I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a fried Egg.
Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg Lie.
I'm about ready to run off of the course.
All right, Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson, and I am joined today by the Fried Egg's very own Meg Atkins. She's joining to talk about the twenty twenty four LPGA season, as well as the recent news of Molly Marku Simon h resigning, stepping down as LPGA Commissioner after what I would describe as a tumultuous ten year. So Meg, thanks for coming on. You've been busy. It's
been peak merch season for you, Peek commerc season. Yes, yes, sales, sales galore, monitoring, monitoring the pro shop and yeah, busy, busy a couple of weeks, but all good, all good stuff. People are gonna be listening to this on Tuesday. Do we have any deals left in the pro Shop? Is there anything that our listeners can go snag on Tuesday.
Yes, we.
Take care of our procrastinators at Friday Golf. We our sale goes through the end of Tuesday. Yes, procrastinators rejoice. You can still get twenty percent off the entire shop with code black Friday twenty four. So, yes, time is limited, but deals are still there.
Can they still get in that raffle for the free spot at an event?
Oh yeah? Oh yeah, So how does that work?
Yeah, you spend two fifty, We're gonna put you in a raffle for free entry into one of our events next year. We'll announce that, you know, probably in the next week ten days or so. We'll kind of get all the all the entries in there and we'll pick a lucky winner. So nothing to do on your end. If you spend two fifty, we will pull you from
that list and get you in. So if you've been eyeing the really good, really really good events list for next year and want to have one of those on your radar and need to do some shopping, it's a win win there.
I mean, yeah, some of the events you get entered into the raffle for you get good shopping.
Obviously you could.
I mean, if you're if you're just looking to upgrade your office, you could you could buy a print, or you're look into upgrade you know a room in your house, you could buy a print that gets you over that. But you know types of events that you get into the raffle for Marine Essex County country Club in New Jersey, so New York market. If you want to just go to Denver in September, that sounds like a delightful plan.
There's Colorado Golf Club, so lots of different options. Skokie Country Clubs in that Chicago area one, so if you if you spend two fifty, you get a chance to get a free event entry, which is which is a good deal I think. So let's get into our LPGA chat here all right, Meg, What an LPGA season? I mean, I think sneaky, not sneaky at all. Actually, in terms of recent years, this was one of the most compelling years.
I think we've been begging for this for you know, superstars to emerge and really establish themselves, and this year we had two really historic years in Nelly Corda and Lydia Co. What was your biggest takeaway from the LPGA season.
Yeah, I mean we got to talk about the big names winning and and playing well and playing well at the same time for the most part, which we really haven't gotten to do. We've been, like you said, waiting for kind of the top names to to show out and and we got that this year, which you know, you would have told me at the beginning of the season you'd have first the Nelly streak and then the Lydia kind of you know, two crowning achievements on her career with the Open win and the and the Hall
of Fame and the Olympic gold. I guess you can combine those into one.
Yeah, I would have been thrilled with that.
So to me, like, you know, you can get into the Nelly Lydia discourse, but like it's really tough for me to pick between those two.
Like the streak was historic, it was.
Incredible, It felt inevitable, you know, in the in the in the middle of it, like oh she's playing, Oh she's gonna win, and that's just so rare and uncommon in professional golf.
But then like Lydia, you know, maybe that's.
More of a feel good story for just how how long her career has been from you know, pretty much like child prodigy to now to kind of to kind.
Of get the the big.
Win at Saint Andrews joined you know, Stacy Lewis and Loreno chose the only golfers to do that with. Then you get, you know, the Olympic gold and the Hall of Fame. Whether you value the Hall of Fame as much as those an Olympic Golden Saint Andrews, who can say, But it's really tough for me to pick between those two. That's the season will be remembered for Nelly and Lydia.
I think the Hall of Fame qualification for those that don't know, they use a point based qualification and you have to achieve a certain amount of points, and Lydia co achieved those this year, and.
You know.
The fact that she wasn't already a Hall of Famer it's crazy to me, Like, had she retired at the beginning of the year and she wasn't in the Hall of Fame, it was insane. So I guess that like kind of makes it a huge achievement and also begs the question of whether that should exist.
I think, like you know, in a way, the Corda and Co.
You know, the way you described the two you know, accomplishments, whether it's Nelly winning five in a row, that I think it illustrates two of the things that like we watch golf for the reasons we watch golf for. The things that enamorous about golf is like all out dominance, which was displayed with Nelly winning five in a row, extraordinarily hard to do. It's extraordinarily hard to win one week, let alone two, three, four, five in a row. That's insane.
That's something the Tiger, the type of dominance that I think made everybody just like like.
Love Tiger.
This idea of this is just something that's not possible to do. And I think the other thing that we love about golf is like the long winding road of a golf career. And I think that's the thing that that Lydia's you're really illustrated is that it's not like I think, with golf more so than like other sports, like if you compare them to other sports, like you know, like it's very rare for like a basketball player not
to be great. You know, like they kind of like come up and become great and then they're really great and then they retire and they I think the difference is like golf, like you have these like air these periods of like the dul drums, and you get stuck and you get it's not just like, oh, this person is great and they're going to be great every time they step on the court or on the golf course. In golf's case, there are just like peaks and valleys,
and I think Lydia Coe's career illustrates that. I mean, there there were some years where there were some challenges and there are real questions about you know, there are times like our parents too involved, is she too much of a control freak? You know, the the all the swing instructor changes and the caddy changes, like and then you know this year kind of like I feel like cemented her as like this all timer.
