A Look at Anna Rawson's Ideas to Help the LPGA

I’d like to go back to the E:60 piece from Tuesday night that featured LPGA golfer/model Anna Rawson. And I’d like to take a look at the ideas she has for improving the LPGA tour, and see what your thoughts are on these.

Here’s a link to the E:60 video and her ideas over at ESPN.com. Let’s examine the ideas one by one.

The first of her five ideas deals with playing music for each golfer as she takes the first tee, and again when she heads for the green on the 18th hole.

This is an interesting one, but I can’t really see the LPGA doing this at any point in time. Some may like it, however, some will find it as a distraction.

For example, if two holes are close together, and someone is playing on another hole while one player is approaching the 18th green, I’d say that may mess with that other person’s shot just a little bit.

The second she talks about is bringing in a PGA tour event at the same location, which would make some events co-ed and could perhaps bring more of a buzz to the women’s game.

Now this one I completely agree with. This is an idea that has been talked about before, and I like it the more I hear it. This would be great for the game, and would help the LPGA gain fans who may just be attending to see Tiger or some of their other favorites.

All of a sudden, they watch the ladies on tour play at the same time, and start following those players on a regular basis. It would be a great scenario.

The third deals with creating some type of fashionable clothing for the winner to wear during the clothing ceremony.

Ehh, this one may help from a fashion sense by getting some type of sponsorship from a highly praised fashion company, but that’s about it. I don’t think it will really attract more people to the game.

I mean, do we really want to wait that long after an event so that the winner can go get fixed up just for a ten minute trophy presentation? I think the way the ladies look during the trophy presentation is far from being one of the major problems the tour is facing right now.

The fourth pushes for marketing to be the center of all LPGA decision-making.

Marketing has definitely got to start taking precedence when it comes to what decisions the LPGA decides to make when it comes to promoting its’ players and its’ tournaments.

Again, this goes back to the LPGA modeling discussion we had a few days ago. If that’s what it takes to promote the product, and the women agree and want to do it, I see no problem with it. It can only help the LPGA’s global marketing appeal.

And lastly, the fifth proposes that each grouping at a tournament have their own camera crew to follow them around throughout the round.

Rawson does make a good point in her discussion in that once people actually decide to attend an LPGA event, and get up and close with the players, it likely helps their view of the game.

If they were a little uncertain going into the event, they might get hooked on a particular player or particular grouping and want to come back and watch the game again. So I don’t think giving each grouping their own camera crew would be a bad idea.

They could send images to the web and other things of that nature in order to promote the ladies on tour. This would help, but how much? That’s tough to tell at this point.

All in all, I think Rawson makes some good points, and provides some good creative ideas. While I don’t believe all of them would work, I certainly like the marketing-based approach and merging men’s and women’s tournaments together at times during the schedule.

No, Rawson isn’t the greatest player on the tour (she shot an 82 in the first round today at the Women’s British Open), but at this point in time, LPGA needs as many ideas as possible, and I agree with a few of these.

I’d love to hear your opinion on this, and any ideas of your own that you may have to help the LPGA expand its’ appeal throughout the world.