LPGA Leadership Adapting To An Ever-Changing World

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan was a pretty good baseball player growing up in Chicago. But he never faced as many curveballs as 2020 has thrown.

On Tuesday, Whan and chief tour operations officer Heather Daly-Donofrio took a bevy of questions from media in advance of the ANA Inspiration, the first round of which will begin on Thursday in Rancho Mirage, Calif. On topics ranging from the current spate of wildfires raging through California, to the future of galleries at LPGA Tour events, to the counsel the Tour has given players regarding a possible COVID-19 vaccine, the theme of Whan and Daly-Donofrio’s statements could be summed up simply as, expect the unexpected, plan with a pencil instead of a pen, and be ready to adapt on a moment’s notice.

“Yeah, it's exciting to think there's five (tournaments) under our belt and a bunch more to come,” Whan said of the resumption of the LPGA season. “The restart has been, thanks to some incredible partners - and you know the names of the tournaments, from AIG to Walmart to Marathon and even ProMedica and Inverness getting us started, Aberdeen, and now ANA. It would have been easy to write off 2020. So, I'm impressed and honored that they're making this a reality.

“And I really want to thank the PGA TOUR, European Tour, R&A, and the USGA and PGA of America for giving us so much guidance in coming back. I'm excited to think that we'll play four of our five majors. It would have been almost impossible to do this without guidance because there was no book to follow.

“And our players are definitely doing their part as it relates to the restart. We're seeing incredible golf and some incredible stories, whether that's Danielle Kang’s back-to-back wins or Stacy Lewis winning for the first time as a mom (at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open), and Austin (Ernst winning at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship presented by P&G), and of course Sophia (Popov) doing what she did at the AIG Women’s Open.”

Whan also spoke about the future, acknowledging that there could be more schedule changes on the horizon.

“I would be surprised if either Korea or Japan were to get the (government) green light (to host sporting events) this week,” Whan said. “Given that, we could find ourselves with four weeks off that we didn't plan when we started talking about a restart back in April and May. So, we'll definitely add at least one new event, another LPGA Drive On event in October - maybe two, but certainly one to be announced here in the next week and with an outside chance of a second - to kind of fill in some of that slack that would have otherwise been in Asia.

“I'm really proud to say that all of our title sponsors that were scheduled for 2020 are still with us in '21, so there's nobody stepping off the official event schedule. So, I feel good about what you'll see from us in '21.”

As for what you will see in California this week, temperatures are expected to soar to as high as 113 degrees on the weekend. Throw in smoke from a wildfire raging just west of Palm Springs and everyone involved in this major is staying alert.

“Everybody is aware that we made a decision to allow carts in practice rounds due to the high temperature for both players and caddies, and then to allow the caddies to use push carts or carts during tournament rounds,” Daly-Donofrio said. “That's unusual, but nothing is typical in 2020. We felt like it was the best decision to keep our caddies healthy.

“Since then two things have changed: One, the air quality due to the California wildfires. We're tracking those air quality index levels very closely. And two, higher forecasted temperatures for the weekend. We just got the forecast from our meteorologist and we're looking, for tournament days, (projected temperatures of) 100, 108, 110, and 113.

“We're continuing to monitor both the AQI and the temperature very closely. While we're not out there yet, if it becomes clear from our medical team, and we're also going to be working with the medical team at Eisenhower Medical, who's a partner this week at the ANA Inspiration, if the high temperatures and the AQI converge to a point where we feel that's unhealthy for walking, we have not ruled out carts for players on tournament days.

“In general, we've heard from our players that they want to walk, that it's a major championship, and of course in major championships you want to walk,” Daly-Donofrio said. “But what's most important right now is the health and safety of our athletes and our caddies.”

That is diligence. That is creativity. That is adapting on the fly. And that is why the LPGA Tour is playing major-championship golf in the era of COVID-19.