Yeah, absolutely it it.
You know, the the Olympics were one thing, like she's got all the medals, but the Saint Andrews win, like that's going to be the image when when she retires whenever. That is like that's that's the lasting image that and you know, doing it at Saint Andrew's like that her name man Saint Andrews made a lot of sense together and it was really cool to see her come out of you know what had been. It wasn't like the tough times were five years ago, like this very recent.
She didn't make the Tour championship last year, so that
it was very very special season for her. And then you know, like like you said on the Nelly side, like the dominance, like you get to see the best of the best at their best, at their peak, and we saw that with Nelly, And you know, like she had her own little mini roller coaster too, probably two you know, the lows of pretty pretty low lows for her career outside of maybe like the injuries and the blood plot, which is very scary for her, but like to have that in the midst of one season, in
the midst of you know, four or five months or so, the highest of highs low lows, and then coming back out of that at the end of the season, Like you can't really ask for much more in terms of storylines and performances in a golf season.
Yeah, so I gotta make you pick. You said you don't want to pick, which season do you like more?
Which is do you the.
I think that I'm gonna take Lydia because of Saint Andrew's and the home of Golf and like like in the olympiclly, the Olympic Gold yep, the maybe not so much the Hall of Fame just my personal opinion, but
those other two are pretty pretty sweet. If if Nelly's streak happens at a different time in the schedule, I'm probably taking hers, But like that beginning part of the schedule and that you know, this maybe gets into a larger discussion on the schedule, like think of it like that time frame on like the men's calendar, that's like your riv that's like, you know, some best part of like pre you know, before the Majors is that time frame when she did this streak and there wasn't Like
her wins are fantastic, like the Shadow Creek one, especially in match play, combo strip play and match play is huge, but.
Like those aren't.
There's only a handful of really big tournaments that stand out on this schedule and really break through to like the non golf audience, and that goes kind of where her low lowest point in the season was. So this streak, you know, we will not see that streak again. I'm you know, for a while, and not to like you know, downplay that at all, but uh, the Open at Saint Andrew's in the Olympic Gold.
It doesn't get much better than that.
To me, it seems like there are and I don't want to I don't want.
To be dismissive or talk down to any events, but to me, there seems like there's three events in women's golf that really stand above the rest. It's the Olympics, the US Women's Open, and the Women's Open, and those are the big three. I think the Women's PGA is like right there too, like maybe just like a half a notch below, and then there's a pretty you know, drastic fall off to the other two majors and and then.
The rest of the event.
And it's this is like, you know, I think like so much of a successful year for the best players in the world when you're talking about Aldia Co, when you're talking about Olili Vu, Annellie Corda Rojang, you know, I think she's got to obviously like get to winning a major, But is winning one of those two annual events or or the the Olympics, like those that's like
the pinnacle of the sport. And I think it's a little, you know, obviously like the Masters and men's golf, and in the in the US Open, in the in the Open are great tournaments and they stand a little bit above the PGA. But I do feel like there's a little bit more of a cliff in women's golf. And this comes from a someone who follows it, But is it like I wouldn't say I'm like extraordinarily invested. It does feel like there is like a clear class system within the within the majors.
Yeah, I agree, and that's what made it Like like being on site at Lancaster for the US Women's Open this year and that that Thursday, that the the ten that she had on twelve, Like I can't like the build up to that event, like this was the peak Nelly.
This was you know, you still had kind of that inevitable feeling that she was going to come in and win that and like the air that went out of that place and the air that went out like honestly through for the weekend with her not there like that, Like looking back, you kind of have to wonder, like what if, you know, what if that ten doesn't happen?
And you can play the what if game, and you know it's it's it's.
Not changing anything, but you wonder if things had gone differently in Lancaster, like would her season have broken through to more of the mainstream audience than it did. Would what you know, what does that look like if if that that blow up on twelve doesn't happen, Because it is so important for the best players to play their best at those events for the sake of women's golf. There's no there's no riv there's no there's no Jack's Place, there's no bay Hill.
You know what I mean.
Like even those.
Get you know, they they they bring in you know, past audiences who know those names and and all that and want to see you know, Arnold back in his day shake hands with the winner and all that, And there isn't that on the LPGA.
I think we can probably talk a little bit more about that when we get into some recent news with the commissioner and and some of the LPGA struggles. Despite these historic years, I do think like pulling on that string a little bit more. It was definitely felt like a crescendo moment the streak in Lancaster. It was this this meeting of this you know, red hot player, historic stretch of play that we had never seen. And I think the thing about it was how quickly the era
was out, like it being the second hole of the tournament. Yeah, yeah, for her, it wasn't a She was in it until Saturday and it was just this Saturday disaster and we could just chalk it up as like this was a disaster and the whole that there were a lot of big numbers on that hole, but just to have this big moment and the moment just so like there was no hope beyond Thursday morning.
