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L.P.G.A. Tour Sprouts Rivalries Based on Age, Portfolio and Attitude
By DAMON HACK
The New York Times
July 2, 2006
NEWPORT, R.I., July 1 — As a rookie on the L.P.G.A. Tour last year, Paula Creamer announced her intention to supplant Annika Sorenstam as the world's best female golfer.
Creamer signed multiyear endorsement deals and challenged Sorenstam on a rule interpretation. That made Creamer stand out among her peers. It did not, however, make her beloved.
"I was not wholly embraced," Creamer, 19, said recently, adding that she was not wholly surprised. "I've always gotten along better with guys rather than girls."
Creamer, who is among those currently competing in the United States Women's Open at the Newport Country Club, is one of several young players ushering the L.P.G.A. into a new phase of competitiveness. This phase transcends the game and seizes upon elements of fashion and marketing. At times, it pits the young against the old, but also the young against the young.
In the last year on the L.P.G.A. Tour, tantrums and tears have been evident on the course. Players have done swimsuit calendars and elaborate photo spreads for Web sites. Bright pastels and dangling earrings have become commonplace.
Rivalries have spawned, based on age, endorsement portfolio and attitude.
"We have a lot of young women who don't mind speaking their mind," Carolyn Bivens, the commissioner of the L.P.G.A., said in an interview. "They have their own style. They have no fear. They believe that they are capable of anything, and that creates some electricity."
The previous generation of L.P.G.A. players was led by the shy Sorenstam and the remote Karrie Webb, who never seemed comfortable with attempts to mold them into golf's version of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
Ten years after Tiger Woods turned professional, with a pronouncement to break Jack Nicklaus's records, many of the talented young players on the L.P.G.A. Tour have taken their cues from him. They have stepped on toes in their rush to succeed.
Morgan Pressel, an 18-year-old rookie, criticized the 16-year-old Michelle Wie on several fronts. Pressel accused her of promoting herself ahead of women's golf and bemoaned her receiving exemptions into tournaments for which other players had to qualify. (Wie, for example, received an exemption from the United States Golf Association to enter the Open.)
"I don't think she needs an exemption," Pressel said in February. "I've been through qualifying. Everybody who doesn't make it on the money list, other amateurs, other professionals that aren't members of the Tour, they all have to go through qualifying, too. I don't see why she shouldn't, or why she should be afraid, or expect an exemption."
Wie said she shut out the criticism.
"I know that outside my family, outside my friends, there are people that don't support me and people that support me," Wie said, adding that she would continue to play in men's tournaments. "It almost reminds me of a newspaper, where you have your staff writers and then you also have your freelance writers. I'm like the freelance writer."
At times, Pressel's preoccupation with Wie might have gotten the best of her. When the two were paired for the first time as professionals in February, in the final round of the Fields Open in Hawaii, Pressel shot a 71 to Wie's 66 and finished tied for 11th. Wie placed third. Pressel sobbed by the scorer's tent for 15 minutes.
When Birdie Kim holed out a bunker shot to defeat Pressel and the 19-year-old Brittany Lang by one shot at last year's United States Women's Open, Pressel doubled over in the fairway and sniffled through her interview afterward.
Polo Ralph Lauren, which sponsors Pressel, embraces her penchant for fist-pumping after good shots and crying after bad rounds.
"I don't think that my emotions hurt me, that's for sure," Pressel said in an article on the company's Web site. "For one, it's brought a lot of attention, which isn't a bad thing."
Wie cried after being disqualified for taking an improper drop in her professional debut last year, one more example of just how young women's golf has become. At the 2003 United States Women's Open, the 156-player field included 14 teenagers. This year, there are 25.
Dottie Pepper, a golf analyst for NBC and a former L.P.G.A. star, said the younger generation had been geared toward the highest achievement in golf and beyond.
"Most of the young players are either the focal point of their families, or they have been," Pepper, 40, said. Two of the more contentious moments last year occurred in the first round of the ADT Championship and involved Creamer and Sorenstam. On the 16th green, Sorenstam wanted to repair a mark on the same line with her putt, but Creamer objected. When Sorenstam called for an official, Creamer relented and turned away. Sorenstam fixed the mark but missed the putt.
