maybe it was because Ireland and a crew shooting a live Webcast interrupted Park's post-victory press conference just four questions into the proceedings. Maybe it was because Eareckson knew her salary per hour was falling below minimum wage. But most likely she looked frazzled because she still had three to four hours of work ahead of her and knew she wouldn't be getting any dinner. Yes, she had volunteers helping her. But when all hell broke loose -- Inkster finishing bogey-bogey and Park nailing a four-foot par putt to win -- it was hard for Eareckson to be in three places at one time. The coverage of the Kathy Ireland Greens.com on the local end was pretty ordinary (read: dismal). But you can't blame the reporters; it's hard to write about the LPGA when you can't pick Michelle McGann out of a crowd even though you know what Rusty Wallace looks like with a helmet on. And you can't blame Eareckson, who did her best to make everyone happy. In this age of the Internet, the new information superhighway, the tour needs to recognize that if it want players to get more recognition it needs to start in the pressroom. Fill it with media coordinators, who could inundate reporters with information and supply players for interviews. Much like a daycare, there should be one adult supervisor for every 10 kids, instead of the one for 60 like last week. If this happens, it will only be a matter of time until the personalities and compelling stories are discovered. Sports Illustrated photographer Jim Gund once told me that there isn't a story without a picture. Right now, all of the LPGA's pictures are out of focus. Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, caddies for Sara Sanders on the LPGA Tour. Click here to send him a question or comment. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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