Another format change could be in the works for the LPGA’s season finale when the tour finally announces its 2011 schedule this afternoon.
There also appears no guarantee that the event would return to Central Florida.
According to a Golfweek report, the LPGA will resurrect the old Titleholders Championship in the final spot, scrapping the 120-woman field and reserving entry to top finishers from the season’s previous events.
That would limit the roster to 50 players or so, giving the event more of an exclusive feel. It also would ensure players could finish rounds in time, as opposed to last month’s incomplete Thursday and Friday at Grand Cypress.
In a mockup of the 2011 schedule that appeared briefly on the LPGA’s website over the weekend, “The Titleholders” occupied the final slot on the calendar. It also listed no venue.
Commissioner Mike Whan will unveil the schedule and discuss various tweaks in a 4:15 p.m. announcement to be carried live on Golf Channel.
The Titleholders is a concept that actually predates the LPGA, played from 1937-66 as a women’s parallel to the Masters. Winners of various professional and amateur events gathered at Augusta (Ga.) Country Club to compete, and the LPGA considers those events a major.
According to Golfweek, the top three players from each designated events would earn berths in the Titleholders field. If someone among the top three had already qualified, the berth would go to the next player that week not already qualified.
That could be problematic by midseason, though, with tournaments reaching beyond the top 10 to find three players not already qualified.
The Titleholders venue also figures to remain unresolved until sponsorship is found. The LPGA footed the bills for last month’s unsponsored Tour Championship, and continues to look for someone to put their name on the event.
Though Grand Cypress received generally high marks, Whan acknowledged last month that a sponsor would have the right to select a new site.
“My job is to be the best business partner I can to our title sponsors,” Whan said. “If somebody says, ‘Hey Mike, I want to get behind your Tour Championship and do it for the next five or six years – but we want to have it [somewhere else],’ – that’s where we’re going to have it.”
