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Whan’s LPGA Closes Out a Remarkable Season

lpga cash boxThe LPGA finishes the 2014 season this week with a bang at the CME Group Tour Championship. The Race to the CME Globe couldn’t have been scripted any better.

The top three players in the world, Inbee Park, Stacy Lewis and Lydia Ko are in a position to have one heck of a week. The three control their own destiny and a win would give them the biggest payoff in the history of women’s golf.

The victor will cash a $500,000 winner’s check and the winner of the year long Race to the CME Globe takes home a $1 million bonus. The LPGA teases the ladies with a nice, big, clear box of cash sitting by the first tee.

The CME Globe is set up perfectly for the LPGA with Park and Lewis still battling for Player of the Year and to see who will finish as world number one. It could be a great finish to an already amazing season for the LPGA.

Commissioner Michael Whan has transformed this tour in his five years at the helm. Whan took over a tour that was on the verge of extinction and has succeeded in rebuilding the LPGA into a strong, viable product.

This season his ladies gave their leader plenty of help with Park and Lewis winning three times and chasing each other for number one.

Michelle Wie winning twice and breaking through at the U.S. Women’s Open was huge for the tour.

The newest and freshest face, Lydia Ko found the winners circle twice. Jessica Korda and Karrie Webb had two wins and fan favorite Paula Creamer finally got back to winning.

Lexi Thompson did her share by breaking through for her first major championship.   wie fist pinehurst 17

Mo Martin helped out with an exciting and inspirational win at the Women’s British Open.

And setting up this week was an emotional comeback for Christina Kim, one of the most recognizable stars on the tour.

All that has given the LPGA some well deserved press but if it wasn’t for all the behind the scenes work of Whan and his team the LPGA may have gone the way of the XFL.

Randall Mell of The Golf Channel has an in depth profile of Whan and how he changed the culture at the LPGA to enable it to not just survive but flourish. 

“Our fan base is growing, our viewership is growing, and it’s because of everything Mike Whan has touched,” said Ricki Lasky, the LPGA’s vice president of tournament business affairs. 

Player morale is high. 

“I’ve been on tour nearly 20 years, and in that time there’s never been such a good feeling about what the tour and staff are doing,” said Hall of Famer Karrie Webb, an LPGA board member. “It’s been amazing to be on the board, to watch Mike in action in the rebuilding process.” 

The angst that once permeated the tour is fading as confidence in Whan, chief marketing officer Jon Podany and the rest of the executive staff grows. 

“I’ve been out here a long time, and players are always bitching,” Hall of Famer Juli Inkster said. “You just don’t hear that much anymore.” 

We thought we were in the business of running golf tournaments,” Whan said. 

Whan sold his staff on the radical notion that this wasn’t the tour’s primary purpose. Yes, running tournaments are an integral function of the tour, but the success of the tour hinged on a greater purpose. 

“Coming out of those 100 days, the first thing I said to the gang is that we are going to have to embrace the term ‘role reversal,’” Whan said. “We spend way too much time talking about pin placements, about how many players are in the field, and where the ropes are going to be, and where the media center should be. 

stacy and inbee“None of that stuff really matters to the guy who is writing the check, and we don’t spend any time talking about the check writers. Companies that don’t spend time talking about their customers, they wake up without customers. We have to start thinking like title sponsors.” 

So Whan trained his staff to quit thinking about selling golf tournaments. He trained them to listen, and to learn to sell what a title sponsor needed. 

“You listen to the title sponsor you want to sell to first, and then you go back to them,” Whan said. “You can’t sell on the first visit. That’s a really tough concept for some sales people. 

“You go to a title sponsor, and you listen to them. You find out what they’re really looking for. You ask what they like about pro-ams, what they think could make them better. When you really understand what they’re looking for, you go back, and when you sell, you use their words.” 

You sell title sponsors what they really want. 

Whan transformed the LPGA’s relationship with the Tournament Owners Association. He rebuilt that organization’s trust and faith in LPGA leadership. 

Whan certainly has rebuilt the LPGA. On Wednesday he announced the 2015 schedule which included a new title sponsor for the old Kraft Nabisco (the first major), 34 events and a total purse of $61.6 million. That’s the largest total in the history of the LPGA.

He’s done a remarkable job and this week should be a real showcase for his ladies and his tour.

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