KPMG Upgrading Women's PGA Stats Effort, But Still A Ways To Go

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In all of the talk gender equity discussions of late, purses get most of the focus. But a closer look at the ANA Inspiration, U.S. Women’s Open, Women’s Open Championship or KPMG PGA shows room for growth in statistics.

Granted, the priorities have been on just funding the events, trying to get more network coverage and upgrading to quality venues. Now that those things are happening and more cash is great, there is a glaring disparity in available stats for women’s events versus the men. With incredible advancements like ShotLink and a similar system developed by the USGA/Augusta National, it’s time to have real data at women’s majors. Because whether it’s for bettors or simply the increased interest, context and sophistication that comes with compelling stats, talk of raising the women’s game bar must include data.

So it’s nice to read the first step with KPMG continuing their pretty relentless push at bettering the Women’s PGA this week at Atlanta Athletic Club. As Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols writes, “it’s not ShotLink, but it’s a quantum leap in the right direction.”

The KPMG program will be similar to what’s on the European Tour, with caddies recording shots, club selections and the lie of every shot. They’ll turn in a special scorecard after every round and get paid a stipend for the efforts. KPMG is covering that, too.

Overall strokes gained and strokes gained by game area (off the tee, approach, around the green, putting) will be available as well as deeper insights into individual strokes gained by 25-yard increments and individual shots taken. Players, fans and media will know how close players hit it on average from certain distances. There will be shot dispersion charts, average birdie putt length and performance indexing over time against the field.

Lexi Passes On TV Interview, Gets Backing From Peer

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Lexi Thompson is T15 after two rounds at Lake Merced, not quite a week removed from losing the U.S. Women’s Open at nearby Olympic Club.

Given that Golf Channel’s LPGA Tour coverage teeters on sycophantic at times, it’s pretty amazing to pass on a post-round interview that is also a fine chance to display some logos. But as feared with the recent Naomi Osaka situation, coupled with some anti-media sentiment in golf, it seems we are likely to see more players pass on these generally inane chats. And even when they don’t pass, episodes like this put interviewers on notice to bring plenty of massage oil to future post-round therapy sessions.

Here is one defense of Thompson’s decision, with a wide range of replies.

MorningRead.com’s Mike Purkey challenged players, agents and some broadcasters making these situations worse than they (A) need to be (B) actually are in the grand scheme of life.

Thompson’s agent did her no favors by calling a halt to the media interviews after only two questions after the final round. If he thought he was protecting her, he’s wrong. What’s more, it’s not his job or his jurisdiction in that situation. Thompson, who is 26, might not have been required to face the media, but she does have an obligation as a professional athlete. This was her 15th U.S. Open, and she has been answering reporters’ questions all that time.

If Thompson wants another example, she only has to turn to Greg Norman, who infamously lost a six-stroke lead in the final round of the 1996 Masters. It was by far the most devastating day of Norman’s career.

Yet, he sat in the interview room in the media center at Augusta National, where every seat was taken and journalists were standing in the back and seated in the aisles and in the front. He answered every single question until no more were left to ask.

U.S. Women's Open, Memorial 2021 Ratings About What You'd Expect When Two Great Tournaments Collide

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Two of the biggest non-men’s majors went up against each other last week and as they will in the foreseeable future unless schedulers push for change. Still, with nearly matching TV windows and the conclusions happening in annoying congruity, it’s not a shock to see CBS’s 2021 Memorial broadcast and NBC/Golf Channel’s U.S. Women’s Open delivered smaller audiences than hoped-for.

Add on the an NBA Game 7, Tiger’s absence and the Memorial hit a three-year low according to Sports Media Watch’s Paulsen.

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Memorial tournament averaged 2.82 million viewers on CBS last Sunday, marking the tournament’s smallest final round audience in three years (2.35M). Viewership fell 12% from last year, when the tournament marked Tiger Woods’ return from hiatus (3.28M), and 5% from 2019 — when Woods finished in the top ten (2.96M).

