Commissioner Mike Whan and Cristie Kerr had long meeting before Evian Masters accorded major status
Mike Whan, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) commissioner, reportedly had a long conversation with the star golfer Cristie Kerr before he went over to accord fifth major status to Evian Masters. The event will have its new status starting from
year 2013 and will have a completely new course at the Evian Golf Club and its renovation is likely to begin any time soon.
Whan and Kerr had this meeting before the Sybase Match Play event in May, where the duo discussed the possibilities of the proposal. Kerr not only had lauded the decision but also gave her full support to see Evian Masters turned into a major.
“He sat down with me at the Sybase Match Play tournament and said, ‘Hey, this is kind of what I’m thinking, but I’m not doing anything without the support of the players.’ We had an hour-long conversation and I said, ‘Well, if you look at all of the things
that going into making a major championship – besides the golf course – at Evian, they have everything.’,” Kerr said in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Kerr also commended Evian’s long time association with the tournament and said that they deserved the right to be bestowed with the major status on the tour. Kerr also had discussed the possibilities of losing Evian sponsorship if in case the LPGA did not
oblige them which were quite likely to happen.
“Their commitment to make millions of dollars of changes to the golf course, making it a major championship course for the long haul, is impressive,” Kerr said over Evian’s offer to give a completely new look to the Evian Golf Club providing it the necessary
depth of a major event.
Many critics have, however, termed the idea a unnecessary encouragement to the corporate orientation of the sport. None of the major events on the women’s golf is without a corporate name attached to them except the Women’s US Open, which impacts the respect
and dignity of the sport.
Ricoh Women’s British Open, currently underway at Carnoustie Golf Club, has given incredible boost to the sport both in terms of money but also in terms of its popularity among masses, but it’s no secret that officials at Ricoh still call the shots at the
event.
It is also one of the notable facts that the major event in women’s golf is primarily dictated by the purse of the event. Evian Masters have had the biggest purse than any of the events on either LPGA or Ladies European Tour (LET), which became the primary
reason for the event being given the major status.
Kerr is a two-time major winner and is one of the leading ladies golfers in the world. Whan has expressed his wish to keep the players abreast of all the organizational development in the sport in order to have their say in administrative settings of the
events on calendar.
Tags: