In the latest episode of “A New Breed of Golf” with Michael Breed on PGA Tour Radio, which airs on SiriusXM, Breed asked LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan a series of “get to know you questions,” that ranged from historical to hysterical.
Listeners learned that Whan played his first round of golf when he was 9 years old at an executive course in Wisconsin near where his family vacationed. “I pleaded with my dad to take me over with him and that was my first time,” he said.
Today, Whan plays better golf than at any time in his life, carrying a four handicap, which he attributes to his work with LPGA Professional Cheryl Anderson at the Mike Bender Academy in Florida. “I have a great teacher who has some unbelievable patience, but she’s gotten me there over the last three years,” Whan said.
His favorite book is the one he wrote, 39 Days, but he admits he might be the only person who has read it. “Right before I took the job at the LPGA we had just sold a company and I promised my wife and kids that I was going to take a year off,” he said. “I didn’t quite make it. I made a bunch of other promises that I didn’t deliver on (either), but one of the promises was that I was going to write my first book.”
On his nightstand at the moment is a book called Runt written a friend of Whan’s, Carey Casey. “It’s about a baseball coach from Naperville, Illinois, which is where I grew up and went to high school,” Whan said.
“A Few Good Men” is his favorite movie. “Seven Days in Utopia” is his favorite golf movie. He doesn’t read a lot of management books, but he does carry a series of inspirational and thought-provoking quotes around, which he re-reads and shares with others often.
Football, Superheroes, nicknames: Whan covers it all.
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