Cover Story FOUNDERS CUP CELEBRATING 10 YEARS By Ron Sirak

LPGA’s dream becomes reality

Founders Cup celebrates 10th anniversary after Whan’s wizardry reinvented Phoenix

BY RON SIRAK

American star Nelly Korda flips a chip to the 18th green at Wildfire Golf Club during a past Founders Cup.

hen Mike Whan took over as LPGA commissioner in January 2010, the schedule was riddled with holes. At only 24 events, it was the thinnest itinerary since 1971. One of the most glaring omissions was Phoenix, the first time since 1979 that the Valley of the Sun was dark for the LPGA. Returning that golfpassionate market to the Tour was one of Whan’s top priorities. W Legends like Babe Zaharias (upper left) and Louise Suggs (lower right), shown here with comedian Bob Hope, helped to pave the way for the LPGA and, ultimately the Founders Cup. The LPGA celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, while the Founders Cup salutes its 10th anniversary.

With one bold move — some said crazy at the time — Whan added a new event for 2011, restored the Phoenix stop and, in the Founders Cup, created a celebration of the history of the oldest professional sports

18 | AZ GOLF Insider | PREVIEW 2020 organization for women. It was a winwin-win situation, although it would take time to establish that success.

While hindsight always has 20/20 vision, looking back now, the Founders Cup was a brilliant idea. That 2020

is both the 70th anniversary of the founding of the LPGA by 13 bold women in 1950 and the 10th year of the Founders Cup makes this edition of the event doubly special.

Phoenix was an LPGA stop for 30 years before missing the 2010 season, with tournaments existing under 10 names on six courses. The event started at Hillcrest Country Club in 1980 and went to the Arizona Biltmore Country Club in 1983. From 1987 through 2003 it was at Moon Valley Country Club all but one year before going to Superstition Mountain Golf Club in 2004-08 and ending at Papago Golf Club in 2009.

COURTESY LPGA

The late Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork (left), shown here during Founders Cup week, were key motivators in the early years of the LPGA. Also playing major roles after the LPGA was founded in 1950 were Marlene Hagge, Babe Zaharias and Alice Bauer (center), as well as the great Patty Berg (right). Hagge and Bauer were sisters.

Brittany Lincicome tees off on the first hole at Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix while competing in the Founders Cup.

Now it thrives at the Wildfire Golf Club at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort and Spa. There may be no tournament that so vividly represents the growth of the LPGA under Whan than the Founders Cup. From two dozen events with a combined purse of $41 million in 2010, the Tour has grown to nearly three dozen stops with more than $75 million on the line.

“I had three significant goals for the Founders Cup and two wishes,” Whan says. “I wanted to ensure the drive/ passion/persistence of our founders remains embedded in our current players and staff. And I wanted to celebrate

those that led before us, not just players but teachers, sponsors, stakeholders.”

Whan also wanted the Founders Cup to raise money for the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. “If our founders taught us anything, it was to reject status quo as the best it can get and drive to leave the game better for young women,” he says. Among Whan’s wishes were that the Founders Cup show fans the unique personality of LPGA players as well as to build a long-term home for the Tour in Arizona. It appears as if Whan has met his goals and realized his wildest wishes. To create the Founders Cup, Whan took a bold step. The cash-strapped Tour played the first event without cash payment to the players. Instead, half of the $1 million purse went to charity with the other half designated for charities of the top-10 finishers. Still, virtually all of the eligible players showed up.

Almost as a form of instant validation, the first winner was a legend — Karrie Webb, an LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame member who also won the Founders in 2014. Webb set the tone as seven of the eight winners have a combined 26 major titles. The only champion without a major, Sei Young Kim, has 10 LPGA titles, more than any active player without a major.

Missing Marilynn

Passing of local legend Smith weighs heavy on Founders Cup

By Ron Sirak

Before the Founders Cup, there was the Marilynn Smith Charity Pro-Am. Beginning in 2009 at Pebble Creek in Goodyear, Smith’s event has raised nearly $1 million in college scholarship money for young women. This year, the 11th Pro-Am will be at Wildfire Golf Club on Sunday, March 15, kicking off Founders Cup week. Only this year, Marilynn won’t be there.

Smith, one of the 13 women who founded the LPGA in 1950, died April 9, 2019, just four days shy of her 90th birthday. At every Founders Cup, Marilynn was among the founders and pioneers who would sit behind the 18 th green to greet players after their rounds. Smith’s smile, which energized the tournament, will be missed. Marilynn created her scholarship fund because she could not get financial aid while playing golf at the University of Kansas. When her father asked legendary athletic director Phog Allen for travel money to play in the 1948 Women’s National Intercollegiate Golf Tournament, Allen replied: “Mr. Smith, it’s too bad your daughter is not a boy.” That rebuff provided Smith lifelong motivation.

