Golf Tournament Guide for Dummies

By: Nancy Berkley


It's U.S. Open week. Will golfers like the Chambers Bay course south of Seattle with its sand and fescue grasses? Can Jordan Spieth play like he did at the Masters? What is there to say about Tiger?

But last week the story was about women's golf. Someone told me they watched LPGA Tour player, Inbee Park, win a PGA Tour event on Sunday. "Sorry," I said, "But Park's victory had nothing to do with the PGA Tour and everything to do with the PGA of America." I met a blank response.

My friend is not the only person confused about just what tournament Park won. And since there is no "Dummies" book series specifically about golf tournaments, I decided to play off its title. So, here's a golf tournament guide that should make everyone an informed golf fan.

Last week Park won the KPMG PGA Championship. It was her sixth major title and third in what was formerly known as the LPGA Championship, which puts her up there with Annika Sorenstam and my personal golf legend, LPGA founder Patty Berg. And this tournament made history in other ways.

It was the first time in the history of women's golf that an LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association) Tour event was actively promoted by the PGA of America, an organization often referred to as the "PGA," which results in some confusion.

The international accounting firm, KPMG, took top billing as the tournament sponsor. Neither the LPGA nor even its logo were featured on the tournament's posters or advertising. To add to the confusion, the PGA of America sponsors its own "PGA Championship," a major on the men's PGA Tour. (Yes, the PGA and the PGA Tour are two different golf entities.) The PGA Championship provides opportunities for 27,000 PGA of America professionals to qualify through a series of regional tournaments to qualify - and some do. About 1,000 female golfers are also members of the PGA, including Suzy Whaley, the first female officer of its board of directors.

Back to Park: As the story goes, last October, Pete Bevacqua, the CEO of the PGA of America approached LPGA commissioner Mike Whan, suggesting that the PGA take a lead role in an LPGA Tour event.

Smart marketing! The PGA was still recovering from its "lil' girl" gender PR fiasco generated by then-PGA president Ted Bishop during the Ryder Cup last fall. To have the group prominently support women's golf could repair their image with female golfers.

Whan, also a marketing whiz, knows an opportunity when he sees it. Perhaps he was thinking (as I do) that it's about time for the PGA of America to really help grow women's golf. The collaboration of these two entities could make history.

The third leg of the stool was the sponsor KPMG, which has offices around the world and a major golf advisory business in Europe. As further background: KPMG has been battling a class-action gender-discrimination suit brought by former and current KPMG female employees for several years. The well-designed and organized "Women's Summit" that KPMG integrated into the week's tournaments sent a strong message that KPMG supports women in business.

And it's no surprise KPMG will support women in business at next year's KMPG PGA Championship, already scheduled for Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., east of Seattle June 9-12, 2016. Women in business on the West Coast - from San Diego north through Silicon Valley and San Francisco and up to Microsoft in Seattle - should put the KPMG PGA Championship on their 2016 calendars.

This week another important golf association, the United States Golf Association, has top billing. Golf fans will be watching male golfers competing in the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay. The USGA, which dates its origins back to 1894, is the oldest golf association in the United States. It plays a very important role in the Handicap System ™ and establishing official golf rules. The USGA also sponsors the men's U.S. Open as well as over a dozen tournaments for both female and male amateur and professional golfers.

Next month, the USGA focuses on female players. Women from the LPGA Tour along with amateurs of all ages who qualify through a regional qualifying system will compete in the U.S. Women's Open at Lancaster Country Club in Lancaster, Pa., July 9-12. Park will make history if she wins this tournament because it would be her fourth "major" victory - which no female golfer has yet achieved.

But what about the PGA Tour? With Fathers Day this Sunday, you can't forget the men! The PGA Tour appeared on the scene in the 1920s. Although women are not officially barred from playing in a PGA Tour event, Sorenstam has done it and that came only by way of a special invitation from the tournament sponsor. (Babe Didrikson Zaharias was the first woman to play in a men's professional tournament, the 1938 Los Angeles Open, while Whaley and Michelle Wie also did it six decades later.)

The PGA Tour holds and conducts over 30 tournaments during its season. Tim Finchem, PGA Tour commissioner, has a long and successful history with the Tour. Until recently, the PGA Tour was very American-based. But in our global world, it has expanded internationally. The PGA Tour also sponsors the season-ending FedEx Cup series of tournaments.

Two famous international team competitions are played every two years - the U.S. vs. Europe in the Ryder Cup. The 2016 Ryder Cup will be held at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. (just outside Minneapolis). The women's 2015 Solheim Cup. a similar team competition between the U.S. and Europe, will be played at a new course a few miles from Heidelberg, Germany, in mid-September. I hope to be there!

Now you have it: Everything you needed to know about golf tournaments.

Nancy Berkley, President of Berkley Golf Consulting, is an expert on women's golf and junior-girls golf. She is a frequent contributor to www.cybergolf.com/womensgolf. Her book, "Women Welcome Here! A Guide to Growing Women's Golf," published by the National Golf Foundation, is an industry reference on marketing golf to women and spotting trends within the industry. She offers information and advice about the golf industry on www.berkleygolfconsulting.com and is often quoted in national publications. Nancy is a member of the World Golf Foundation Women's Committee that launched www.golfforher.com a comprehensive new website for all women golfers at the PGA Merchandise Show in January 2015 in Orlando, Fla. She is a featured speaker at PGA Section meetings and at national conferences. She was a contributing editor of "Golf for Women" magazine and a founding advisor of "Golfer Girl Magazine." Her interviews with women in the golf industry now appear on www.golfergirlcareers.com. Nancy lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Harvard University and Rutgers Law School. After a business and legal career, she decided to write about the game she learned and loved as a teenager. She describes herself as a good bogey golfer with permanent potential.