I suppose you could say the rating was pretty great all things considered, but with the previous day’s Rahm/COVID news, more were likely tuning in.

The U.S. Women’s Open went off split tees and played threesomes to fit NBC’s priority status for gymnastics given how it’s an Olympic year.

While the U.S. Women’s Open audience was up from some dismal showings in 2019 and 2020, this is still not a great number given an exciting finish, major start in Lexi Thompson leading and an ad-free telecast.

The LPGA Tour Has Not Had A COVID-19 Case Since Early March

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The Jon Rahm situation Saturday offered a stark reminder that COVID-19 can still happen and how golfers traveling the country face an increased risk of exposure.

The LPGA Tour has been traveling the globe with most of its players flying commercially. But the Tour also instituted a strict no-public dining policy through the the Asian events, a policy that was part of original PGA Tour “Return to Golf” protocols last year.

Upon my request, the LPGA Tour provided this update through last week’s U.S. Women’s Open conducted by the USGA. The numbers are impressive.

  • The tour has had four confirmed COVID-19 positives through LPGA Tour testing since the start of the 2021 season.

  • Just one confirmed positive since early March.

  • As of the return from Asia, they have re-opened to outdoor dining at all establishments, with groups limited to four.

  • More than 60% of players/caddies/staff are fully vaccinated, “with many more at various steps in the vaccination process.”

For context, the PGA Tour program and protocols have been widely viewed as a success. Yet they’ve still announced ten players as testing positive since early March. And for 2021, a total of sixteen were detected by the Tour testing system. Last Sunday, the PGA Tour’s Andy Levinson characterized the player vaccination rate as “north of 50%”.

The European Tour’s testing program has registered six positive cases in 2021, all since early March.

Women Almost Worth Watching: Not Heidi Bad, But Still Not Great

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When NBC sent the U.S. Women’s Open playoff to Golf Channel without warning and viewers went wild (as AA’s Jay Rigdon documents here), we were reminded of a few things:

  • NBC took back the USGA package from Fox and already had plenty on its plate (Belmont Stakes, French Open, Olympic trials, etc.).

  • It’s an Olympic year and NBC has far more invested in the Games build-up than in golf, so prime time gymnastics will always get the call. Fine, it’s a big business, it wasn’t supposed to be this year and we get the headaches involved in all of this except…

  • Women Worth Watching was pushed by the USGA and NBC. If you were on Twitter at all you’d know how relentless the staged messaging was. That should not have been pushed in an Olympic year when the network priorities lie elsewhere. (Perhaps incoming CEO Mike Whan can get that fixed down the road or revisit the U.S. Women’s Open date if it will continuously get squeezed on the schedule.)

  • The final round was already compromised when threesomes were sent off both tees much earlier than on Saturday. Players were asked to make a quick turnaround. All for television in the most important championship in the women’s game. Turns out, the Saturday schedule of some early NBC action followed by the evening conclusion on Golf Channel in ET prime time would have been better for the U.S. Women’s Open than what transpired Sunday.

  • Peacock was developed with a streaming future in mind and made part of the renegotiated Fox contract, so why not stream all of it there all the time so you can point to the app and say, “we are giving it all to you in once place while juggling an obviously busy sports schedule, we hope you understand.”

I wrote all of this in the Quadrilateral today, but I left out one other component of the bungled handoff which, let’s face, would have also been blasted if it were Fox or CBS doing the same thing.

After the two-hole aggregate playoff was tied, NBC went to its gymnastics coverage and sent the sudden death portion to Golf Channel as the players were teeing off. The network coverage did not have to sign off on the west coast. Gynmastics would be shown later on tape delay for the Pacific Time Zone.

In the past when CBS has sent delayed PGA Tour coverage to Golf Channel, they often stay live in the PT zone. So what happened on the western NBC stations showing the U.S. Women’s Open?

They went to infomercials in L.A.

And in San Francisco where the event was played?

Something called One Team: The Power of Sports. A show geared toward children. Thanks to readers M and K for sending the heads up.