Two holes later, Sorenstam and Creamer held up play for 20 minutes as they disagreed on where Sorenstam's ball had crossed a hazard.
"We're never going to agree because she saw it differently," Creamer said at the time. "In my heart of hearts, I did not see it cross. It's her conscience. If she thinks it did, it did."
With neither player budging, the rules official sided with Sorenstam because she had hit the ball.
Creamer, who won four tournaments around the world as a rookie, made no secret of her designs on the No. 1 ranking.
Webb, 31, said: "I think I have to smile a little bit because I think that's a young view coming from kids that have grown up the center point of their family structure and been told how good they are their whole life. So they come out and they just say exactly what has been said to them their whole life."
In some ways, the friction between the best players on the L.P.G.A. Tour mirrors that of the best players on the PGA Tour, but it is more complex. The top 10 female players range from teenagers to the 46-year-old Juli Inkster. Wie is ranked No. 2, Webb No. 4, Creamer No. 5 and Pressel No. 12.
Competition often breeds isolation, said Sorenstam, an eight-time L.P.G.A. player of the year. "On this level, it's tough to really socialize with other players," she said.
Lorena Ochoa, who is ranked No. 3, agreed.
"You can tell that the top 10 or 20, it's hard to be close friends because you are very competitive," Ochoa, 24, said. "Out there, you don't want to be friendly. It's one thing to respect and admire other players, but at the same time, you want to beat them."
David Leadbetter, who coaches touring men and women and is Wie's coach, said that players on the PGA Tour did not mind that he helped other competitors. As for the L.P.G.A. Tour, he said: "Things are a little more contentious. There are more rivalries there."
Emilee Klein, 32, who finished her career on the L.P.G.A. Tour with three titles and now coaches the women's golf team at the University of Central Florida, distilled the occasional dust-ups this way: "We're women. We like to act like them."
Some of the competition has crossed into the realm of endorsements, which are not widely available to L.P.G.A. players.
In the previous decade, Sorenstam and Webb were among a small number who were paid to endorse products.
These days, several players have earning opportunities, even those without victories. Natalie Gulbis, 23, has a swimsuit calendar, has starred in a reality television show on the Golf Channel and has six endorsement deals.
Although Erica Blasberg, 21, is not a full-fledged member of the L.P.G.A. Tour, she has a splashy Web site and sponsor deals with Cleveland and Puma.
Pressel, who has yet to win on the Tour, does television commercials for Callaway Golf with Sorenstam and Phil Mickelson, who have won a combined 96 tournaments on the L.P.G.A. and the PGA Tours.
Wie, who is neither an L.P.G.A. member nor a winner on the Tour, earns an estimated $10 million in endorsements. She helps Nike with her outfits and may never appear twice in the same one. At last year's United States Women's Open, Wie, Pressel and Creamer arrived at the first tee in shades of pink.
"When you're 19 years old, you want to look cute," Klein said. "It's, Who has the best clothing contract?"
Creamer parlayed her rookie success into name recognition. She recently held a retreat in Bradenton, Fla., with eight of her sponsors, from ADT Security Services to the Royal Bank of Scotland. As Creamer said with a smile, "It was all about me."
Her agent, Jay Burton of IMG, said the chill toward Creamer last year was partly because of the feeling that "she was stealing the limelight."
Creamer said she noticed the silence or the halfhearted greetings as she walked onto a putting green. "It was rough the first couple of events," she said.
"If anything, it made me feel good," she added. "They knew I was a threat on the golf course."
Webb said she did not resent the ambition of young players, on the course or off it, but the attention they received early in the season fired her up.
"I did feel like I was a little forgotten," said Webb, who won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April. "Obviously, I wasn't playing well, but it wasn't that long ago when I was at the top of the game. I used that as a little bit of motivation, not only from what was being said and how the Tour was being promoted, but I wanted to show them how good I could play. I didn't want them to be in my group and be like, How did she get in the Hall of Fame?"
