Shag Bag

New LPGA commissioner Michael Whan made a large impression on Tournament Owners Association members in his first meeting with them Thursday morning at the Rancho Bernardo Inn at San Diego.

He did so by giving out his cell phone number and e-mail address to TOA members at the end of his 20-minute speech.

It was a profound act in front of a membership that felt communication was a problem under the tour’s previous regime.

TOA members were also impressed that Whan flew cross country Wednesday night to be with them after being introduced as the LPGA’s eighth commissioner in a morning news conference in New York City. He joined about 50 tournament owners and title sponsors for breakfast Thursday morning, hopping from table to table before speaking to the entire membership.

“Very engaging, very nice,” said Gail Graham, president of the TOA. “He’s a very unpretentious man who fit in smoothly with everyone here. He gave us insight into who he is and what his passions are. I think what struck people most is that he came with no grandiose promises, but he came with a real willingness to work together for our collective success.”

Graham said Whan reiterated what he told media in his introduction, that his aim beginning the job will be to listen, learn and then lead.

“We were thrilled he could be here,” Graham said. “It was really a great gesture.”

Graham said what TOA members probably want most from Whan is meaningful communication. That's why his offering up his cell phone number and e-mail address meant so much.

“There will always be issues and challenges, but if you don’t talk about them, they will never be resolved,” Graham said. “I think this was a huge step to effective communication.”

Whan also impressed TOA members by telling them he always empties his inbox at the end of each day.

“But he told us to give him a few days to get his feet on the ground before e-mailing him,” Graham said.

It’s noteworthy that the LPGA introduced its new commissioner with most of its tour players in South Korea for the Hana Bank-Kolon Championship.

As the LPGA’s new leader, Michael Whan’s first order of business has to be securing playing opportunities with the tour projecting it could feature as few as 22 tournaments next year, the fewest since 1971. The total prize money could dip below $40 million, down from the $64 million cited in the tour’s media guide as the total prize money played for last year. At most the tour is projecting 25 events next year, down from 34 last year.

Another large issue Whan must tackle is South Korea’s growing dominance in the women’s game. There’s a troubling disconnect between South Korean success on tour and English speaking fans. That country’s gifted contingent is a large factor in every event, but English speaking fans aren’t connecting enough to the personalities or their stories.

South Koreans have won nine times this LPGA season, more than any other nation, more than twice the number of events Americans have won. One of Whan's challenges is figuring out a way to make that work better for the tour. It’s a job for a superstar marketing leader. As his predecessor, Carolyn Bivens, learned, he has to be careful how he goes about it.

In case you’re wondering, the LPGA’s new commissioner plays golf.

Michael Whan, however, doesn’t have an official handicap.

“I don’t actually have one posted anywhere, but I’m about a 10,” he said.

Whan, 44, grew up in Chicago but his family moved to Cincinnati before his freshman year of high school. He lived in a house about a mile from Coldstream Country Club, where he got a job on the maintenance crew in the summer.

“The only reason I joined the groundscrew was so I could play for free in the afternoon,” Whan cracked. “I’d get up at 5:30 and cut the greens, go home and sleep for an hour and then go back and play golf.”

Whan’s father and mother both played golf, though his mother took it up later in life.

“My dad always believed that the game of golf was more than just a sport, it was more than just competition, it was life lessons,” Whan said. “Sometimes when you're 12, 13, 14 years old, you don't realize you're learning them, but as I think back to the lessons I apply to life every day, a lot of them come right off the golf course.”

Lucas Glover: U.S. Open champion, Clemson sports fanatic (“I’d watch checkers on TV if Clemson had a team,” he once said.) and diehard New York Yankee fan. And his penchant for pinstripes goes beyond that victory lap he took in the shadow of the Big Apple this June at Bethpage’s Black Course.

Glover, who has been a Yankee fan since he was a little leaguer and New York great Don Mattingly was his hero, will join the faithful at new Yankee Stadium for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series between New York and Philadelphia starting Wednesday night.

Glover has plenty of time to take in the Fall Classic. Unlike his post-2008 plan, which featured nearly two consecutive months without any Tour golf, Glover’s only other start this season will be Tiger Woods’ Chevron World Challenge in December. But then the Yankee diehard probably isn’t thinking past Game 4 and a New York sweep.

Professional golfers will be looking to end a couple futility streaks this week.

On the PGA Tour, 47 events have passed since a rookie has won. There are just two events remaining to prevent this from being the first year since 1998 that no rookie has won a Tour event. Marc Turnesa is the last rookie to win on the PGA Tour, claiming the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Childrens Open late last year.

On the LPGA, 15 events have passed since an American has won. That’s the longest American dry spell within any of the 60 seasons in LPGA history. It’s closing in on the longest American dry spell ever. Americans went 18 consecutive events without winning at the end of the 2002 season and the beginning of the 2003 season.

There would be a certain irony if the Americans break their run at the Hana Bank-Kolon Championship in South Korea this week with that country overtaking the United States as the dominant power on tour. Americans have won just four LPGA events this season, the fewest by Americans since the tour was started in 1950. South Koreans have claimed more LPGA titles (9) than any other country this season.