Mike Whan was on his way to the gas station recently, wearing the protective gloves his wife had given him, when the plight of several players came to mind.
He thought about Sierra Brooks, the promising Symetra Tour rookie with grand plans for the LPGA. He thought about LPGA rookie Albane Valenzuela, a former Olympian and Stanford All-American who played three tournaments before the world hit pause. He thought about Mel Reid, the feisty English player who grinded on the Ladies European Tour for years before coming to America.
He thought about them all sitting at home.
“They’ve done all the work to earn this,” Whan said. “They’re there. They’re at this stage. Yeah, it sucks. I feel like we’re letting them down.”
During these unprecedented times, Whan met with the media for the first time via a Zoom video call. Earlier on Friday, his team had released a revised schedule that puts the LPGA back in action on June 15. They’ve been on ice since mid-February, feeling the brunt of the cononavirus earlier than most due to the Asia spring schedule.
“We were COVID before COVID was cool, I guess,” Whan said, “because nobody really knew what coronavirus was back in January when we first started talking to China, Thailand and Singapore about it.”
Back then, when a health minister told Whan that his tour might be put in quarantine if someone at the tournament site tested positive for coronavirus, Whan thought there might be a translation issue. Isn’t quarantine a military thing?
“He goes, ‘No, no, we would actually put you in a hotel for two weeks and then just check temperatures and make sure no one gets sick,’” Whan recalled. “And I’m thinking, can you imagine the LPGA being quarantined in a foreign country?”
Now the word “quarantined” is a part of the global conversation.
One year ago, Whan was boasting to his board about how recession-proof he thought the tour was because of its global diversity. Lightning should’ve struck then, he said, because the idea of a global economic shutdown never entered his mind.
The very thing that fueled the LPGA’s rapid growth these past 10 years might be what ultimately slows down the tour’s recovery.
Whan was part of a meeting via phone with President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon that included commissioners of all major sports leagues.
Whan said he talks to a formalized task force in golf every couple of days. The pandemic has actually brought the game’s leadership even closer. He wouldn’t mind being the first tour, or even sports league, to host an event, provided that three things are true: 1) local government and gathering restrictions were in the tour’s favor, 2) the health guidelines where they’re playing were in their favor and 3) 75 to 80 percent of the players could get there.
Whan estimates that 35 to 40 percent of his membership is overseas right now.
Part of the reason he announced that four more events are being postponed and one, the Pure Silk Championship at Kingsmill, had been canceled, was to relieve the anxiety of players and caddies who were concerned about getting back into the U.S.
Gemma Dryburgh played twice this season before heading home to Scotland for the indefinite break. She set up a net in her garden to be able to hit balls after the golf courses in her area closed two weeks ago.
The new schedule release, she said, at least gives a more realistic date to aim toward.
“I think one of the hardest things about this situation is that it is hard to motivate yourself when you have no idea when we will play again,” she said.
Azahara Munoz is hunkered down in Florida and grateful that her family back in Spain remains healthy. She’s eager to get back on tour, of course, but only when it’s safe for everyone.
“Not just when it’s good for us,” she said.
As of now, there are four canceled events on the LPGA schedule: three events in Asia and Kingsmill. Whan said there will likely be more. It’s possible that title sponsors will partner up for events later in the season. He doesn’t want to fill every open date on the calendar in case he needs to move another major championship.
Right now, the U.S. Women’s Open has moved to December. It could be the tail end of the season, or if summer events get wiped out, Whan could introduce a wrap-around schedule that goes into 2021. He’s calling it the “year of the asterisk.”
The scenarios seem endless. Some have fans, some don’t. Limited hospitality. Multiple dining rooms or media rooms to cut down on crown size. Safety measures can increase the costs.
“We’ve had a few sponsors say to us, if you need me in 2020, tell me where you need me,” said Whan, “and if I don’t fit, tell me that you just need me to be back in 2021.”
It’s an ever-changing puzzle, and Whan, the compassionate, tireless, outside-the-box-thinking commissioner who turned around the LPGA, won’t rest until he no longer has to worry about his players on his way to the gas station.
But even then, he sees the bigger picture.
“I’ve said this many times: My desire to play golf has never been higher,” said Whan. “My worry about my desire getting in the way of what’s right has to be just as high. We want to play. Don’t get me wrong. And my players want to play, and I think if you said to them, let’s go play, they’d be there before I got there. But we can’t – while we want to be a force of good, we can’t be a force of setback, either.”