By DAMON HACK
The New York Times
July 2, 2006
NEWPORT, R.I., July 1 — As a rookie on the L.P.G.A. Tour last year, Paula Creamer announced her intention to supplant Annika Sorenstam as the world's best female golfer.
Creamer signed multiyear endorsement deals and challenged Sorenstam on a rule interpretation. That made Creamer stand out among her peers. It did not, however, make her beloved.
"I was not wholly embraced," Creamer, 19, said recently, adding that she was not wholly surprised. "I've always gotten along better with guys rather than girls."
Creamer, who is among those currently competing in the United States Women's Open at the Newport Country Club, is one of several young players ushering the L.P.G.A. into a new phase of competitiveness. This phase transcends the game and seizes upon elements of fashion and marketing. At times, it pits the young against the old, but also the young against the young.
In the last year on the L.P.G.A. Tour, tantrums and tears have been evident on the course. Players have done swimsuit calendars and elaborate photo spreads for Web sites. Bright pastels and dangling earrings have become commonplace.
Rivalries have spawned, based on age, endorsement portfolio and attitude.
"We have a lot of young women who don't mind speaking their mind," Carolyn Bivens, the commissioner of the L.P.G.A., said in an interview. "They have their own style. They have no fear. They believe that they are capable of anything, and that creates some electricity."
The previous generation of L.P.G.A. players was led by the shy Sorenstam and the remote Karrie Webb, who never seemed comfortable with attempts to mold them into golf's version of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert.
Ten years after Tiger Woods turned professional, with a pronouncement to break Jack Nicklaus's records, many of the talented young players on the L.P.G.A. Tour have taken their cues from him. They have stepped on toes in their rush to succeed.
Morgan Pressel, an 18-year-old rookie, criticized the 16-year-old Michelle Wie on several fronts. Pressel accused her of promoting herself ahead of women's golf and bemoaned her receiving exemptions into tournaments for which other players had to qualify. (Wie, for example, received an exemption from the United States Golf Association to enter the Open.)
"I don't think she needs an exemption," Pressel said in February. "I've been through qualifying. Everybody who doesn't make it on the money list, other amateurs, other professionals that aren't members of the Tour, they all have to go through qualifying, too. I don't see why she shouldn't, or why she should be afraid, or expect an exemption."
Wie said she shut out the criticism.
"I know that outside my family, outside my friends, there are people that don't support me and people that support me," Wie said, adding that she would continue to play in men's tournaments. "It almost reminds me of a newspaper, where you have your staff writers and then you also have your freelance writers. I'm like the freelance writer."
At times, Pressel's preoccupation with Wie might have gotten the best of her. When the two were paired for the first time as professionals in February, in the final round of the Fields Open in Hawaii, Pressel shot a 71 to Wie's 66 and finished tied for 11th. Wie placed third. Pressel sobbed by the scorer's tent for 15 minutes.
When Birdie Kim holed out a bunker shot to defeat Pressel and the 19-year-old Brittany Lang by one shot at last year's United States Women's Open, Pressel doubled over in the fairway and sniffled through her interview afterward.
Polo Ralph Lauren, which sponsors Pressel, embraces her penchant for fist-pumping after good shots and crying after bad rounds.
"I don't think that my emotions hurt me, that's for sure," Pressel said in an article on the company's Web site. "For one, it's brought a lot of attention, which isn't a bad thing."
Wie cried after being disqualified for taking an improper drop in her professional debut last year, one more example of just how young women's golf has become. At the 2003 United States Women's Open, the 156-player field included 14 teenagers. This year, there are 25.
Dottie Pepper, a golf analyst for NBC and a former L.P.G.A. star, said the younger generation had been geared toward the highest achievement in golf and beyond.
"Most of the young players are either the focal point of their families, or they have been," Pepper, 40, said. Two of the more contentious moments last year occurred in the first round of the ADT Championship and involved Creamer and Sorenstam. On the 16th green, Sorenstam wanted to repair a mark on the same line with her putt, but Creamer objected. When Sorenstam called for an official, Creamer relented and turned away. Sorenstam fixed the mark but missed the putt.
