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Money grab leads to embarrassment
Last Sunday morning, while most Americans were turning back their clocks (yeah, I do know that Tucson, Ariz., never changes time), some LPGA stars were getting theirs cleaned. In the most improbable and embarrassing golf story of the year, the LPGA team fell victim to the Japanese LPGA squad in the Cisco World Ladies Challenge at Sohsei Country Club. So how did the 12-member Japanese team claim only its third win in the event's 22-year history, handing the United States its first loss since 1984? There has to be some reason why a team led by the likes of Yuri Fudoh, Ok-hee Ku, Akiko Fukushima and Hiromi Kobayashi won 13 1/2 to 10 1/2, after trailing 7-5 entering the final day of competition. Maybe the Japanese players took their U.S. counterparts out the night before and filled them up with sushi and sake. Hangovers would help explain why no one on the LPGA squad broke par during the 12 singles matches. While that scenario is farfetched -- LPGA players might have drowned their sorrows after the loss -- I could give about 22,000 other reasons why the LPGA had such a lackluster showing. That figure isn't the number of putts the team took during the week (although looking at some of the scores from the head-to-head matches, it had to feel that way). Instead, it's an estimate of how many miles some of the LPGA players have traveled during the last six weeks. Dating back to Sept. 24, several players have put in more miles than most flight attendants. In the past month and a half some of the LPGA team members have flown from Portland, Ore., to Columbus, Ohio, to Loch Lomond, Scotland, to San Francisco to Mobile, Ala., to Japan. In this short period of time they have had to constantly readjust their body clocks -- traveling through 23 time zones and losing a day or two in the process. This globetrotting, which would make the basketballers from Harlem look like homebodies, might have you thinking the Mad Hatter is in charge of LPGA scheduling. That schedule would wear down even the best of players. It's no wonder Annika Sorenstam opted to skip the Tournament of Champions in the middle of this modern-day version of Around the World in 42 Days. This is just another example of the LPGA playing wherever, whenever as long as it collects sponsor money. Tiger Woods reluctantly is planning to play the next five weeks, but you would never see PGA Tour members playing in tournaments just to rack up frequent-flyer miles. They like to stay home every once in a while and wash their cars on Saturday morning (which is exactly what Tiger did last week; can you believe a guy who makes $40 million a year sponges his own white Porsche?). Actually, maybe most of the LPGA millionaires -- like Karrie Webb, Juli Inkster and Meg Mallon, all of whom were smart enough to stay home -- were doing that, too. Which might be yet another reason the likes of Junko Yasui, Aki Nakano and Orie Fujino ended up with the trophy. Or are they just that good? Does this signal an impending Japanese invasion of the LPGA? Don't count on it. This past weekend's humiliation was a repeat of the apathetic U.S. performance at the 1998 Presidents Cup in Melbourne, Australia. That year the American men obviously didn't like the fact they had the go so far away during the precious offseason. The I-don't-give-a-care attitudes resulted in a dusting. With the abundance of rounds of 76 ( Rosie Jones, Sophie Gustafson, Lorie Kane and Cristie Kerr ) and higher ( Nancy Scranton's 77 and Charlotta Sorenstam's 78) on the final day, the LPGA players looked like they had the same indifferent feelings. Yeah, their excuse is going was the poor weather on Sunday, but how did four JLPGA members manage to shoot below 72? Maybe this lack of incentive can be related to the prize money. With $40,500 going to the winners and $23,250 going to the runners-up, losing only means that the LPGA players will have to skip one or two shopping days during the offseason. One idea: make this a winner-takes-all event. Then it would be more compelling and at the same time might spark the interest of the players. In the meantime, the LPGA players should think about forfeiting their checks or donating the money to charity. That way they won't have a guilty conscience for taking something they didn't earn. Tom Hanson, a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated's Golf Plus section, is a longtime caddie 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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