Writing Solutions

"We Can Right It For You"

By Gail A. Paparian

They start young. They are often seven, eight, or nine years old. They play, they practice, and they compete. Many get full college scholarships, honing their talents while getting an education. They share a common dream: they want to be good enough to play golf on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour.

They travel different roads. The competition is fierce, as players and equipment improve. They become Einsteins of the fairways, learning to putt with precision of brain surgeons, coming out and over bunkers with lofted shots that land a few feet from the hole. Still, they have to fight their way against other talented women who also want to call themselves professional golfers.

Women like Karrie Webb set a dizzying standard when she won seven LPGA Tour events in 2000. Webb also took the Nabisco Championships by 10 shots—the largest margin of victory in the tournament’s nearly 30-year history.

Women can now dream of having storybook careers and earning big bucks on the golf circuit. Thanks to the LPGA they can reach for the stars. Begun in 1950 with 14 events and a total purse of $50,000, the 2001 LPGA will consist of 40 events with a total purse of $42 million!

Jenna Daniels,22, or Dodie Mazzuca, 24, would love to be faced with jumping in the lake—an unofficial tradition of the Nabisco tournament started by Amy Alcott in 1988. Both Daniels and Mazzuca beginning their inaugural year on the LPGA tour, may be playing the Nabisco Championships if they can put the right set of numbers together. They have certainly traveled different road to the LPGA.

At the age of twelve, Jenna Daniels started her winning ways on the American Junior Golf Circuit (AJGC) in San Diego. She was a member of the Canon Cup Team and two-time Junior America’s Cup member in 1994 and 1996.

She attended the University of Arizona on a "full ride" golf scholarship, ending her lengthy and successful college golf career by being named the NCAA Player of the Year in 2000. She also set the lowest scoring average in NCAA history (71.70), was a three-time All-American (1998-2000) and was the Honda Award recipient in 2000.

She graduated in August 2000 and attended the LPGA qualifying school. She finished tied for 37^th, thereby earning a "non-exempt status" on the LPGA tour.

Santa Cruz’s Dodie Mazzuca attended the University of Washington and shone as an Academic All American. She was a two-timewinner of the NCAA West Regional Championships and a four-time women’s golf team Most Valuable Player.

Upon graduation in 1997, she turned pro but did not head straight for the LPGA. She competed on the Asian Tour, the Players West Tour and finally the SBC Futures Tour (the developmental tour of the LPGA). Mazzuca tried to get through the qualifying school twice and didn’t make it. Qualifying school is held only once a year, so if you don’t make it ($3,000 per try), you’ve got to wait a year before you can go back.

However, in 1999 the LPGA established a new policy allowing the top three money winners of the Futures Tour to automatically get their LPGA "Exempt Status" tour card. In 2000, Mazzuca won a Futures tour event and finished third on the money list.

Mazzuca’s exempt status gives her first priority entry into tournaments. Daniels’ "non-exempt status", on the other hand, forces her to wait to see how the field fills up before she can enter a tournament.

Mazzuca described getting her LPGA exempt status in one word, ‘relief.’ "The caliber of play out there is incredible," she noted. "This has been a stepping stone to where I want to go in golf. I want to play well, compete and win enough tournaments to get into the Hall of Fame."

Mazzuca doesn’t have to qualify to get into a tournament; Daniels does. Daniels knows that in her rookie year she will be lucky to get into 15 to 18 events. She’s already calculated that many opportunities will come in the middle of the year, when many competitors will be playing on the European Tour.

"It’s rare that non-exempt players play in all the tournaments," Daniels noted. " I’ll play in any tournament I can get into. I don’t get to choose, which is kind of frustrating." Daniels knows she will be doing a lot of Monday morning qualifying.

There are usually two spots open in a tournament and players having their LPGA cards can show up and try to qualify for either spot. If they play well enough, they get in. If not, they pack up their belongings and head for the next event.

