The Big Problem with the LPGA Tour Schedule

Today is Tuesday, March 21, and the LPGA Tour is playing a full-field event in the United States for the first time this year. The season started with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, a tournament that—at least in the way it comes across on television—feels unserious. The tour then took a monthlong hiatus, visited Thailand and Singapore for two events in three weeks, followed by a two-week break. So here we are, nearly three months into the year, and the LPGA Tour season doesn’t seem to have really started.

That should not happen.

I applaud the LPGA Tour efforts to go to Asia, a region that does a great job of supporting women’s golf. It’s a trip that the tour needs to make, and it does so annually, even though travel across the Pacific isn’t exactly easy. That said, perhaps the the tour should consider shifting the Asian swing to the summer or fall and try to start the season with more of a bang.

Coming out of the holiday break, American sports fans in particular have an unusual amount of free time. The PGA Tour capitalizes on this fact by having a (mostly) sound Q1 schedule filled with first-rate tournaments and venues. The Farmers Insurance Open even switched to a Wednesday-Saturday schedule to avoid a conflict with the NFL conference championships and maximize viewership.

During this period, the LPGA Tour is mostly absent. The players are largely left at home, practicing and resting. While elite athletes certainly need an offseason, giving them one right when U.S. fans are most available feels like an own goal. Instead of taking advantage of the winter lull in the sports world, the LPGA Tour goes missing.

The LPGA has a lot on its plate right now as it tries to maintain the momentum it built up during Mike Whan’s tenure as commissioner. But it’s time to add a schedule overhaul to the agenda, and to make sure its season starts with action, not absence.