It was just a deflating moment.
I feel like for everything that had gone into, everything that had gone into that week, right, all the play that led into it, it was like the spotlight was on and it would just didn't happen, which like that's the reality of golf, but it did. Like I felt like it deflated the whole event and really like the entire streak.
Yeah, it really did.
I mean it was over by ten am on Thursday, you know, like before a lot of people had even tuned in or it was even on their radar.
I don't think it was on TV. It was just streaming at that point. Yeah.
I think you're right. I think you're right.
Yeah, Yeah, It was so strange too, because like you know, there was there were like four groups waiting. There was like they had long wait and you just saw like the car crashes happening ahead of you. It was super windy, and it was like the whole sequence was so like it the air just went out of the whole place and I followed her, I think through the rest of that that nine and then came in and like you know,
like they're like actual tears from fans. Like of a fellow media members was like, yeah, I overheard this daughter like bawling to her mom be like it's over the and the mom was like, it's okay, she's still got tomorrow. And the mom was like or the daughter was like, you don't know, golf, mom, it's over. And it was like that, like literal tears on the ground from people.
It was.
It was such a bummer because the spotlight really had never been brighter with what she had been doing, and then it was just you know, boom over, exit, exit, stage left. So yeah, it's too bad. That's uh, you know, in a season where there wasn't much to complain about from the storylines, and what happened, like that's the one.
What if that's the that's the big regret I think for me.
Yeah, I think it's.
I think, like everybody while it was happening, while the streak was going, and like for the record, I think I'd take Lydia Coe's season just because of I was doing your review research and I came across this Victor have Und quote that was like about like, yeah, you could just give six million dollars to the winner of
the John Deere, but I'd still rather win memorial. And you know, money's great, but it's like it's about events and and to me, like winning the Old Corps, the Women's Open at Saint Andrew's, uh is I mean in winning a gold medal in women's golf, there's like those are the two probably the two of the biggest ones.
I think, like some of the Women's Open, the Women's US Open venues that are coming up when you talk about like winning at Shinnacock or you know, winning at L. A. C. C. Like those winning at Oakmont, Like those are those are types of where it's like, you know, I could only add to this, but like it's like, yeah, I want I want a US Women's Open.
Oh where's you win. I wanted an elkmont Oh I won the Women's Open, Where'd you win? I want the whole course like that.
The the second half of it is just you know it try it's equal to like for me, like I you know, I won on the LPGA ten times, like to be that like might be where like it might be worth ten LPGA wins.
Yeah, it has a little bit more oomph than I won the Chevron at Carlton Woods.
Yes, yes, way more, way more oomph.
And I think like the.
Lp Like, while the Nelly thing was going on, there were so many so much talk of like what Caitlin Clark's done for the w n b A and women's basketball. This was coming, This was happening as she was making the March Madness run. So this was like kind of
women's college basketball. And now like we zoom out and we're it's it's six months later and we've seen what she did for the WNBA, which was like completely transformed the sport, and everybody was talking about Nelly and and the you know kind of what she's done, what could
she be? This Caitlin Clark for the LPGA, and like she had an incredible year, the best thing she can do is play golf at a high level for the LPGA, but like it still hasn't gotten there, And like, I wonder if what your thoughts are on, Like I think everybody in every women's sport that's not basketball is saying, like, can we have a Kitlin Clark moment, a Caitlin Clark figure that transforms her sport. Do you have a thought on like what that could be for women's golf or could it be Nelly?
It's certainly I mean she keeps winning, it certainly could be. I think your point is is very true. The best things she can do is keep winning and keep performing at the high level. That's kind of last week when or when seeing me when the season wrapped up, like that was kind of my takeaway is all this growth is fantastic, Like it's great for women's golf, what's happening in basketball and soccer and other women's sports.
It's fantastic.
But there's also the other side of the coin that they're you know, that's competition now too. You know, they're they have way more time on network TV than they did a few years ago. You're you need your top names to keep performing at the high level to keep
eyes on women's golf. So that's I think I'm with you there that that's kind of the first important important key is we we cannot you know, the depth of the tour is great, but I think it will struggle next year if we go back to having twelve first time winners and leaderboards at majors with names that people aren't familiar with for a lot first time major winners.
It's just very difficult for a niche sport like golf to have that type of parody where you're not even familiar with the first page of the leaderboard unless you're a die hard fan, right.
And the hard thing is that's just the nature of golf, yes, right, I mean it's the same thing happens with the men's game.
Right.
It's like, why aren't the best players dominating? It's like, well, these other players are really good too, you know, it's not.
And it's something the league, the LPGA or the PGA Tour they have no control over, right, Like they have no control over how the stars are going to play, whether they're going to hit their stride, whether they're going to struggle next year. So it is a game a chance with how you know who's going to show.
Up weekend week out right.
As far as like the Caitlyn Clark moment, Like my opinion on that is that I don't think, you know, is golf ever going, Is women's golf ever going to be the leader and that aspect and create have a Kitlyn Clark, whether that's Nelly, and have the super you know, star breakthrough everything moment that Caitlyn Clark.
Has brought to basketball. No, probably not.
