A legendary golfer is throwing her weight behind a candidate for LPGA commissioner.
Annika Sorenstam, a 72-time winner on the LPGA Tour, is supporting former Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott for the same role with the LPGA. The position became open last month when Mollie Marcoux-Samaan stepped down after just over three years on the job.
Speaking to Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal, Sorenstam cited Scott’s experience as chairman and CEO of the WTA, where he substantially increased purses for players on the Tour during his tenure, as well as some of his successes as commissioner of the Pac-12 as reasons he should be considered for the LPGA gig.
“He was a very respected leader around the world when he ran the WTA. He did the largest women’s sponsorship deal in history and got their purses close to equal with the men,” Sorenstam told SBJ. “He started the Pac-12 Network when he was Commissioner there. I think he has great relationships with sponsors and the gravitas to command respect any time he enters a room. All qualities that would help in this role.”
Scott, of course, did have some shortcomings as commissioner of the Pac-12, as critics claim that it was his mismanagement that effectively led to the conference’s demise under his successor George Kliavkoff. Among those criticisms was Scott’s decision to launch Pac-12 Network without a broadcast partner, an unprecedented decision for a conference-affiliated network. That lack of backing from a legacy media partner proved detrimental to the network as it failed to ink key carriage agreements with distributors like DirecTV and fell well behind its peers from a media rights perspective as a result.
Nevertheless, Scott has a long and proven track record as a sports executive. And his success leading the WTA must be appealing to the LPGA as the Tour looks to grow its footprint within the sport of golf.
