The LPGA Tour is counting on an innovative playoff system and its $1 million first prize to provide a postseason boost.
The Tour will have its own version of playoffs in 2006, culminating with players competing for the richest payoff in women's golf in the "LPGA Playoffs at The ADT."
Details still need to be worked out, but commissioner Ty Votaw unveiled yesterday the new format, golf's first year-end playoff system comparable to other sports.
"For the first time, a group of players competing for a seasonlong championship has, at the end of that rainbow, a real bucket of gold, $1 million first-place check," Votaw, in his seventh and final year as commissioner, said.
The 2006 season will be split into two parts, with players earning points toward making the 32-player field in West Palm Beach, Fla., at the ADT Championship at Trump International, which previously served as a Tour Championship.
Fifteen players from each half of the season and two wild cards will advance to the playoffs.
They will be playing for the $1 million prize, nearly double the biggest payoff in women's golf this year.
The format change has received mixed reaction from players. Superstar Annika Sorenstam likes it, but Karrie Webb was less enthusiastic.
"You'll hear debate as to whether this is a good or bad idea," Votaw said. "We think that, ultimately, this will raise the profile, raise the bar for the LPGA, because it will bring a real exclamation point to our year in a dramatic way.
"We didn't talk to any of the other golf tours because we thought it was such a good idea, they would want to take it."
Notes
• Michelle Wie, 15, will be the first amateur to play in the 51-year history of the McDonald's LPGA Championship, which starts tomorrow in Havre de Grace, Md. Wie was invited in January. It was announced last summer that the tournament would move from its longtime home in Wilmington, Del.
According to several LPGA Tour players, part of the deal included bringing Wie.
"McDonald's said, 'This is what we want and, if you don't do it, then we're pulling out,' " said two-time LPGA champion Juli Inkster. "Last year, we said no and this year they strong-armed it a little more. It's just the principle. You just can't be changing rules for one person, regardless of who it is."
• Olin Browne shot a 59 at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., in a qualifying event for the U.S. Open, which begins June 16 in Pinehurst, N.C. Browne was at 10-under-par 132 for 36 holes, three strokes behind medalist J.P. Hayes.
The course record, set five years ago, is Shigeki Maruyama's 58.
Others who qualified included former Washington Husky Rob Rashell (133) and Tacoma's Michael Putnam (135). Pepperdine golfer Putnam was runner-up in Saturday's NCAA Division I tournament, won by James Lepp of Washington.