Unlike members of a team, golfers are independent contractors, responsible for all aspects of participation in the sport. They have to make their own travel arrangements; pay for transportation and lodging as well as hire and pay for a caddie, a coach or a trainer.

Both Daniels and Mazucca credit their parents with moral and financial support. While the women try to make it on the tour, each set of parents helps out with financial assistance, business management and medical and auto insurance. Mazzuca, a vegetarian for the last eight or nine years, travels with her clubs, training equipment and a rice steamer. Her mom goes with her whenever her time permits. While Daniels is looking forward to life on the tour, she feels certain that she will miss the camaraderie she had with her teammates and friends through her college career.

It can be a lonely and expensive life to make the tour and then stay on it. When not competing, players practice their craft for four or five hours a day. They go the gym to stay fit. There isn’t much time for recreation and neither Daniels or Mazucca can even think about a social life at this point in their careers.

There is constant pressure to perform and succeed, particularly since only the top 90 money earners on the tour get to keep their LPGA cards. If they dip below that number, they’re back to qualifying school. Every player senses the presence of the many talented players climbing the ladder behind them.

Brittney Bacon is 24 and just qualified for the Futures Tour. Hailing from Minot, N. D., she stays in her parent’s La Quinta home. She divides her time between training and practicing during the day and working at night. She too has a dream and a goal… she wants to attain her exempt status on the LPGA Tour.

Like Mazzuca and Daniels, Bacon attended college on a scholarship and credits her parents for their continued support. She is grateful that her dad handles the business aspects of her career, as he doesn’t want her to worry.

"Being on tour is pretty nerve racking," Bacon confesses. "I’m pretty much on my own; how I get there, when I get there. I have to call to get a practice round, register, then get my housing."

All three young women are grateful for private housing when they are on tour. Other than the fact that hotel living is expensive, each woman has met wonderful people who have opened their homes to players. They all stay in touch, be it through Christmas presents or email.

While Bacon might attend the Nabisco Championship this year as an observer, Mazzuca or Daniels could just play their way into contention. While there are eleven ways a player is eligible to play in the Nabisco Championship, much is based on previous year’s earnings. Whoever is among the top 15 money earners at the end of the tournament preceeding the Nabisco is in..

There is a chance of garnering a special invitation by the tournament sponsor but these spots have usually been reserved for amateurs. Still, the reality of becoming a superstar draws ever closer to young players who have talent, continue to hone their skills and most important, never giving up on the dream.

###

History of the Nabisco Championships

By Gail A. Paparian

The Nabisco Champions will be played on the Dinah Shore Course of the Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage from March 22-25 2001. (Special events will take place beginning on Monday, March 19).

The tournament has had three name changes in its 29 your history: Colgate Dinah Shore (1972-1981); Nabisco Dinah Shore (1982-1999); Nabisco Championship (2000-). The Nabisco Championship, the only major to be played on the West Coast, is one of the LPGA majors. It is joined by: U.S. Women’s Open; McDonald’s LPGA Championship Presented by AIG and the Weetabix Women’s British Open.

The first tournament was a 54-hole event, won by Jane Blalock in 1972. Total prize money was $110,000, with $20,050 going to the winner. The 2001 purse has risen to $1.5 million with the winner taking home an impressive $225,000.

Players love this tournament and the field of 100 reads like a Who’s Who of women’s golf. Joining defending champion Karrie Webb expect to see: Dottie Pepper, Betsy King, Julie Inkster Kelly Robbins, Patty Sheehan, Nancy Lopez, Laura Davies, Se Ri Pak, Amy Alcott and many more.

In 1988, Amy Alcott – either overwhelmed by her second victory in this tournament or overcome with early 100-degree weather, dove into the water just off the 18^th green. When she won again in 1991, she and then tournament namesake Dinah Shore took the plunge together. While not part of their entry agreement, the "tournament dive" has become a tradition. gp

###