WHEN Lydia Ko, the latest teenage superstar of the women’s game, was born a mere 18 years ago, Trish Johnson had been on the Ladies European Tour for a decade. The 49-year-old, who continues to display the sturdy longevity of a cast-iron rivet, is still going strong. Since she first marched out on the professional circuit almost 30 years ago, Johnson has seen ups, downs, tough times, comings and goings.
Everybody still wants to chase the American dream, of course, and the riches on offer across the pond on the LPGA Tour will always entice. This week, the cream of the golfing crop will descend on Turnberry for the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
Before the bandwagon rumbles down the A77, though, the good ladies of the European scene, and one or two LPGA luminaries, have been competing for a purse of €500,000 in the Ladies Scottish Open just up the Ayrshire coast at Dundonald Links. The fact that Aberdeen Asset Management, the tournament sponsors, doubled the prize fund on the 2014 amount was a significant step and the championship is now one of the most lucrative on the European circuit. Admittedly, the LET – with an annual prize pot of around £8.5 million – trying to compete financially with the LPGA Tour – almost £40m – is a bit like a pauper playing poker with a Sultan but Johnson, who topped the European Order of Merit 25 years ago, believes there are reasons to be optimistic.
“The LET status is going up without a shadow of a doubt because we’ve got so many damn good players,” said Johnson, whose victory in last year’s Scottish Open was her 23rd professional win of a globe-trotting career. “The LPGA Tour is always going to be 40 years ahead of us so it’s a really difficult situation. But if we can get to a level where we are maybe playing tournaments with a €1m prize fund then I think you’ll find that people might start to stay here.”
Keeping those star attractions in Europe remains a near impossible task, though. Charley Hull, the 19-year-old from Kettering, topped the LET Order of Merit last year and played a major part in Europe’s first win on American soil in the 2013 Solheim Cup but, inevitably, she is migrating towards the US.
“We’ve got one huge problem that’s not going to go away and that is every time someone comes and plays this tour, no matter how good a player they are, they want to go to the LPGA,” said Johnson.
“Charley [Hull] comes along, brilliant at 17 or 18, and where does she want to go? The LPGA. So how do you sell a tour when every time your best player wants to go somewhere else?
“If you have a tour that’s beating the Americans in the Solheim Cup, regardless of how many of those players are playing on that tour, then you are a main player and we are working our way up. We’ve got events up to €500,000. It has taken a long time but we’ve got a fair amount of events at €500,000.
“But obviously the players have got to do their bit as well, not just the management. No-one puts money up because they are asked to, you have to do something for that, and the players have to play their part as well.
“They have to do more to get sponsors to put their money up whether it’s children’s clinics or whatever. That’s the way the LPGA go about it. They involve the local community in doing a lot for charity and I think we should do an awful lot more.”
As well as Ko and Hull, the field at Turnberry this week includes world No 1 Inbee Park, defending champion Mo Martin, world No 3 and 2013 winner Stacy Lewis and former US Open champion Michelle Wie. There will be plenty of attention on Ko, of course.
“She’s the sort of person you hate; she makes golf look so easy,” said Johnson with a beaming smile. “She’ll be a massive attraction at Turnberry.”
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