If anyone doubts that the LPGA Tour has gone increasingly global, all one has to do is peruse the United Nations-like champions list of the four prior CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge events.
Since the tournament set up shop at Danville's Blackhawk Country Club in 2006, the winners have come from Australia (Karrie Webb), Norway (Suzann Pettersen), South Korea (In-Kyung Kim) and Sweden (defending champion Sophie Gustafson).
Obvious question: So where are the Americans?
Oh, they're out there, very fine players, too. Five U.S.-born players ranked in the top 20 worldwide -- Cristie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Angela Stanford and Brittany Lincicome -- are here this week. In fact, of the 10 American golfers in the top 50 of the latest Rolex women's world golf rankings, only No. 8 Michelle Wie is not playing in the CVS event.
One of them easily could rise up and end the strangehold internationals have held on the 72-hole tournament at Blackhawk Country Club, which begins today. But it has become a matter of numerical odds. The key statistic is that just 10 out of the top 50 players worldwide are American, and if you take the numbers deeper, only 18 of the top 100 players worldwide are U.S.-born. By comparison, South Korea has 18 players in the top 50 and Japan has 10 (36 and 22, respectively, in the top 100).
Of the 20 tour tournaments held so far this year, there have been 13 Asian winners compared to five American champions, although U.S. players did win two majors. Kerr captured the LPGA Championship -- by 12 strokes -- and Creamer won the U.S. Women's Open.
But it was the first time American players have won two majors since 2000. What's more, an American hasn't captured the tour's Player of the Year award since Beth Daniel in 1994. Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, Mexico's Lorena Ochoa and Webb have dominated the top spot since 1997, and the current No. 1 is Japan's Ai Miyazato (who isn't in the CVS field).
Pat Hurst, who honed her game as a youth at Hayward's Skywest Golf Course and Castlewood Country Club, has seen the full scope of the international transformation in the LPGA during her 16 years on tour. She views it as cultural, but also possibly cyclical.
"The international girls work at it from sunup to sundown," Hurst said. "They're taking it as a job when they're young, and our girls are still in school. But the LPGA now has the Junior Girls Golf Program, we've got the First Tee; several different programs are starting up and taking off. Give us five or six years, and things might change here, too. Don't count us Americans out."
American Hall of Famer Juli Inkster, who is still an LPGA regular despite turning 50 this year, isn't so sure. She sees the loss of grip by American players in recent years as a function of so many options for today's youth.
"I look at the way I was brought up, the way I bring my kids up," she said. "They were in everything -- golf, basketball, dancing, music. And I did all that. I think more in the Asian countries, kids go to these golf camps, and that's all they do -- they golf. It's just different culture."
Kerr, who is No. 2 in the world and can move to No. 1 with a win this week, makes no bones about the fact that she would like to finish the year at No. 1 -- no U.S. player has done so since the Rolex rankings began in 2006.
"It's been a long time since an American has had the ability to end the year at No. 1," she said. "I think it's important. We need to start growing our fan base in the United States again, so we can grow and have more tournaments and sponsors here. When I first came out on tour, we had over 40 tournaments. Now we have 26. That's quite a change in 10 years."
With more success by Americans, Kerr said, "I think we'll get a lot more fans, a lot more people interested."
An American winning the CVS wouldn't hurt the cause, that's for sure.