You know, it's a very niche sport, like I said, And the bigger problem is, you know, we don't like they don't have any sort of media rights deal that is going to break into other audiences right now in order to have exponential growth, right, Like, that's I think the key on top of the stars playing well. Okay one, So say say we do get Nelly and Lydia and they have a repeat next season, right, say Lilyvoo comes, it plays great next season two and you've got the
stars aligning again. Do we repeat what happened this year where that doesn't quite break through because it's on Peacock, uh for you know, like Nellie's Round is on Peacock only and not anywhere else. The media deal is I think the major, the major hang up, like Caitlin Clark, that yes being had put the the groundwork in place to have that in front of their massive audience of eyeballs. Right, that's not in place for the for for women's golf.
Their attack onto the PGA Tours rights deal, and they are you know, fourth on the on the on the ticket, they're an afterthought honestly for the PGA Tour. They're not They're not a part of the PGA Tours balance sheet. Therefore they're an afterthought.
Yeah, I think I think that was you know, oh, we can get into Molly marcou Simon and her just her resign a resignation that happened this morning of this recording in the Pitfalls, but that I believe is a holdover from the one era where I think, like everybody speaks of the Mikewan area era with like you know, rose colored glasses. But I don't necessarily think it was
like that much better. And I think that was one of the worst moves they did, was like tie themselves to the PGA Tour's right steel, because you you know, like you immediately are tying you're the most important aspect of your league is tied to a tour that's going that you're the least important aspect of their negotiation, right right, Like just the interest there's no possible way for your
interest to actually align there. Getting back to the Kaitlyn Clark thing, and I think, like everybody and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but to me, I think the thing. I don't think like it's Kitlyn Clark's personality that like Pops, that makes people love her. It's really the style of play. It is the way she plays basketball. It is with freedom and this great creativity. It's like very to me, very reminiscent of the way Steph Curry
plays basketball. Just the passing and the shooting, the just the ability to just pull from anywhere. And like when I think about like golf and Caitlyn Clark moments, like there's a very clear Kitlyn Clark moment that happened for golf. It just happened on in the men's game with Tiger Woods. And if you think about like Tiger Woods and why he was so pop, I think it was the demonstrative playing style he came out and it's this gentleman's sport you know, that's what we were told when I was
a kid. You know, it's this, you know, you have to act the right way, you have to play the right way. And I remember I had like older uncle. I had an older uncle who like hated Tiger was because of his fist pumps and he's like, that's not the way you play golf, like you know, but like it was his playing style.
It was the it was.
This speed, the the the fist pumps, the demonstrative reactions to shots that that led to the popularity. It was the Nike marketing machine along with the way he played the game and then obviously the encore success. To me, like the thing like Nelly, and this is not Nelly's fault. She's playing golf the way that she's going to be
the best golfer. The thing that's missing is that that that playing style, that that magnetism that comes with with a playing style that like you watch and you you can't take your eyes off it because you can't wait to see what's next.
And to me, when you look at the women's.
Game, they just haven't had that type of player emerge and it's not Rojang. And Rojang could be a great player, but like she's never going to pop off the page from that that style of play, and until there is a player that really comes and does things differently that looked that Like when you're watching them play, you think
this is different. You know that I think is going to be the struggle and every and and this has to happen when you talk about these moments, this is any great player typically, like you feel that way while you're watching them.
Sure, and you know, probably the last time the LPGA had that was maybe Nancy Lopez who just came in different, played the game different one heaps and heaps and.
Really really quickly.
Yeah, that's that's not Nelly. You know, she's she's an introvert.
She's come out of her shell more this year than she hasn't probably her whole career combined, probably, you know, And that's probably because she's been freed up, probably easier for her to come out of her shell after she's had a dominant stretch like she had, and she's was very you know, particular and calculated with the moves that she did outside of her comfort zone the met Gala, the SI swimsuit to to capture different audiences, right, But
the playing style, like like she she's an introvert on on the course, she's an introvert. She doesn't, I mean, she's perfectly fine and and interviews and whatnot.
But yeah, I'm with you.
That that that style of play, that that whatever you want to call it factor, if that's what you want to call it. Yeah, Caitlin's got it for sure. And maybe Nancy Lopez was the last like it factor in women's golf. It wasn't Anica like like Anika, you know, for all her numbers, I don't think charisma is the word you think of when you describe her, right, I think.
And I think like men's golf has this issue now too, right, like yeah, up Scotti sche Like the conversation was like almost the same about men's golf with Scotty Scheffler, like I you know, until he got arrested. Like their arrest like literally changed the discourse around Scotty Shuffler. It made him way more likable. It was like it was like
this it was a crazy thing. Like but like that arrest, I think, like general general genuinely changed the trajectory public interest in Scotty Scheffler because like people watch how he handled it and they were like wow, like I can't believe, like he didn't say like it, And like since then, I think he's like used that and it's he he's.
Like opened up a little bit more.
But still I don't think Scotty Scheffler is like an electric personality, right, right, And like you look at the top of like, you know, men's golf had Tiger and then Rory became this heir apparent, and I think Rory and Spieth have had this like gravity towards them, but I don't think any player since then has even come close, right, And I think it's just a struggle.