“Meeting Marilynn, Shirley (Spork), Louise (Suggs) and Marlene (Hagge) was the inspiration behind the Founders Cup,” said LPGA Commissioner

Marilynn Smith, shown here early in her career, had a beautiful swing and a personality to match. In fact, she was nicknamed “Miss Personality” by her peers.

Mike Whan. “I realized their stories and insights might be lost on future generations. I wanted every player to have a similar relationship with these incredible women. While I’ll miss her almost daily calls, I am 100 percent certain that her spirit is alive and well within the LPGA.” Marilynn did more than greet the players during the Founders Cup. She also thanked the volunteers, chatted up spectators, signed autographs, posed for photos and filled the notebooks of any reporter who stopped to ask her a question. “Marilynn was larger than life,” said Founders Cup tournament director Scott Wood. “There was no better ambassador for the game and the LPGA. Her absence has already created a huge void Tour-wide and will be especially felt in March. She was our brightest light, our leader during tournament week. You could feel her million-dollar smile across Wildfire all week.” From the very beginning, Debbie Waitkus, president of Golf for Cause, was tournament director for Marilynn’s Pro-Am and became one of her closest friends. “Working with Marilynn was not an isolated event experience,” Waitkus said. “We were part of each other’s lives. She walked right past the metaphorical welcome mat at my front door and sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and we never stopped chatting.”

No one was a stranger to Marilynn for long. Spork, her friend since 1947 and LPGA co-founder, says they’d pull into a gas station while driving to a tournament and Marilynn would give money to a stranger to buy a new pair of shoes. In a similar way, she gave of herself during the Founders Cup. “The Founders will be glaringly different on its 10 th anniversary,” Waitkus said. “As the players finish play, they’ll miss speaking with Marilynn. They’ll miss the connection with one of the best role models the LPGA ever had.” Everyone who attends the Founders Cup will miss that connection. But preserving the spirit of Marilynn Smith and keeping her memory alive is what the Founders Cup is all about. The Phoenix stop always has produced great champions and moments. Laura Davies captured the title a record four times in a row at Moon Valley, the very site where Annika Sorenstam carded the LPGA’s only 59. The list of other LPGA Hall of Famers who have won this event in Phoenix include Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Pat Bradley, Patty Sheehan, Juli Inkster, Se Ri Pak and Inbee Park.

Each year, the history of the Tour is handed off to the next generation as founders like the late Louise Suggs and Marilynn Smith, and now Shirley Spork and Marlene Hagge sit behind the 18th green and greet players as they finish. Each year, pioneers like Kathy Whitworth, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez, Sheehan, King and Bradley are honored. “Initially, I simply wanted a venue that would make it easy for our founders/pioneers to be part of the action and a place other sponsors would want to come to be part of the celebration,” Whan says. “Desert Ridge was incredibly accommodating and continues to roll out the red carpet to our Tour.”

Since 2015, the person at the helm for the Founders Cup has been tournament director Scott Wood, who is well aware of both the importance of the Phoenix market to the Tour and the passionate relationship the players, many of whom live in the area, have with the community.

“The LPGA has established itself through the years as a must-attend event for Valley residents and visiting fans,” says Wood. “Phoenix is a hot bed for golf on so many levels, and to have the support of its residents, visitors and the local business community the past 40 years means everything to us.” While the Founders Cup serves as an important device with which to educate today’s players about yesterday’s stars, this Tour stop also provides the current generation of players a window into the unique relationship the LPGA has with those who have followed the Tour for decades. “I hear stories from longtime LPGA fans all the time about their experiences at Moon Valley and Superstition Mountain, the excitement the players

generated, and how accessible and friendly they were,” Wood says. “I also hear stories about how they (mostly men) feel they can relate to the women’s game better. How it’s easier to follow their swings, tempo, and that at times it’s more enjoyable to watch than the men’s game.” Wood says the Founders Cup provides a special connection between the past and the present for both the fans and the players. “Time is our most precious commodity and I think many of today’s players understand that, so they go out of their way to introduce themselves (to the legends) whenever they can,” Wood says. A decade ago, Whan took over a tour ravaged by the Great Recession. In every way imaginable, it could not be more appropriate — or ironic — that the cornerstone of the Tour’s recovery was the Founders Cup, the tournament that honors those 13 women who created an enduring institution.

What started as a dream wrapped in wishes is now a reality. On the LPGA’s 70th birthday, the 10th Founders Cup has eased into its special place

IF YOU GO LPGA Founders Cup

When: March 16-22 Where: JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Wildfire Golf Club What: 72-hole LPGA tournament for a $1.5 million purse Tickets: Good Any Day ($25 on website, $32 at gate); Weekly badges $70; Pioneer Pavilion $55-$95 per day

in the Tour’s history, celebrating the past, recognizing the present and paving the way to the future. n

Ron Sirak has covered the LPGA for 32 years and is recipient of the PGA of America Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award and the LPGA Media Excellence Award. Along with renown teachers Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott, he co-authored the “VISION 54” trilogy of books.

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