Mallon Named U.S. Solheim Cup Captain

Meg Mallon, a two-time U.S. Women’s Open champion and an 18-time winner on the LPGA Tour, will captain the United States Solheim Cup team in 2013.

 Mallon, who competed in eight Solheim Cups as a player and served as an assistant to Beth Daniel in 2009, will lead the U.S. against Europe when the matches are played at the Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colorado near Denver, from August 13-18, 2013.

“It’s an absolute honor to be selected as the 2013 U.S. Solheim Cup Team captain,” said Mallon. “I’ve participated in The Solheim Cup on nine occasions and each has been a proud moment for me, but to represent the United States as team captain definitely caps off my career. I look forward to working hard on getting the Cup back in U.S. hands.”

The 48-year old Mallon’s resume includes four major championships over the course of a 24-year playing career that earned her more than $9 million. In 1991 she won four times, including wins at the Women’s Open and LPGA Championship. She went on to win multiple events in five different seasons including 2004 when she won her second Women’s Open, 13 years after her first.

When she retired following the 2009 Women’s Open, Mallon had compiled a Solheim Cup record of 13-9-7 overall record in her eight appearances with 16.5 points scored and a 5-2-1 record in singles competition. Her career point total is second all time among American players behind only Juli Inkster.

In addition to be an assistant captain in 2009 Mallon captained the victorious PING U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Team to a win in 2011.

“It was exciting to be a part of the future of The Solheim Cup in Ireland last year,” she said. “It was such an interesting experience because I didn’t know the players very well going in, but we really bonded well and it turned out to be such a rewarding week.”

“From world-class golfer, to world-class Solheim Cup player, to world-class Solheim Cup assistant captain and PING Junior Solheim Cup captain, Meg has always been well-respected role model that all players can look up to,” said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan. “I know she loves the Solheim Cup and the players who compete for it. On behalf of everyone at the LPGA, we are both proud and honored to see her as the U.S. captain." 

Stupples Looks at 2012 LPGA Schedule Through a Veteran’s Eyes

By Rick Woelfel

Karen Stupples has seen a lot and done a lot over the course of her 13 years as a professional golfer. And what she sees of the 2012 LPGA Tour schedule has the normally upbeat Stupples especially enthusiastic about where the LPGA is headed.

A two-time winner on the LPGA Tour and the 2004 Weetabix Women’s British Open champion, Stupples says the new schedule, which features 27 official events, is another sign the tour is continuing the turnaround that began two years ago under commissioner Mike Whan.

“When you think of where we were two years ago to where we are now, it’s a bit of a turnaround, isn’t it?” she asks. “It’s pretty impressive, actually. I think Mike’s a pretty impressive kind of guy. He’s very ‘Go get ‘em’ and very enthusiastic about the whole thing and I think that’s really helped.”

 The 37-year old Stupples played college golf at Florida State and represented Great Britain twice in the Curtis Cup before turning professional in the summer of 1998 at the relatively late age of 25.

In 1999, her rookie season, Stupples and her peers played in 40 official events for some $32 million. This year there will be 25 official events for $47 million in purses. There are five new or returning events on the schedule. Two of them, in Toledo, Ohio and Williamsburg, Virginia are being played in cities that have hosted the LPGA in years past and are now returning to the fold.
 “I think for whatever reason (Tournament officials in Toledo and Williamsburg) were turned off,” Stupples says, “whether it was financial or personalities. King’s Mill (in Williamsburg) had a change of ownership. Toledo I think was struggling a little bit financially.

“I both think both places still wanted to have the LPGA) but I think the economy was struggling.

“I think the LPGA is really exciting right now. We’ve got some young, fresh players coming in that add a lot of excitement to the game. It’s a good product as well and I think that speaks to why you see these improvements.”

Through the years some have expressed concern, and a degree of impatience, with the fact that the LPGA players compete for much smaller purses than their male counterparts on the PGA Tour.

But as Stupples prepares to set out for another year on tour, with her husband/caddy and four-and-a-half-year old son Logan in tow, she says recent have events have left LPGA players more appreciative of the opportunities they do enjoy.

“I think what has happened for us is we’ve all learned a hard and valuable lesson over these last few years,” she says. “You can’t just expect massive purses and everything to come around. I think all of us are just happy for some playing opportunities.”

 I think it made us much more humble as a group of players and I think that’s probably a very good thing.”



Women's Golf Report Podcast/Guest: Joe Manley

The New Jersey edition of the North Coast Golf Show made a three-day stand at the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset, New Jersey this past weekend.

One of the attendees was Joe Manley, the head golf professional at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort in the Poconos. Much of the 27-hole layout is situated on an island in the middle of the Delaware River river.

The original 18 holes were designed by A.W. Tillinghast, his first effort as a golf-course architect.

Manley was Rick Woelfel’s guest on the latest installment of Women’s Golf Report.

Running time is 6:57



Women's Golf Report: Host" Rick Woelfel: Guest: Joe Manley

Out of the Rough: 2012 LPGA Schedule Hits All The Right Notes

By Rick Woelfel

With the announcement of its 2012 schedule the LPGA has taken another step forward. Nothing dramatic mind you, but another sign of the steady progress the organization has made in the two years since Mike Whan has moved into the commissioner’s office.

There are 27 official tournaments on this year’s calendar, plus an unofficial 36-hole affair, spread over 41 weeks. A total of 15 tournaments will be played on American soil, plus two more in Canada and one in Mexico

From our perspective, the start of the campaign couldn’t be timed any better.  The season opens in Australia February 9-12, the weekend following the Super Bowl; prior to that the casual American sports fan (as opposed to the diehard LPGA fan) isn’t paying much attention to professional golf.

The final tournament of the year will be contested the weekend prior to Thanksgiving, which is realistically the last best end date.

Of the 13 open weeks, three of them are the weeks of the first three major championships on the PGA Tour, weeks when the LPGA would be unlikely to attract a lot of attention. There will also be no tournament over the Memorial Day weekend. A number of the other breaks occur when the tour is moving from one continent to another, from Asia to the United States in March for instance.

The view from here is that in 2013 and beyond some open weeks will be filled in but that in the short term the number of tournaments should max out somewhere around 32.

Meantime, the caliber of play continues to improve as the top golfers from around the globe seek out the best competition and highest purses available.

Naysayers will point out that the LPGA players will be playing for a lot less money than their counterparts on the PGA Tour. But comparing the two tours is, to mangle a cliché, akin to comparing apples and potatoes.

Because of the river of television money that flows into its purses, the PGA Tour will always be more prominent and its purses larger.

But the LPGA Tour has much to offer anyone who cares to take a look. It features some of the finest athletes in the world who, for the most part understand that for their organization to thrive they must make a concerted effort to connect with those who support them.

That’s a formula that may seem rather trite in an era when professional sports seems increasingly to be more about style than substance.

But it’s a formula that has the LPGA Tour on solid footing as the 2012 season approaches.



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Women's Golf Report Podcast/Guest: Becky Dengler

Welcome to our inaugural Women's Golf Report podcast. From time to time we'll feature conversations with individuals committed to growing women's golf.

The guest is PGA and LPGA T&CP professional Becky Dengler.

This is an MP3 file. Running time is 7:53

WGR: Host: Rick Woelfel/Guest: Becky Dengler