Golf is probably like one of.
The hardest sports to have that charisma that you know, uh, I don't know what the right word, but that like gravitational pull with fans.
It's just it's a very muted sport and it's.
A very polite sport.
Yeah, and politeness doesn't really you know, attract a lot of numbers and attention sometimes, Right, So I guess what we're saying is we need Officer Gillis to make his way down to Brandonton and arrest figure out some how to arrest Nelly Korda.
So that's all We're going for Officer Gillis and his pants.
Yep, yep.
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I think like just generally over the course of her commissionership, it's been a rocky road. I think that I think there's been a lot of quiet behind the scenes anytime she's brought up in in my in my experience with people involved, this is a disaster. She's not good at her job. I think, like when we talk about, you know, ways to grow the LPGA sport is maybe some of those quiet conversations need to be more public. But you know, she steps down and it seems like I'd like to
hear your perspective. This was accumulation of a lot of disappointing things, but maybe the final nail in the coffin was the Solheim Cup bus disaster.
Yeah, absolutely that.
I mean, if you know, we are a few months past that, we still don't know like how, why that miscalculation was made, what type of uh you know, compensation or what not was done for for fans like it there were no answers, and that was just you know, it is very apparent in person in that press conference at Solheim that this it was this was not leadership right coming from her, This was this was not a great leader and right like it's it's been rocky from
the jump. I think, like looking back, you know, you didn't know it at the time, and hindsight is always twenty twenty, but her one hundred day like listening period to start off her tenure was the worst thing you could have done, Like the worst.
This is twenty twenty one.
Little did we know, Like the women's sports momentum, like the train was getting rolling, like picking up speed, picking up speed, and you've got someone who for their first three months listened and and and I don't like I get that, I get wanting to learn. I get that you didn't come from this. You know, you came from academia. You were an athletic director before, and you had to learn on the job. But you just you that having that one hundred days of nothing, I think you missed,
you missed the boat. You if you had some one, you know, with experience who knew how to do the job come in and not. Sports are very different. But I look at the NWSL. I've brought up Jessica Berman before, the commissioner of that league, who came from the NHL and came into a debacle of a league with no player trust, scandals, teams folding, and got to work day one because you knew what the job was. Molly Marcusimon
did not know how to do this job. So that's you know, I hope that's top of mind as this global search commences, is that you cannot you have to have somebody ready to go day one because.
You had the wrong person in position.
During a period where women's growth has never grown as much as it has.
So that's too bad. Looking back.
Yeah, I think, I mean, it's it's very easy to to poke hole. I think, like I I haven't been impressed over the years in terms of I think like the biggest thing is just the lack of vision, like the lack of this is where we're going and this
is you know. I think like when you look at the LPGA, there has to be a fresh perspective somebody that comes in and says, listen, I know we've been doing the things this way, and we're going to continue to do some of these things, but if we want to reach where we believe like and like I think like there's no reason why women's golf couldn't be the most popular professional golf played. There's it's not like there's some like dominant force that's that's holding this from happening.
This is this is real possible. And thinking all right, how do we get there? Is to me what has to happen. I'm curious if if you were going to create a couple points of emphasis that you'd like to see from the new commissioner and what they would stress on, like trying trying to bring the LPGA to a higher level of fandom and viewership, what what would be the things that you would want to see stressed.
Yeah, and I think you know, Mollie, what I'm looking for and what needs to be stressed is the willingness to make bold moves. Mollie didn't make any bold moves. Sure there was you know, the perse growth and all that, which, you know, the numbers are great, but like compared to what has been going on in other leagues and other women's sports, like, it's kind of the bare minimum honestly, So willingness to make make the bold move and willingness
to differentiate yourself from the PGA tour. What has the LPGA done to differentiate itself from a tour from the PGA that has struggle, that has experienced a schism, that has uh, you know, disengaged many of its fans, you know, not much. The LPGA hasn't done much. It's kind of just doing the same thing but in a smaller scale.
So bold moves.
I think the first one that comes to mind is you've got to get your product to other eyeballs. I'll bring up the NWSL again. I know, like right now it's got a big CBS deal and it has more eyeballs on it than ever before, not that long ago.
Thus the Women's Soccer League.
Yeah, yeah, National Women's Soccer League. So not long ago, their teams were playing in high school stadiums like here in Kansas City. Not that long ago, they were playing in high school stadiums. They were broadcasting their games on Twitch, you know what I mean. But that's how they started, Like they got on Twitch and got to different audiences that way. I think you have to be in control of how your product is distributed, and that's not the
case right now. So I mean, that's a big change to separate yourself and to get out from under the PGA tour umbrella. But I think that has to happen. The other thing that you know is very attractive to me is the schedule and getting a more coherent schedule at more interesting venues. If you look at ways that the LPGA can differentiate itself, it plays a very different game than the men on a very different scale, which
opens up many different courses to you. The schedule is, yeah, record breaking money, fantastic, But to what we spoke about earlier, what's memorable?
Three or four events? Right? So those are those are those are my top two. I think they.
