Meet the Californian who is busy rescuing women’s golf in Europe
Mike Whan is bullish that the tour will come through crisis to a bright future, writes James Corrigan
As a former brand manager of Oral Care, Mike Whan does not seem ideally suited for the role of saviour of the Ladies European Tour, regardless of any cheesy metaphors concerning smiles being put back on faces.
Yet listening to Meghan MacLaren the two-time LET winner, it is clear there is a conviction that Whan is the man for a salvation job that has grown only more desperate because of the pandemic. “I have a feeling our tour would be going under right now if we hadn’t partnered up with Mike and the LPGA late last year,” MacLaren told The Sunday Telegraph.
When this is put to Whan, a stifled giggle of embarrassment comes down the line from central Florida and the Ladies Professional Golf Association commissioner proceeds to utter all the right things about “the great team behind me”. Yet the 55-year-old accepts that, but for the merger, the future would be looking bleak to the point of non-existence for the LET.
“I’ve had several players call me and ask, ‘Do you regret getting involved with the LET? Was your timing terrible?’” Whan says. “I mean, we jumped in, helped out financially and then the bottom falls out a few months later. But I say, ‘Thank goodness we got together when we did – otherwise it would likely have been curtains for the LET’. Obviously they need a bit of financial and people stability right now and we can provide that.”
What Whan cannot yet provide is an updated LET 2020 schedule. While he has managed to piece together an impressive revision to the US Tour calendar that means his members will compete for £45million across 21 tournaments from mid-July until December, with only two weeks off, the LET is plainly a tougher proposition, with eight events already lost and more, undoubtedly, to follow.
Whan is increasingly convinced that the LPGA will enjoy a three-week run in Europe in August, featuring two majors – the Evian Masters in France and the AIG Women’s British Open at Royal Troon – with the Ladies Scottish Open in between, but although these are all co-sanctioned with the LET, many lesser Europeans will not gain entry.
Otherwise the Mediterranean Ladies Open in Barcelona remains pencilled in for July, but only the gullible believe it will happen, and then a gap until September, with poorly financed trips to the Czech Republic, Sweden and India. “It’s got to the point where some of the UK girls are trying to organise roll-ups when the courses reopen here,” MacLaren said. “Everyone puts in, say, £120 and there is a small prize pot.”
To Whan, a personable Californian, that is beyond a shame. “It’s hard to watch and I do feel bad, because for so many years the LET players have been told, ‘Hey, just put up with it this year because next year will be so much better’ – and it never was,” Whan says. “But I do think they saw the beginning of the future with the schedule we put together in just 60 days and there is reason to be optimistic where optimism was perhaps impossible to come by before. I do feel incredibly confident and I can assure the players and fans that the LET is going to be just fine long-term.”
The schedule that will never be was indeed a remarkable feat by Whan and the “joint alliance” of the freshly installed LET chief executive, Alexandra Armas, the R&A and the European Tour.
In 2010 there were 26 tournaments, of which 17 were in Europe. Last year it was 20 and eight. In the two months flanking new year, Whan and his team conjured up 24 tournaments, including 15 in Europe, with a record prize fund approaching £15million.
“It was a huge high that we could put that together so quickly,” Whan says. “I’ve told the LET, ‘Imagine what we will come up with a proper amount of time’.”
The instant uptick made it difficult to comprehend how the previous LET regime had seen fit to reject Whan’s advances two years before. Certainly, his qualifications could not be disputed.
When Whan took over the LPGA in 2010 it was an alarmingly contracting outlook, with the tour reduced to just 23 tournaments and a little over £30million in prize money. This year there were scheduled to be 34 events, boasting more than £60million in prize money.
The money had poured in and the coffers had filled up. Until Covid-19 burst the bubble.
“I’ve said in recent interviews that it’s caused a staggering financial impact and I haven’t been joking – staggering,” Whan says. “And yes, it is possible that 2020 could eat up most of our savings. But the reason we aren’t on death watch is because we’ve saved more money in the last 10 years than in the 60 years before. Sure, it’s depressing seeing our nest egg explode, but because of what we’ve built, Covid’s not going to cripple the LPGA or the LET. It’s not going to be on my tombstone.”