www.globalgolfpost.com
MAY 7, 2012
Dark Clouds Hover Over Ladies European Tour
LEWINE MAIR
E-MAIL LEWINE
EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLAND | The sun
was playing on the Firth of Forth and
things were no less serene on the links at
Archerfield, home of last week’s Aberdeen
Asset Management Ladies’ Scottish Open.
Though Alexandra Armas’ sudden announcement that she would be stepping
down as the Tour’s CEO at the end of the
season was still hot news, the players were
concentrating on the business in hand.
France’s Anne-Lise Caudal and Australia’s Hannah Jun were early leaders,
and there was a countess – Italy’s Diana
Luna – in the mix. Laura Davies, though
her scoring was not the best, was walloping the ball vast distances with her new
Cleveland driver, and Helen Alfredsson,
who has spent two years out of the game
with a shoulder injury, was showing signs
of recapturing her old form – and voice. No
one yells after a ball like she does.
As for the course, that was looking
every inch at home amongst its famous
neighbours – Muirfield, Gullane and North
Berwick. “Every hole’s a cracker,” mar-
velled Davies. “It’s the best course I’ve seen
outside of a major championship venue.”
In such circumstances, the Tour itself
was coming across as a success story. Yet,
it is an open secret that the players, when
off-duty, have been pondering, darkly, on
why so much continues to disappoint.
They have had 15 or more chief execu-
tives since 1979 where the men have had
just the two in the same period in Ken
Schofield and George O’Grady. Again,
though Europe has won the Solheim Cup
four times since the event started in 1990,
none among those victories has resulted
in a rush of extra prize-money.
Davies, who is in her third decade as
a professional, believes that the arrangement could have succeeded had there
been better back up.
“I think Alex has done a good job with
what she’s had to work with,” said this
former British and US Women’s Open
champion. “She’s been limited ... in hav-
“I think Alex has done a good job with
what she’s had to work with. She’s been
limited ... in having so many ex-players
around her. They simply don’t have the
necessary expertise.” – Laura Davies
Against that, the women are keen to
stress that Armas has got quite a bit right.
They acknowledge that she has done well
to raise the number of tournaments to
25, while they also point to how she has
enjoyed good relationships with the CEOs
of other bodies such as the R&A and the
LGU. In most eyes, the main thing missing
was about 10 years of experience.
Though Armas worked for the Faldo
Junior Series for a couple of years before
playing the Tour from 1999, she would
have benefited from time spent serving
under someone more senior at the LET.
Instead, she was catapulted straight into
the top job.
ing so many ex-players around her. They
simply don’t have the necessary expertise.
It’s the equivalent of asking me to run
things – and I wouldn’t have a clue what I
was doing.”
Rightly or wrongly, Armas, who stud-
ied economics at Wake Forest, has been
viewed as part of an “old girls’ network.”
Certainly, she cannot have enjoyed the
kind of e-mails which have been going the
rounds from a disillusioned player using a
pseudonym.
The latter has called the women pro-
fessionals to arms over the poor prize-
funds, the standard of the Tour’s website,
the TV coverage and a second-rate Tour
management system.
