Creamer Wins Tournament of Champions

The LPGA held its Tournament of Champions this past week. It was a premier event, limited to tournament winners from 2005 – 2007, as well as active members of the LGPA and World Golf Halls of Fame.

But buried behind the NFL, College Football, and the beginning of the pro and college basketball seasons, it had to be one of the most underreported sports stories of the year. Creamer won by eight strokes, but I’d be amazed if I could find anyone who knew that.

The next event on the LPGA list is the season ending ADT Championship. It’s the final event in the LPGA’s playoff series—the ladies equivalent of the FedEx Cup Championship (although it predates the FedEx Cup)—and the winner is up for a $1 million purse. And again, it’s going to go unnoticed. The first three days are on The Golf Channel, and the final round will be broadcast from three to six on Sunday on NBC.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that the PGA Tour got it right in effectively ending it’s season before the fall sports got underway. The Fall Series was little noticed, but it really didn’t matter. The LPGA, on the other hand, has some of its biggest events going against the heart of football schedules.

Not good.

Maybe the LPGA needs to start thinking outside the box. Rather than starting their season in January, they could start in May, moving with the summer. The final series of events would be held the following January after the Bowls, and the “season ending” championship would be held in February. Events in November and December—held in beautiful places like Hawaii— would appeal to the snowbound among us.

I like the idea of watching meaningful golf in the early part of the season. It beats the silliness of the Pebble Beach and the like. An inverted schedule LPGA would be just the ticket.