Two holes later, Sorenstam and Creamer held up play for 20 minutes as they disagreed on where Sorenstam's ball had crossed a hazard.
"We're never going to agree because she saw it differently," Creamer said at the time. "In my heart of hearts, I did not see it cross. It's her conscience. If she thinks it did, it did."
With neither player budging, the rules official sided with Sorenstam because she had hit the ball.
Creamer, who won four tournaments around the world as a rookie, made no secret of her designs on the No. 1 ranking.
Webb, 31, said: "I think I have to smile a little bit because I think that's a young view coming from kids that have grown up the center point of their family structure and been told how good they are their whole life. So they come out and they just say exactly what has been said to them their whole life."
In some ways, the friction between the best players on the L.P.G.A. Tour mirrors that of the best players on the PGA Tour, but it is more complex. The top 10 female players range from teenagers to the 46-year-old Juli Inkster. Wie is ranked No. 2, Webb No. 4, Creamer No. 5 and Pressel No. 12.
Competition often breeds isolation, said Sorenstam, an eight-time L.P.G.A. player of the year. "On this level, it's tough to really socialize with other players," she said.
Lorena Ochoa, who is ranked No. 3, agreed.
"You can tell that the top 10 or 20, it's hard to be close friends because you are very competitive," Ochoa, 24, said. "Out there, you don't want to be friendly. It's one thing to respect and admire other players, but at the same time, you want to beat them."
David Leadbetter, who coaches touring men and women and is Wie's coach, said that players on the PGA Tour did not mind that he helped other competitors. As for the L.P.G.A. Tour, he said: "Things are a little more contentious. There are more rivalries there."
Emilee Klein, 32, who finished her career on the L.P.G.A. Tour with three titles and now coaches the women's golf team at the University of Central Florida, distilled the occasional dust-ups this way: "We're women. We like to act like them."
Some of the competition has crossed into the realm of endorsements, which are not widely available to L.P.G.A. players.
In the previous decade, Sorenstam and Webb were among a small number who were paid to endorse products.
These days, several players have earning opportunities, even those without victories. Natalie Gulbis, 23, has a swimsuit calendar, has starred in a reality television show on the Golf Channel and has six endorsement deals.
Although Erica Blasberg, 21, is not a full-fledged member of the L.P.G.A. Tour, she has a splashy Web site and sponsor deals with Cleveland and Puma.
Pressel, who has yet to win on the Tour, does television commercials for Callaway Golf with Sorenstam and Phil Mickelson, who have won a combined 96 tournaments on the L.P.G.A. and the PGA Tours.
Wie, who is neither an L.P.G.A. member nor a winner on the Tour, earns an estimated $10 million in endorsements. She helps Nike with her outfits and may never appear twice in the same one. At last year's United States Women's Open, Wie, Pressel and Creamer arrived at the first tee in shades of pink.
"When you're 19 years old, you want to look cute," Klein said. "It's, Who has the best clothing contract?"
Creamer parlayed her rookie success into name recognition. She recently held a retreat in Bradenton, Fla., with eight of her sponsors, from ADT Security Services to the Royal Bank of Scotland. As Creamer said with a smile, "It was all about me."
Her agent, Jay Burton of IMG, said the chill toward Creamer last year was partly because of the feeling that "she was stealing the limelight."
Creamer said she noticed the silence or the halfhearted greetings as she walked onto a putting green. "It was rough the first couple of events," she said.
"If anything, it made me feel good," she added. "They knew I was a threat on the golf course."
Webb said she did not resent the ambition of young players, on the course or off it, but the attention they received early in the season fired her up.
"I did feel like I was a little forgotten," said Webb, who won the Kraft Nabisco Championship in April. "Obviously, I wasn't playing well, but it wasn't that long ago when I was at the top of the game. I used that as a little bit of motivation, not only from what was being said and how the Tour was being promoted, but I wanted to show them how good I could play. I didn't want them to be in my group and be like, How did she get in the Hall of Fame?"