LPGA players not happy with ADT Championship changes?

A month ago LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw announced changes to the ADT Championship. The ADT is the LPGA Tour Championship, the last event of the golf year. It's played at Trump International GC in West Palm Beach Florida and I have been a regular attendee of the event.

Now according to Alan Tays in today's Palm Beach Post, many LPGA golfers aren't happy with the announced changes. Juli Inkster most notably of all. Players are complaining about the format, how players qualify and the mostly winner take all purse.

I agree with the players who dislike the changes except for different reasons. One the changes are gimmicky and do nothing to enhance the event. Plus the changes are fan unfriendly at least in regards to me. I like to follow a golfer as they play a full 18 holes. With only 4 to 8 players in the field on Sunday I'd have limited options plus huge crowds to contend with. I'd stay home rather than trying to follow a group with several thousand other people.

Below is part of today's PB Post article.

Some LPGA players aren't sold on changes to ADT format
By Alan Tays
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 06, 2005

The plan to revitalize the season-ending ADT Championship at Trump International Golf Club has been hailed by LPGA officials and tournament sponsors. Now it only remains to get players on board with the idea.

"There's nothing I like about it," said Juli Inkster, the plan's most vocal critic.

Last month the LPGA announced that beginning in 2006, the field for the ADT, which previously has been composed of the top 30 players on the money list going into the late-November tournament, would be selected according to a points system.

The season would be divided into two halves, with 15 players from each, plus two "wild cards," qualifying for the ADT field according to points earned for performance during the year.

The ADT purse would include a $1 million first prize — the richest in women's golf, and a big gap between first- and second-place money.

"The fact that someone can walk away with a million bucks is pretty exciting," said Boynton Beach's Karrie Webb, who nevertheless has doubts about other aspects of the plan.

The split-season and "playoff" approach is similar to what NASCAR instituted last year with its "Chase for the Nextel Cup Championship." Inkster, however, doesn't think the two sports organizations are comparable.

"In NASCAR, (all the drivers) race every race," Inkster said. "If there's 30 races, they race 30 races. Out here, if there's 25, 30 tournaments, people are playing 15 to 20. There are some girls who play every week, but the majority take weeks off."

LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw said Inkster has shared her opinions with him. He said other have, too.

"One of the great things about the LPGA has always been its diversity of opinions," Votaw said. "There have been no small amount of diversity of opinions on this one, which isn't a bad thing in my mind.

"The players who are positive about it are ones who I think can see the bigger picture and what's good for the overall tour, and the players who have the biggest problem with it, I think are probably because it is a radical departure from how professional tournament golf has been played."

Several players who were asked at the U.S. Women's Open for their opinions of the plan said they still don't know enough about it. Votaw said there still are details to be worked out, and offered some guidelines.

• Second-place money likely will be about one-tenth of first place.

"We're thinking of something in the area of a million for first, $100,000 for second and then down from that, which, players five years ago would have crawled across broken glass on their hands and knees to have a $100,000 first-place check."

• The tournament will be four rounds of stroke play, but only part of the field — likely four or eight players — will be eligible for the first prize on Sunday. Scores of those players will start from scratch on Sunday.

"Whether we cut every day or whether we have a 36-hole cut and then another cut on Saturday — that still needs to be worked out."

• The points system is designed to try to strengthen the fields for some tournaments.

"I think that's clearly an objective for the two halves of the season. There are parts of our schedule where we have very strong representation of the field, and there are parts of our schedule where that representation isn't as strong."