Share this issue right with with men's golf. Right, I think men's golf one of the biggest problems with men's golf right now is like, how do we make more than five events a year relevant? This is I think this is just like this is the same problem that tennis is starting. I think, like with this modern era of television, on demand, choice, social media, and YouTube, Like when you combine all these different platforms and all the choices that people have for their time, everybody's trying to
get people's time. One of the things that all of off has to confront is how how do we make more than four or five events on either side men's and women's relevant.
Yeah, it's not It's not easy.
No, like the and and and negotiating a new media deal is not easy. Neither of these are easy things to do. But you've you haven't done much on that front. I mean, nothing's been done with the media rights deal. You added some ESPN plus streaming this year, but you are you're you are handcuffed the MIC one deal. You have no flexibility, right, so how you get out of that? Like one, just getting out of that is is not
easy to do. And two, like going on your own path is not easy at all, but it's it's it's easier today than it was three four years ago, that's for sure, I think.
And if and like just to zoom in on this this uh, this contract and why it's so bad for the LPGA. This is like why it's bad. So they got there, lumped in the PGA Tour, negotiated the contract and they are basically a tag along on the PGA Tour contract. If you compare that to college golf. College
golf negotiated on its own with Golf Channel. Golf Channel got this college golf package and they have like so they have this college golf the NCAA Championships and they're broadcasting it and it was like oh wow, like but there's no other college golf on TV at the point they get this, but they realize, like, oh, we made this big investment in college golf in the NCAAs. You know what we have to do because we have this property, we have to cover more college golf. So there's more
college golf programming today. You know, I don't know how many years ago, maybe six or seven years ago when they got the deal for the college Golf Championships, when it became a big part of their spring programming. Today there is way more college golf on Golf Channel because they have the rights. And it's like, oh, we need to cover this because we paid for these rights.
Who paid?
They paid the PGA Tour for the PGA Tour rights. It's not like obviously the PGA Tour rights is a huge, huge part of Golf Channel, but the LPGA just being a tag along minute like they Golf Channel is beholden to the PGA Tour. That's who they negotiated this rights deal with. Golf Channel works with the NCAA, so they want to promote uh, college golf more so they show more college golf like.
This is this is exactly what they need. You have to have that one to one relationship up with your right partner.
Yes, yeah, it's insane not to have that that you know, the the one to one relationship there, Like you cannot be a professional sports league and have somebody else in charge and in control of that.
Yes, that's that's why.
That's my number one, and I think that maybe makes the number two. The venues, Like if you have a new contract, if you have new avenues for you know, the schedule and the events to be shown. That's a
lot more attractive to some courses. That's a lot more attractive to some sponsors to know they're not going to be tape delayed, to know they're not going to be on Peacock for two hours and then to see NBC for an hour, and then to NBC for an hour and a half, and like the third one, the marketing, like the marketing of this league needs a complete and
total revamp in my opinion. And like when we talk about the snaffos and debacles of Molly Marcus Simon's tenure, like she like the vision was not there, but she did harp on marketing and growing that team within the LPGA, and I think, I mean that's where they've failed this year was marketing Lydia and Nelly And what they did this year, like we they around this time last year was when they announced that big deal with Naomi Osaka's company to like promote the athletes and everything. We got
absolutely nothing from that. And last week she announced that internally they were going to do some player marketing moving forward. So like you're pushing, you're growing your internal team, you're going outside, Like I don't think Naomi Osaka. I don't think that like was a cheap deal. I don't think they got that on sale. I think it was probably
pretty expensive. So that's I think it needs a complete revamp in how you present this league, which is a trailblazing league, which is has has run for seventy five years. This year coming up is there seventy fifth year. While other women's sports leagues have folded, renamed, rebranded all this, the LPGA for seventy five years has been doing this through leadership and innovation from its founders early on, and you got to tell that story, especially in its seventy fifth year coming up.
Yeah, I think I think the marketing leaves a lot to be desired. But I think like what are we marketing is like a real question, like what is it we're marketing? And how are we going to differentiate our sport? And I think, like I think in general, when you look at I think like when you look at the future of the lp IS, it has to be focused on differentiating the product from men's professional golf. This is
how we're different and how we're actually more watchable. You know, the shot the shots are are, you know, like the golf course matters more like the features of a golf course matters more. We're more accurate, so you know their strategy on holes. But I think, like, really, where I think like the biggest opportunity is broadcast innovation. This is something like, could you explore showing golf completely different, showing golf a completely different way than men's golf shows golf.
That to me would be something that would be on the top of my thing that I would want to invest time, energy and resources into is what if we showed golf in a different manner. The other thing that I would really stress is like pace of play. It just cannot be it. I find myself a lot of nights I watched a ton of golf at night. Now when after I put my daughter's sleep, I record basically all live golf and then I pop it on and I find even with a DVR, I struggle with just
the pace pace of women's golf. The pace of play is like a real issue, and I know it's boiling. It's like I think like it's hitting a point where like top players are speaking out about it where we might actually get some changes, you know, with Charlie Hole saying like they should lose their tour card with like Nelly Corda speaking out, like that's what you need. You
need the top players speaking out about it. But this is something that has to change, like the adherence of like and understanding how it goes back to this this product standpoint, Like we want to show people that there is a better a golf product and we have it. And part of that is has got to be the pace of shots and we see it like people like to see a lot of shots. They want to be like, they do not want to watch somebody.
