It is noisy even before the opening game of the 2023 season of the American Women’s Professional Golf (LPGA) tour begins.
The opening day Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions (total prize money of $1.5 million, hereinafter TOC) will be held at Lake Nona Golf Course (par 72) in Orlando, Florida, USA for four days from the 19th (local time). It is a tournament in the nature of a ‘King of the Kings’, in which only players who have won the LPGA Tour tournament for the past two years will participate.
On the 17th, two days before the opening of the tournament, US Golf Week said, “The LPGA Tour 2023 season is off to a rough start. Locker room access is not available at TOC and practice facilities are limited.” According to reports, the Lake Nona golf course, where the tournament is held, has bathrooms and showers for players to use, but no locker rooms to store belongings.
Matilda Kastren (Finland), winner of the 2021 Mediheal Championship, said she encountered the fact that there was no locker room on the 14th as she received the Fact Sheet, a tournament explanatory material provided to players. “There was also a statement saying, ‘Before the practice round, you cannot use the practice facility for more than an hour, and you cannot use the practice facility unless you do a practice round,'” he said.
Shocked, Castren immediately complained to the LPGA match commissioner. However, the competition commissioner said, “It is impossible to negotiate with the tournament on this matter, but the LPGA Tour will not strictly monitor the use of practice facilities.” Grant Weight (New Zealand), a PGA Tour winner who visited the tournament as a lesson pro with Jody Ewart Shadow (England), said, “I have never seen a tournament on the PGA Tour where locker rooms cannot be used.” 바카라
According to Golf Week, restrictions on the use of practice facilities were found to be a communication error. An official from Hilton Grand Vacations said, “Players can use the practice facilities at any time, regardless of the practice round.”
At a press conference held in Singapore last year, LPGA Commissioner Molly Marcus Samaan emphasized, “It is the LPGA Tour’s job to ensure that players can focus on their games while eating properly and resting on the field.” It is explained that what is as important as increasing the number of tournaments and raising the prize money is helping players focus fully on the game. However, Commissioner Samaan’s move in the season opener is the opposite of what he emphasized last year. An LPGA tour official told Golf Week that Commissioner Samaan was not aware of this situation until the 17th.