Again, if the parties involved are sincere about “growing” the women’s game—ratings—and raising the profile of players, they have to back it up with decisions which make the viewing experience more sensible and respectful of the competition. Anything else means it’s just another synthetic messaging campaign.

**Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols wrote this about the scheduling, timing and NBC handling:

Moving away from a tournament like the Memorial is another important piece of the puzzle. There should be a significant push within the industry (that includes the PGA Tour) to align schedules to give the biggest women’s events the best possible chance at success.

That goes for TV too. There were great strides made this week at the Women’s Open with the addition of feature groups and the return of Golf Channel’s Live From. But the fact that the network TV window came and went on Saturday without showing a single shot from the leaders (it switched to Golf Channel), combined with Sunday’s final round missing primetime and forcing Sunday threesomes, is a giant weekend whiff.

Quadrilateral: 2021 U.S. Women's Open Champions, Cutmakers and (Point) Missers

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I’m light on blog posts tonight because it’s a long newsletter on the rapid decline of NBC Sports, as evidenced by Sunday’s blah telecast and epic show that women are (sort of) worth watching.

But there are also plenty of winners and losers from a grand U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic. Here’s the post for paid subscribers.

17-Year-Old Amateur Shares U.S. Women's Open First Round Lead

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They torched the Lake!

Well, not quite with a 75.173 average, but overall the play was excellent on a calm opener at The Olympic Club. Tomorrow’s forecast isn’t so kind, with 15-25 mph winds expected.

Most impressive on day one: 17-year-old Megha Ganne making six birdies en route to a 67 to sit alongside Mel Reid who, Beth Ann Nichols reports, is a Brooks Koepka-channeling, distant relative of Wilfrid (designer of courses like Indianwood and this place called Lakeside CC which became…you know it…The Olympic Club).

Anyway, Ganne’s also a terrific interview:

Defending Shanshan Feng's Concession

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It’s never a great look when a player WD’s from an event without an injury excuse, but in Shanshan Feng’s case it seems she made the right call to pass up the consolation match.

The Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play is a new event at Shadow Creek and it’s not off to a super start. The event was added in February and poorly scheduled by the LPGA. Going from match play in near 100-degree weather to San Francisco for the U.S. Women’s Open was not a great call, particularly with an LPGA event at nearby Lake Merced Golf Club the week after the Open (a great pre-U.S. Women’s Open test).

GolfDigest.com’s Kent Paisley noted many other elements that justify Feng’s decision to pass on the consolation match and the chance to win an additional $23,000.

Feng played a total of 112 holes over five days, more than anyone in the tournament. On Saturday alone she played 41 holes, outlasting her opponents in extra holes in both the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals.

Afterward, Feng confessed that she was so tired she thought about potentially dropping out of the event mid-match.

“There were quite a few times when I was on the course I was like, You know what, you've tried your best already. Yeah, maybe you just … you don't have to give it your 100 percent. You know, if you make any mistakes, it’s acceptable,” Feng said Saturday.

Also noteworthy for those who would argue this was unfair to the sponsor or television: Golf Channel opted to show two Playing Lessons reruns and a rebroadcast of the European Tour’s final round instead of the semi-final matches (either live or tape-delayed).

LPGA Announces New Commish: Princeton AD Mollie Marcoux Samaan

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Joel Beall with this at GolfDigest.com about the LPGA’s new leader:

Marcoux Samaan comes to the LPGA from Princeton University, where she served as its athletic director. She was a two-sport athlete at Princeton in soccer and hockey, earning All-Ivy League honors four times and won the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award, the top senior female student-athlete award at Princeton which recognizes “high scholastic rank, sportsmanship and general excellence in athletics.” She graduated cum laude in 1991.

Her predecessor is excited:

Samaan appeared on Golf Today and made a good impression:

"Transgender woman wins Florida mini-tour event, sets sights squarely on LPGA"

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Beth Ann Nichols does a superb job telling Hailey Davidson’s story, who works in social media but is dreaming of an LPGA career. She just won her first mini-tour event and is awaiting word on potential LPGA eligibility.

