It would be naive of any Association to think that they are immune to the global recession that currently has us all emptying out our piggy banks, shifting the matress to find that stash left for a rainy day etc. and the WPGA is no different. When a recession bites, luxury items are the first to come under pressure and I suppose sports sponsorship falls a little into that category.
However, companies still need to advertise in a recession (perhaps even more so than in good times) and I for one have always believed that sports sponsorship is great value for money.
It has all the right ingredients – great exposure, a feel good factor, national pride, heros and icons, the unifying factor of including all the fans, brand loyalty and many events also have a charity or community based principle in place. One only has to look at the excitement and hype of the FIFA World Cup to see what can be achieved in sports sponsorship. Now – and of course this is a slightly biased point of view – Women’s Golf is GREAT value for money and a FANTASTIC product. The stars of women’s golf are powerful, professional, marketable and hugely competitive. Most companies would be delighted to endorse the sport and its players. And here’s the other added bonus – Women’s Golf is far more affordable than many other sports sponsorships.
Earlier this year the WPGA was dealt a major blow when we were informed by our primary promoter – Champagne Golf – that unfortunately all their sponsors had withdrawn their sponsorships due to Global Economic Pressure. This happened on 15 January 2009 – only six weeks away from what would normally be “OUR TOUR”. The WPGA has a great tradition, with the first professional event having been staged in 1985. We have steadily built up our events and for the past few years have had four events on the local tour. We would like to thank Champagne Golf for all the hard work they have done over the past few years.
The tour has grown into a highly respected event that has over the past few years attracted many of the European Tour players, who have used it as a warm-up, prior to the commencement of the Ladies European Tour in May. This has meant that our window of opportunity to attract some of the really good Europeans as well as many of the young aspiring players has always been in March/April every year. This has provided fantastic opportunities for our local players – both amateur and professional – to hone their game against a quality field. The fruits of this labour have been the fact that we now have SIX players with playing rights on either the LPGA (USA) or the LET (
When the Board of the WPGA was faced with the possibility of all of this hard work dissolving in front of our eyes we decided to take POSITIVE and URGENT action. We looked at the funds we had available and decided that no matter what, we would have at least one event. The obvious choice was the South African Women’s Open – which has been played since 1985 and is our oldest event. We also were determined that we would have a South African Women’s Champion.
We had less than six weeks to get the event underway.
Parkview Golf Club managed to find dates for us – and we really have to thank them for their continued support of women’s golf.
It was essential for the event to be hosted in
We were overwhelmed by the support we had from the golfing community, press and players. We had 54 entries including 5 from overseas players, all the top local professionals as well as the top amateurs.
The tournament got off to a blistering start with Tandi Cunningham shooting a 63 on day one, establishing a five shot lead from veteran Laurette Maritz playing on her home course. The pair were closely followed by a group of players on 69 – Lee Ann Pace, Julie Tvede from
Day two began, and to prove that her 63 was no fluke Tandi went out and scored 66, once again the best score of the day. Tandi’s lead had now increased to 8 shots, her nearest competitor was Stacey Bregman, the 2008 WPGA Player of the Year, who had had rounds of 70 and 67. Kim Williams continued to be the leading Amateur with a level par 72 and a 36 hole total of three under par.
Tandi never lost her lead in the event, but she did allow Stacy Bregman to come within two shots of her on the final day. Tandi struggled to a 75 whilst Stacey made a late charge with a final round 69. The final result saw Tandi Cunningham being crowned as the 2009 South African Champion with a wonderful score of 12 under par. Stacy Bregman was a worthy runner-up, two shots behind on 10 under par. The winner of the Jackie Mercer trophy for leading amateur was Kim Williams, who had led from start to finish and ended the event on a very creditable level par score.
The event was a huge success with a worthy champion. We had great coverage both in print and on television. The future is really healthy for women’s golf. The WPGA has started some very positive discussions with potential sponsors as well as some of the past sponsors. The WPGA will be taking a much more active role in controlling the schedule of the tour. We look forward to having a strong and exciting Tour in 2010.
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