Get ready for a shot for a minute and a half. That just can't be. That's not good to TV.
And they would like to see.
The drama of penalties of slow play, you know, like it adds that adds to the broadcast as well. Yeah, that's that's got to be top of mind. I'm hopeful that something changes with that during during the off season and that there's a new policy in place for next year. But yeah, and to your point about the player speaking out about slow play, more of that, please, More of more of speaking out on on things you're dissatisfied with, things you'd like to see change. You know, if if
something changes with slow play. Maybe they will see that. Oh when I speak my mind, I do have a say and and I do get listened to. Because from the marketing of things, it is a two way street. You know, if they bring in have a new marketing you know, plan or whatever for the seventy fifth season, like a lot of that's you know, in order to be successful, as on the players too, opening up, being open to trying new things, speaking out more, whatever the case may be.
Like, that's an important piece of the puzzle too.
Yeah, I echo that.
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about Stripe, visit stripe dot com. Big thanks to Stripe and let's get back to meg Atkins. Let's get back to positives. Here is do you have a favorite moment from twenty twenty four one that one that particularly stands out? It could be either personal or.
Yeah, I think.
Like from from the from the golf side of things, Yu Causasso's five iron lancaster on uh on Sunday on the fifteenth, Like that that shot could to kind of just seal the deal.
The ball was like way above her feet.
It was like a cut you know, she cut it in there when like it would have it's easier to play a draw in there.
I think that was.
Yeah, she birdied that, and then sixteen the short part four is right after drove the green there, birdied that and then she's you know, that was like four birdies in.
Five holes and stealed the deal.
But like that shot, I was like, you know, that was you don't see like five irons like that very often anymore, especially on like the men's side of thing. To your point about like differentiating the games a little bit, like that shot, I will stick with me for a while, I was, Yuka, you know, you know, she may only show up and be in contention a couple of times each year, but when she does, it's it's fun to watch.
Yeah.
I just that's like a great example of how a golf like how the women's game could be so compelling because of like the venues that they can play. Lancaster was a spectacular women's open venue, lots of fans, but the golf course was really starred, and like I think, like Lancaster's a really good golf course, but by no means would I say it's like great. I think it's like, you know, listen like it. I'm not trying to pull it, but like, you know, it is. It is really good.
I would love to play Lancaster on a regular basis, but it's not somewhere i'd like get on a plane and go play. And like you think about the Women's Open and where it's going and where like the types of golf courses that women's tournaments can be held at. It's extraordinary because like Lancaster is an example of a club like that's it's not unrealistic that you could have ten to fifteen LPGA events a year at courses at
the level of Lancaster. It is a really good It's like, you know, without a doubt, one of the three hundred best golf courses in America, like one of the two hundred. Probably it's between one hundred and two hundred, I would say. But like it's not unrealistic to think, like, okay, like we could have a you know, and you know, I don't know about like the memberships at all these like wanting regular events, but like we could pop in and have a a women's event at a course like Quaker Ridge.
We could have a women's event at a course like you know, uh, I don't know, Skokie in Chicago, we could have it, you know, like these are the types of golf courses that are available to the women's game. And like you say, you mentioning Lancaster just like I mean, it made me just think back to that that week and how much like enamorment there was with like the women, the style of play and how interacted with the golf course and how that could be a regular occurrence on the LPGA.
Yeah, the courses do a disservice for how the how the best women play the game, the normal courses on their on their schedule, on their calendar, and then you have a Lancaster pop up and you're like, oh my god, this course fits their game perfectly. It's challenging them in all the right areas. And that's yeah, that's what it
can be. Like it there's there's so much room for improvement, Like if you're if you're you know, looking, if you're a candidate, if if you're part of this global search, Like that's one of the big pros is there's so much room for improvement and so much potential there. Like it's not like this league is tapped out on everything they're doing, like there there's so much that can be done, and and yeah.
Courses are absolutely top of the list.
Well, and it's also like why not go down to Austin? Sure, Like why don't we have an event in Austin. There's tons of corporations. The PGA Tour left by all signs like the Austin wanted Pro Golf and the PGA Tour just left. Also, like I think about like the the Dow Team Championship. It's at Midland, Michigan. Uh in Midland, Michigan, And it's because Dow is right there, right.
There.
Yeah, but like somebody needs to say to Dow, like, you know, listen, Like the golf course just isn't up to the standards that we have. Midland Country Club is just not up to snuff. We ho, those are the best women in the world. We need to host it in a world class golf course. And one I think one of the things is like that it like ticket like at an event. I could be wrong about this, but I can't imagine that like on course the ticket revenue and on course is like so great that it
like pushes anything over the edge. Why don't you approach somewhere like forest dunes or something like that and say hey, we want to host this at the loop or reversible golf course. Like all of sudden, then it's like, Okay, we have a team championship on a reversible golf course.
We're going to play the.