Davidson, 28, works in social media for NBC’s Peacock division under the Golf Channel umbrella but has dreams of competing on the LPGA. In January, Davidson underwent gender reassignment surgery, a six-hour procedure. She’s been undergoing hormone treatments since Sept. 24, 2015, a date that’s tattooed on her right forearm.

“We are currently reviewing Hailey’s application to participate in LPGA Tour events under the LPGA’s gender policy,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, the LPGA’s chief tour operations officer. “The policy is designed to be a private and confidential process between the LPGA and the athlete.”

In 2010, the LPGA voted to eliminate its requirement that players be “female at birth” not long after a transgender woman filed a lawsuit against the tour.

Earlier this year, the USGA changed its Gender Policy to shorten the length of time transgender athletes had to wait to compete. Under the previous policy, a player must have undergone gender reassignment surgery at least two years prior to the entry deadline.

Haney V. PGA Tour Gets July 6th Trial Date

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The PGA Tour’s effort to have Hank Haney’s lawsuit thrown out has apparently failed.

According to filings, Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz, II set the date of July 6th.

Last week a rebuttal to the Tour’s attempts at having the case thrown out was revealed by The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan. The filings revealed ignorance of the women’s game and even how the PGA Tour Radio partnership worked. Also included where emails—that I’ll circle back to on a slow news day—shows how they make sausage down in PVB. Digestive enzymes are recommended.

There are also PIP ramifications. Big time.

Given the crux of Haney’s SiriusXM downfall centered around his flippant take on the women’s game, The Athletic story raised questions about the PGA Tour’s care for the LPGA Tour it was representing in media rights negotiations.

I dissected some of that here.

Haney Case Depositions Shed Light On Tour's Handling Of LPGA TV Deal, Lack Of Top Player Awareness

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The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan has obtained portions of Hank Haney lawsuit depositions in the case against the PGA Tour and the details do not paint a flattering portrayal of PGA Tour leadership. With just under two months left in office, outgoing LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan may need to address the situation.

To recap: Haney is suing the Tour after he was forced off SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio following a flippant comment about LPGA Tour favorites in the then-upcoming U.S. Women’s Open. But he is also alleging PGA Tour interference in several of his business interests beyond their pressure campaign alleged.

Unable to settle, the sides moved to a deposition phase and in the excerpts obtained by The Athletic, their story focus locked in on the LPGA’s percentage of the new PGA Tour TV deal. We don’t know enough about the structure to evaluate the percentages seized-on in the story to evaluate exactly what this means for LPGA revenues. But Monahan testified to the LPGA receiving “several million dollars of additional media rights revenue in 2020 than they did in 2019.”

Kaplan’s story also highlights deposition snippets that reveal stunning ignorance of women’s golf by PGA Tour brass.

Why is that important?

The perception alone is terrible given the particulars of the case (and Haney’s subsequent apology). From a business perspective, the ignorance suggests the LPGA might not have been a PGA Tour focus in the media negotiations or going forward.

This, despite the PGA Tour’s claims of a deep affinity for the women’s game. When denouncing Haney at the time, the Tour and Sirius professed their close working ties with the LPGA:

“The PGA TOUR is committed to and proud of the increasingly diverse makeup of our fan base, not to mention the power and accomplishments of the game’s world-class, global players -- both on the PGA TOUR and LPGA, whom we are working with more closely than ever before.

“SiriusXM proudly covers and supports both women’s and men’s golf and the athletes that make them great. At the PGA TOUR’s instruction Mr. Haney has been suspended from the SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio channel. SiriusXM is reviewing his status on SiriusXM going forward.”

There is one LPGA Tour show on the network.

The PGA Tour has been unable to create a mixed team event despite obvious fan interest. And as for the pride in the accomplishments of female golfers while working closer than ever before?

