Back in November, Commissioner Michael Whan announced the 2020 LPGA schedule including:
- A record $75.1 million in total purse up $5.1 million from 2019. Of the purses that have grown, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship made the largest jump, rising $450,000 to $4.3 million.
- A record 500+ hours of television, including at least seven events aired on network TV. The tour will be televised to a record 175+ countries and in more than 500 million households.
- A record 34 tournaments (including the UL International Crown), and two new tournaments in the state of Florida.
As has been the case in just about every year since Mr. Whan accepted the commissioner’s job, it promised to be bigger and better than ever. That all changed with the Coronavirus epidemic.
The Coronavirus has already caused the cancellation of three tournaments:
- Honda LPGA Thailand – $1.6 million purse.
- HSBC Women’s World Championship (Singapore) – $1.5 million purse.
- Blue Bay LPGA (China) – $2.1 million purse.
These three canceled tournaments’ total purse of $5.2 million represents about 7% of what was to be a record-breaking year. It also lowers the number of events to be played in 2020, to thirty-one (including the UL International Crown).
With the LPGA expected to resume its schedule the week of March 16th with the playing of the Founders cup in Phoenix, Arizona, there are still a number of questions that have to be answered:
- How will the long layoff affect the players? Jin Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park are two examples of players who expected to start their schedules in Thailand and have not yet teed it up this year.
- Will the players currently domiciled outside the United States be able to get back into the states to compete in the upcoming tournaments?
- Will the Olympics go on as scheduled in Tokyo, Japan?
- With four tournaments upcoming in Europe (including two major championships and the UL International Crown) and four tournaments still to be played in Asia, will there be more cancellations?
Modern medicine has come a very long way in the past few decades. We have had to deal with major outbreaks like this before. I am sure we will find a cure for this one also. The only question is how soon.
Hopefully, the above questions will have favorable answers and the LPGA schedule will resume with no further cancellations. We can only hope and pray!