Golf course on on Thursday and Saturday this way, and Friday and Sunday this way, and that all of sudden has a lot more appeal, Like these are the things that could be done. It just needs there needs to be somebody that thinks about them on like, how do we make more than four or five events stand out? And one of those one of the five events in women's golf, one of the probably four events in boom's golf, which we didn't mention yet, is ANWA arguably the biggest event.
And why is it the biggest event because of the venue?
Exactly right?
Yeah, it's uh uh yeah, that's uh, that's it. It moved a major, it moved, it bumped a major from.
It's it's spot that it had held. Uh.
That's the power of these courses, Like sure, Augusta is Augusta, but that's that's the power of going to important venues with name recognition that people want to see the best of the best play on. And if you're not, if you're not asking and having those questions, those conversations with these courses, you're not, You're you're doing the whole league of disservice.
You know the other thing I'd like love to see and and you know, I think that the tour dabbled a little bit with this with UH with like Monday matches, but like the LPGA schedule is such that there's no reason that you couldn't create like a select series where you where you brought like eight people to really fast and eight and golf courses around the world, and it
was this like small series of events. It's almost there exhibitions, but their matches, and you could do one at like just throwing out there, like Banded Dunes, you do they go play Pacific Dunes and there's four matches that are played there and maybe you do a second day so the travel makes sense, and you do it at Old McDonald. Again, this would require having a relationship with your broadcast partner, right,
so you could get these things televised. Maybe you go and there's a match at Sunningdale, you know, maybe when you're in the UK swing, like maybe there's like these are the types of things that I think, Like if I was running the LPGA, I'd be thinking about, is like how do we how do we get our product out there in new ways? Different ways, like fun ways. We know, like we know we've seen the success, Like
how did ANWA rise so quickly? Well, obviously they have the Masters and Augustina National behind it, but like a lot of the reason that people like that event is maybe maybe the biggest annual women's event.
Yeah.
Yeah, from from a viewership standpoint, and it all revolves like for the most they're watching amateur golfers who many of whom they don't know.
Play a golf course.
So like, how do we like take some key themes from that and build from there? And like some of these golf course I bet would be very amical to them filming a couple matches for a couple of days, you know, and like that's a great TV product.
That's some sign me up for that.
Yeah, how about a dynamic postseason that's missing on the men's side of things too, you know, get creative that way, Go match go match play for your postseason. Get that get it, not at a at a Tiberon, you know, like let's get away from that for our final, you know event that's it's there. But your your point is is that none of that happens unless you own how your product is distributed and presented. And we have seen
like like we have the Grant Thornton coming up. That's probably the only thing you're gonna get from the PGA Tour is a silly season, you know, thirty person thing at.
At Tibi Rod like that.
You're if you're holding out hope that there's that you're gonna have Nelly and Charlie Hole invited to TGL, It's not gonna happen. If you're holding out hope you're gonna they're gonna be in the next match, not gonna happen. If you're holding out hope that there's gonna be a mixed President's Cup, not gonna happen. Like the waiting game and waiting for that type of stuff that needs the PGA Tour to agree to do.
Is not going to happen. Like how many they need to there's our lesson.
There they need to feocus on creating things that the PGA Tour and other things want to be a part of.
Yes, and they don't.
They don't have enough of those types of things because like the big their biggest properties are extremely serious competitions that you can't change.
Correct, correct, Yeah, Yeah, we got to get outside the box and and own own something from how the product looks and is presented.
All right, twenty twenty fives kind of around the corner. What are one or two things that you're most looking forward to?
Yeah, Like I said, the seventy fifth season, which should be talked about and it's a big deal. Like there's not very many women's sports leagues that have been around for seventy five years.
I'm interested to see what they do around that.
Like when we talk about I mentioned like there's no there's no tournament, like there's you got Jack and Arnie and all the on the men's side of things, Like why isn't there like a tournament that you know, Beth Daniel runs or whatever. Like there's a lot that can be done bringing back and the people that made the LPGA what it is. I'd like to see something done
there as far as like tournaments go. I'm pumped for the Open at Royal Porth Call just to hopefully get some insane weather in Wales again like we did.
Yeah.
Yeah, that was some of like the most entertaining golf I've watched in the past couple of years. It was so so good to watch Aaron Hills for the US Women's Open. You know, we haven't seen that since the men's US Open.
Again.
I think that will be a much more intriguing tournament if there's some wind, the wind that you didn't get when the men were there.
Right.
International Crown is back. It's in Korea this year, so they're going to be in South Korea during the fall a swing, So makes a lot of sense. As you know, there was a long layoff with the International Crown with COVID to you know the first the first one back was at San Francisco at Harding Park. I think it makes a lot of sense to take it to South Korea. It's like thirty minutes from Seoul. I think that will be like very cool to watch the way that is
received over there from the crowds and the excitement around that. Yeah, and then we'll see Frisco for the first time for the KPMG Women's PGA, so that will be kind of the first of many, many, many majors down there. Yeah, so those are those are the highlights. Absolutely, that's great.
That's great.
All right, Meg, we'll have you on I don't know, sometime soon as the LPGA kicks off. That was a fun twenty twenty four and look forward to hear more from you in twenty twenty five.
Awesome.
Thanks Andy, all right, thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday Golf Podcast.
Big thanks to PJ.
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