DECEMBER 2009

17-19: Orient China Ladies Open (KLPGA) SO YEON RYU

FEBRUARY 2010

18-21: Honda PTT LPGA Thailand (LPGA) AI MIYAZATO

25-28: HSBC Women’s Champions (LPGA) AI MIYAZATO, New Zealand Open (LET) LAURA DAVIES

MARCH 2010

4-7: ANZ Ladies Masters (LET) KARRIE WEBB
5-7: Daikin Orchid Ladies Open (JLPGA) SUN JU AHN

11-14: Women’s Australian Open (LET)
12-14: Yokohama Tire PRGR Ladies Cup (JLPGA)

18-20: Lalla Meryem Cup (LET)
19-21: T Points Ladies Open (JLPGA)

25-28: Kia Classic Presented by J Golf (LPGA)

APRIL 2010

1-4: Kraft Nabisco Championship (LPGA major)
2-4: Yamaha Ladies Open (JLPGA)

7-9: Kim Young Joo Women’s Open (KLPGA)
9-11: Studio Alice Ladies Open (JLPGA)

14-16: LotteMart JGolf Series Women’s Open (KLPGA)
16-18: Nishijin Ladies Classic (JLPGA)

23-25: Fujisankei Ladies Classic (JLPGA)

29-5/2: Tres Marias Championship (LPGA)
30-5/2: Cyber Agent Ladies Cup (JLPGA); SBS Tour SportsSeoul Women’s Open (KLPGA)

MAY 2010

6-9: Salonpas Cup (JLPGA major)
7-9: Turkish Ladies Open (LET)

13-16: Bell Micro LPGA Classic (LPGA); Unicredit Ladies German Open (LET)
14-16: Fundokin Ladies (JLPGA); Taeyoung Bae Korean Women’s Open (KLPGA major)

20-23: Sybase Match Play Championship (LPGA); Doosan Match Play Championship (KLPGA)
21-23: Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open (JLPGA)

27-30: Ladies Slovak Open (LET)
28-30: Yonex Ladies (JLPGA); Hill State Seokyoung Kyeongjae Open (KLPGA)

JUNE 2010

4-6: Resort Trust Ladies Open (JLPGA), Woori Financial Ladies Championship (KLPGA), ABN AMRO Ladies Open (LET)

9-11: S-OIL Champions Invitational (KLPGA)
10-13: LPGA State Farm Classic (LPGA), Suntory Ladies Open (JLPGA), Carta Si Ladies Italian Open (LET)

16-18: SBS Tour Lakeside Women’s Open (KLPGA)
17-20: Deutsche Bank Ladies Swiss Open (LET)
18-20: ShopRite LPGA Classic (LPGA), Nichirei PGM Ladies (JLPGA)

24-27: LPGA Championship Presented by Wegmans (LPGA major)
25-27: Ladies Open of Portugal (LET)

JULY 2010

1-4: Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic (LPGA), Tenerife Ladies Open (LET)
2-4: Nichi-Iko Ladies Open (JLPGA)

8-11: U.S. Women’s Open (LPGA major)
9-11: Meiji Chocolate Cup (JLPGA)

16-18: Stanley Ladies (JLPGA)

22-25: Evian Masters (LPGA/LET)
23-25: China Tangsanbae Women’s Open (KLPGA)

29-8/1: Ricoh Women’s British Open (LPGA/LET major)
30-8/1: SBS Tour Hitun Baelly Women’s Open (KLPGA)

AUGUST 2010

4-6: Lion’s Court Women’s Open (KLPGA)
6-8: AIB Ladies Irish Open (LET)

12-15: S4C Wales Ladies Championship of Europe (LET)
13-15: NEC Karuizawa 72 Ladies (JLPGA), High One Resort Cup SBS Charity Women’s Open (KLPGA)

18-20: Ladies Scottish Open (LET)
19-22: Nefs Masterpiece (KLPGA)
20-22: Safeway Classic (LPGA), CAT Ladies (JLPGA)

26-29: Canadian Women’s Open (LPGA)
27-29: Nitori Ladies Cup (JLPGA), LIG Women’s Open (KLPGA), Finnair Ladies Masters (LET)

SEPTEMBER 2010

3-5: Golf5 Ladies (JLPGA), UNIQA Ladies Golf Open (LET)

9-12: Konica Minolta Cup (JLPGA major), Open de France Feminin (LET)
10-12: NW Arkansas Championship (LPGA), Daewoo Women’s Open (KLPGA)

