FORT WORTH – To the men of the PGA Tour, Annika Sorenstam’s appearance in the Bank of America Colonial was either a novelty or a nuisance. To the pioneers of the LPGA Tour, it was a proud moment in their history. To those who make their money outside the ropes, this weekend offered a glimpse into the future of how golf tournaments can be marketed.
Everybody is on the Sorenstam bandwagon today after the way the blonde Swede showed grace under pressure, shooting a remarkable round of 1-over-par 71 on Thursday and a respectable 4-over-par 74 on Friday. Those critical of her being the first woman in 58 years to play in a PGA Tour event were smothered in the wave of support from the gallery, media and a number of PGA Tour players who admired how she handled a week of extreme pressure.
“It was spectacular,” said Carol Mann, a 1977 inductee into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame. “It’s the most entertaining golf I have seen, even when Tiger [Woods] played. There was so much emotion. This thing was totally emotion-packed.”
The ramifications of what happened at Colonial can be debated. Certainly, the LPGA gained a measure of respect as its top-ranked player held her own against a PGA Tour setup. She hit a higher percentage of fairways (86.0 percent) than the rest of the field (66.69 percent), and a higher percentage of greens in regulation (67.0 to 66.63). It was her putting, an average of 2.1 putts per hole, that kept her from making the cut.
Still, her 36-hole score of 5-over felt like a victory. Sorenstam’s career never will be the same. She greatly benefits through increased name recognition. Over the previous two months, her quest at Colonial had been golf’s biggest story next to Martha Burk’s supposed showdown with Hootie Johnson during the Masters. Unlike Burk, Sorenstam lived up to the hype.
She already wears the logos of Callaway Golf, Mercedes and Kraft. More lucrative deals figure to come her way as a result of Colonial. She is clearly the new queen of golf.
“She’ll be a star the rest of her life beyond the boundaries of golf because of this,” Mann said. “She was a classic underdog, and we were with her for every pull of her rope. She’s a superstar now.”
Her appearance also will cause tournament sponsors to take a hard look at different ways to market their tournament. Bank of America, in the first of a four-year commitment as Colonial’s sponsor, didn’t have the final say in the invitation being extended to Sorenstam, but it fully supported the move. Without her, Colonial wouldn’t have attracted its record crowds or drawn the kind of media interest it did.
“Anytime you’re a first-year sponsor, you look for ways to build a deep association with the tournament,” said Dockery Clark, a marketing executive for Bank of America. “Annika’s participation here and the media coverage it drew have helped us do that.”
The novelty of a woman playing in a PGA Tour event never will be what it was this week. But it remains a way to attract interest in future tournaments that are starved for attention.
“Tournament directors are trying to figure out all kinds of ways to increase gates and attract sponsors,” Mann said. “Usually, their efforts are focused on attracting as many of the top golfers as possible. But now I think they’ll consider inviting all kinds of people: good amateurs, and movie stars and athletes who are good players. That’s one way they can attract all kinds of people to their tournaments.”
Annika is a first-name athlete now. Her appearance at Colonial was good for the LPGA and good for golf. Mostly, it was good for Annika.