To hammer home the charge that the PGA Tour isn’t concerned about the LPGA, counsel for Haney quizzed Monahan on his knowledge of women’s golf. Monahan could not name the top golfers and said he had not attended an LPGA tournament as commissioner. (He had before his tenure.)

Maybe the Citation fleet only flies to PGA Tour cities?

“Can you give me the top five ranked players playing in that tournament this week?” Haney’s lawyer asked. (The LPGA played the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston that week.) “I can’t specifically give you the top five players ranked in that tournament,” Monahan replied. Haney’s lawyer then asked, “Who is the top-ranked woman playing in the tournament?”

Monahan: “I’m not sure what the latest iteration of the world ranking is.”

Psst, Jay, that’s the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Haney’s lawyer: “Who are the top several players playing?”

Monahan: “I’m focused on the business of the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions, Korn Ferry, PGA Tour Latino America,  PGA Tour China, PGA Tour Canada, our relationship with the European Tour and our industry relationships. The person who is in a position to tell you the top players in the world would be Mike Whan. He runs the LPGA Tour.”

I feel like the video version of that answer probably is not going end up in Jay’s career highlight reel.

The PGA Tour’s SVP of Communications, Laura Neal, had an embarrassing performance given that her past job at the LPGA Tour from 1997 to 2006 under then-Commissioner Ty Votaw. Kaplan writes:

His lawyer asked Neal, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of communications, in a Dec. 15, 2020, deposition about her own knowledge of top women golfers. When she couldn’t name them, he asked her, “Do you think it’s disrespectful for a senior member of the PGA not to know who the leaders of the LPGA are?”

She replied, “No, I don’t think it’s disrespectful.”

Just ignorant and demonstrating a lack of deposition prep on a topic purportedly very dear to PGA Tour hearts.

Which brings us to the LPGA Tour’s outgoing commissioner.

Mike Whan handed the LPGA Tour’s media negotiations over to the PGA Tour and probably made the right move at the time given the options. But with Golf Channel’s dwindling reach (by cable home counts), even fuzzier future digital plans, lack of complimentary LPGA coverage (their website writer was cut), and slashed marketing budget, the LPGA has a low priority status on the channel.

At the very least, Whan should be displeased with PGA Tour leadership’s lack of preparation or knowledge. Will he say so publicly or dare discuss these performances with his players?

If he was moving to another sector, Whan might be able to skate by. But given his move to the USGA CEO job and the organization’s hosting of the U.S. Women’s Open, he probably needs to get out in front of this one.

LPGA Commish Search: And Then There Were Eight, But Not Suzy Whaley

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With Mike Whan set to start at the USGA July 1st, the LPGA Commissioner search is heating up. It better be given how soon the day will arrive. And according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, the process has been whittled down from “hundreds” (egads!) to eight for a second round of interviews.

Nichols also received word from former PGA of America president Suzy Whaley was not in the mix.

Suzy Whaley, the first female president of the PGA of America, however, is not among those final candidates. Whaley told Golfweek that she was very interested in the position but had taken her name out of the race. She did not say why.

No other names have been mentioned but Whaley certainly would have been one of the higher profile candidates.

I’m thinking the hundreds of applications might have to do with the LPGA announcing who their search firm would be with an email address to contact. Oh to have read the submissions from lunatics that raised a hand!

Zurich Classic Makes Ratings Jump; LPGA So-So In Saturday Prime Time

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Maybe without Live Under Par the kids just aren’t connected to the PGA Tour like before, or we’ll just blame cordcutting. Either way the 2021 Zurich Classic jumped to a 1.37 from a dreadful .97 in 2019. Both aired on CBS.

Showbuzzdaily with all the weekend sports ratings.

Despite averaging 700,000 more viewers the telecast only picked up 45,000 in the 18-49 yo category, going from an average of 250,000 to 295,000.

Streaming numbers are not made available.

For the LPGA Tour, a Saturday finish in LA meant eastern prime time and the Hugel-Air Premia L.A. Open averaged 277,000 on Golf Channel’s final round show. Not great but I hope the Saturday finish, where convenient, continues to get a chance.

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