16-19: KLPGA Championship (KLPGA major), Open de Espana Femenino (LET)
17-19: Munsingwear Ladies Tokai Classic (JLPGA)

23-25: Madrid Ladies Masters (LET)
24-26: Miyagi TV Cup Dunlop Ladies Open (JLPGA)

30-10/3: Japan Women’s Open (JLPGA major), Acapulco LPGA Classic (LPGA)

OCTOBER 2010

1-3: Sendarium Women’s Open (KLPGA)

7-10: Navistar LPGA Classic (LPGA)
8-10: Sankyo Ladies Open (JLPGA), Himart Women’s Open (KLPGA)

14-17: CVS LPGA Challenge (LPGA), Hite Cup Championship (KLPGA major)
15-17: Fujitsu Ladies (JLPGA)

21-24: KB Star Tour Grand Final (KLPGA major)
22-24: Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia (LPGA), Masters GC Ladies (JLPGA), Anji King Valley Ladies Open (LET)

29-31: Hana Bank Championship (LPGA/KLPGA), Hisako Higuchi IDC Otsuka Kagu Ladies (JLPGA), Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open (LET)

NOVEMBER 2010

5-7: Mizuno Classic (LPGA/JLPGA), KLPGA-LET Daishin Tomato Tour Korean Women’s Masters (KLPGA/LET)

11-14: Lorena Ochoa Invitational (LPGA)
12-14: Ito-En Ladies (JLPGA)

18-21: LPGA Tour Championship (LPGA)
19-21: Daio Paper ElleAir Ladies (JLPGA), ADT CAPS Championship (KLPGA)

25-28: Ricoh Cup (JLPGA major)

DECEMBER 2010

4-5: Pinx Cup (KLPGA/JLPGA team competition)

8-10: Dubai Ladies Masters (LET)

Tiger Woods was victorious the last time the tournament was played at the Old Course, with his 14-under finish enough to win by five strokes from Colin Montgomerie, and he would have been a short-priced favourite had he confirmed he would be in attendance this time around.

But it appeared from his interview towards the end of February that his mind was not on golf, solely on rebuilding his home life after the tabloid headlines that all came out of his untimely car crash outside his home last December.

Now all we can do is wait and see if he turns up – hopefully from a golf betting perspective the announcement will come in plenty of time so as not to confuse things even further.

In his absence, it would be almost impossible to name a favourite for Open Championship Betting at the moment but it could well be a couple of Irishmen with differing levels of experience who end up making the market without Woods.

Padraig Harrington was denied a third successive Open title last season at Turnberry, when Stewart Cink secured the Claret Jug, but if he gets to St Andrews without breaking his winless streak it would be nearly two seasons since he last tasted victory.

Right at the other end of the spectrum, in terms of major experience, is Rory McIlroy, but despite consistently excelling he still only has one tournament victory on his resume, just over a year ago in Dubai.

He has started 2010 in positive fashion with a couple of top 10 finishes, but it has to be a slight worry that he has been complaining of back problems at such a tender age, and he admits he might need to make changes to his swing at some point down the line.

Rory McIlroy says he is not worried by the early part of his career, which should be a very successful one, being plagued by near misses but that it appears is not going to stop him visiting a sports psychologist.

But the good thing to read, in stark contrast to some other precocious players in the past, is that Rory McIlroy is keeping grounded and not making his life harder by playing in a long run of tournaments – he won’t play more than two weeks back-to-back at all between now and May.

What a story it would be for a player just turned 20 to lift the sport’s biggest prize in only his second full season.

golf business community

The effects of the global financial crisis have been felt in some form or other by most of us, so it is little surprise that a report from KPMG Golf Advisory Practice suggests that revenue from the golf business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA) has dropped dramatically in recent times.

The report measures the impact of the economic downturn on golf through the business performance of golf courses in 2009 and reveals that two-thirds of the golf courses surveyed in the EMA region said the financial crisis had impacted negatively on their operations, with nearly half of all courses reporting reduced revenues and profitability.

Golf courses based within a residential community or tourist resort area are surprisingly the worst hit of all, with 78% saying that they had experienced a down turn in their operations.

Overall 35% golf courses reported lower or stagnant revenues without being able to reduce costs, raising the prospect of unsustainable business operations based on current trends.

Half of the businesses surveyed said that they had been forced to make redundancies or cut staff jobs.

Golf course managers are also relatively optimistic for 2010 with 54% predicting excellent or good performance in the coming year, although managers in Great Britain and Ireland are the most pessimistic with 49% expecting ‘medium performance’ and 11% foreseeing poor or very poor performance.

Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice in EMA, concludes;

“While golf course operators, on average, are feeling more positive about their future prospects, two fundamental business factors suggest the way back to the fairway will not be straightforward.

Firstly, 35% of the golf courses surveyed are facing the worrying combination of decreasing revenues and increasing costs. For some golf courses, the narrowing of profitability might come sooner than expected and it would not be a surprise if we saw some golf courses going out of business in 2010. The depressed transaction prices of golf courses are evidence to the fact that the industry is really struggling.

Secondly, nearly half of all the courses surveyed reported a drop in revenues, fuelled in part by one or more of the following: a fall in memberships, green fee revenue, as well as food and beverage spending. While this decline in revenue may not be significant when averaged out (-3% to -5% across the EMA region), it is still worrying that 13% of courses have reported a reduction of more than 20% in the number of rounds played.

Golf courses – particularly those linked to tourist resorts and the ones operating in mature markets like Great Britain and Ireland – will have to work very hard on their relationship marketing, pricing strategies and service levels to attract new customers or lure back the old ones.”

The full KPMG report, Golf and the Economic Downturn, is available to download, free of charge, from the new website: www.golfbusinesscommunity.com

Which is not always a bad thing. One of the more positive effects of other versions of American nationalism is the defusing of real tensions in other parts of the world. How else would my brother, a descendant like me in part of Polish Jews, have married into a Polish-American Catholic family, given what happened in Poland during World War II? Even closer to home, my dad was born the year of Pearl Harbor, but he’s the father-in-law of a woman from Japan. There really is something to that “Only in America” cliche, isn’t there?

Which brings me around, of course, to golf. Can anyone imagine Tiffany Joh, who’s just been given a sponsor exemption into the Kia Classic Presented by J Golf, being set up as the good guy (or bad guy) in a grudge match with, say, Mina Harigae–with bragging rights for Korean-America and Japanese-America on the line? An order or two of magnitude more ridiculous to imagine than the race between Ji-Yai Shin and Ai Miyazato to catch Lorena Ochoa for world #1 (they’re now separated by .09 points in the latest Rolex Rankings) becoming a nationalist spectacle, isn’t it? Much more likely to be a UCLA vs. Duke thing, come to think of it….

By the way, if Joh were to nab a top 10 at the Kia Classic, she’d qualify for the Kraft Nabisco Championship (under their new eligibility rules)! Go, T-Joh!

1. Australian Women’s Open – Live Leaderboard
   The ladies head down to the Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne for the Australian Open this week after Karrie Webb’s massive win at the ANZ Ladies Masters. The draw for round one has been scheduled with Christina Kim appearing on the opposite side of the draw to Tamie Durdin. Confrontation avoided.

   2009 Champion: Laura Davies
   
   

   TV Times:
   Friday March 12, 2:30pm – 6:30pm One HD
   Saturday March 13, 1pm – 5pm One HD, Ten
   Sunday March 14, 1pm – 5pm One HD, Ten
   
2. WGC CA Championship – Live Leaderboard
   The second world golf championship event for the year shifts to…that’s right, the USA!
   This time it is the CA championship in the flatlands of Florida at TPC in Doral. As with all these events there is a hell of a field assembled and there are nine Australians playing. Even Geoff Ogilvy is back playing after his brief stint helping out with the new baby.

   2009 Champion: Phil Mickelson

   TV Times:
   Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon (March 12, 13, 14, 15) 6am – 10am One HD

Meanwhile, Pernilla Lindberg has taken a big lead on the LET Rookie of the Year race and will be looking to extend it at the Women’s Australian Open this week, but even after the tour’s 3-event Down Under swing comes to a close, most of the relatively small number of LETers who got into those events won’t have all that large a lead on their competitors who couldn’t.

The bottom line is that 2 or 3 bad results aren’t much of an improvement on not playing at all. Sure, by playing more often you get more chances to get that 1 good or great result that can make your season or catapult you to the next level. But these days you have to take advantage of every opportunity you get to play. Whether you get into 20 or 15 or 10 or 5 events, everyone else is struggling to maximize their playing time and their results the same as you. With so few events and purses down in so many of them, we could see the lowest #80 and #100 thresholds on the LPGA money list in a long time. In a race to, say, $100K (a ballpark estimate for #80 because the LPGA still hasn’t given me access to their media center and I haven’t had time to do the math on my own), every little bit counts, but it’s the big chunks of change that make the biggest difference. We’ll see who can handle that kind of pressure in a few weeks!