Quick trivia question: What was the first LPGA Tour event to be televised?
Answer: The Dinah Shore-Colgate Championship.
The year was 1972 and with Dinah Shore’s popularity and love for women’s golf — the LPGA Tour made great strides with this event eventually evolving into a major championship.
It’s been staged at the Mission Hills Country Club since Dinah’s Hollywood days. Dinah’s gone now and after this week, the tournament bids farewell to Mission Hills and the iconic Poppie’s Pond, where winners have gladly taken the victory plunge. It will relocate to the Houston area next year.
Chevron is taking over as the tournament’s sponsor and good news is this year’s prize money goes to $5 million.
When it moves to Houston, there will be a different date. The current date conflicts with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and in years past the Dinah Shore (yeah, that what us old folks call it) has invited some of the country’s top amateur golfers.
This one was the LPGA Tour’s equivalent of The Masters. Until the Evian came along, it was the only major staged at the same venue every year and it has always been the first major of the season for the ladies, as The Masters is for the men.
Moving the date guarantees ongoing network television coverage — and that’s a major goal of the LPGA Tour. Tradition is great but if no one watches, what good is it?
Truth be known, the Dinah was beginning to lose a bit of its prestige. It’s a new era of major championships for the ladies with bigger commitments from the USGA. for the Women’s U.S. Open, the PGA of America for the Ladies PGA Championship and the R&A for the Ladies British Open. Purses are bigger for those three and the spotlight is shining brighter thanks to efforts from the three major organizations of the golf world.
Which brings us back to this final hurrah at Mission Hills, the final jump into Poppie’s Pond for the winner come Sunday.
The good news for this event is that a Japanese Airline is being replaced by a deeper-than-deep pocket American firm with a large, global presence.
Yes, this is a sad week in many ways. The LPGA Tour is walking away from 50 years of tradition and that’s a tough task in anyone’s book.
Truth be known, new LPGA Tour commissioner Molly Marcoux was two years old when the tournament was played for the first time in 1972.
The players have come to know and love Mission Hills. The finishing holes, especially the par five 18th, have provided a lot of drama, a lot of amazing finishes over the years.
It’s a sad goodbye for sure. Perhaps it’s appropriate that the statue of Dinah Shore, there on the 18th hole at Mission Hills, looks to be waving to the course and the players.
As for Chevron, it now has the task of caretaking this major championship.
If the powers-that-be at Chevron headquarters in San Ramon are bright and creative (and that’s asking a lot) — they just might do the right thing and rename this championship “The Dinah Shore Presented By Chevron.”
Yeah, that would work nicely.
And that would be what Dinah’s legacy deserves.
One Comment
baxter cepeda
U know That won’t happen Tom. Dinah stays in Mission Hills. But I’m with you it’s one of too many things to count that the ladies are giving up for more money, which btw is nothing compared to what the usga is doing.
Still I just don’t get why Chevron would pay so much to buy this recognizable major, only to turn it into another Evian somewhere in TexAs.
I get the tour has to follow the money, but as many said with Whan and Evian, the ladies tour equally has to stick to its guns and not sell out to every sponsor that bumps up purses.
I will feel a whole lot better when we know the ladies are going to be playing somewhere great. Mission Hills is a fine course, not great, but the poppy’s pond tradition alone is just such a huge tradition to lose. Especially still not knowing for what.
The only good thing about not knowing where they are going is maybe they come to their senses and stay.
Because With all due respect to the usga, pga, rna, the two most iconic celebrations in golf are a green jacket for men and a Bath robe —after a leap into poppy’s pond —for the women.
It’s nowhere near the same level as The Masters moving and eliminating green jackets, but for those of us who love women’s golf, this is not just bittersweet, it’s extremely questionable.
Time will tell. But time is not helping Evian become more of a major whatsoever. Imho each every year Evian feels even less like a major then when Whan first sold out. The fear is something similar will happen for the Dinah that it won’t feel like a major anymore. But the good news in this case is they can always go back to what does feel like a major.