LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw delivered his annoual State of the LPGA address on Nov. 20 at the ADT Championship in West Palm Beach Florida. This transcript was supplied by the LPGA Tour. It has been edited slightly for length.

For those of you who of sat through previous State of the LPGA Press

Conferences you no doubt by now are used to me saying that each time we

gather for one of these press conferences the year in which I am talking

about is one of the best ever. I am not going to disappoint you this week

and today when I say that 2003 has been one of, if not, the most successful

seasons on the LPGA Tour in our history.

I’d like nothing more than to stand up here and extoll on the exciting

previous 12 months that we have enjoyed. I am going to touch upon over the

course of the next couple of minutes a number of things, our fan and

business successes for 2003. I will share with you our 2004 tournament

schedule; our ongoing work with our Tour members in the area of professional

development, and announce plans for what we consider to be a landmark event

for women’s professional golf in 2004.

Many of you have dubbed in your commentaries and in reporting on the

LPGA 2003 as the year of the woman. Certainly the events of the past year I

think are consistent with that label. You cannot have any conversation

about 2003 without starting off with the contributions and accomplishments

and awareness that have been generated as a result of Annika Sorenstam and

what she has done this year.

In January, as many of you know, she intrigued us all by thinking about

playing a PGA Tour event. In May she inspired us by how she in fact

conducted herself that week and competed on a PGA Tour event. In June and

in August she impressed us with how she completed a Career Grand Slam by

winning the McDonald’s LPGA Championship and the Weetabix Women’s

British Open. She led her team to victory in The Solheim Cup from Europe and

certainly, in October, perhaps the highlight of her career, was being

inducted into the LPGA Tour and World Golf Halls of Fame.

All of those accomplishments have generated an enormous amount of

attention, an enormous amount of awareness for the LPGA and women’s golf

and the overall organization has benefited greatly by that, but while the year

certainly has been focused in many respects on Annika, it is not the Annika

Tour by any stretch. I think if you look at the accomplishments of other

players on this Tour, it’s a testament to the breath and depth of talent

that we have had. You have had certainly an emerging star such as Patricia

Meunier?Lebouc, winning the Kraft Nabisco Championship as our first major

championship. You have had LPGA veterans, such as Juli Inkster, and Rosie

Jones, and Beth Daniel this year becoming the oldest player to win an LPGA

event in our history at 46 years old, and I know she’s eager to break her

record in that regard.

So, when you have players of that caliber and of that veteran status

winning on the LPGA Tour, it only makes the fact that the spectrum of talent

on the LPGA is so large when you consider the fact that we have had breakout

years with players like Candie Kung and Hee?Won Han winning multiple times

on the LPGA Tour, exciting storylines, such as Hilary Lunke winning the U.S.

Women’s Open, over an Angela Stanford and a Kelly Robbins in a fifth day

playoff at the U.S. Women’s Open. You have any number of other storylines

such as Se Ri Pak continually pushing Annika for the number-one player in

the world, and on, and on, and on. Another great storyline is taking place;

not necessarily from an LPGA Tour member but from an LPGA member, in

Suzy Whaley, in how her storyline of playing of the PGA Tour’s Greater Hartford

Open was one in which that captured the imagination and brought an enormous

amount of attention not only to the LPGA itself but the Teaching and Club

Professional membership of which she’s a part. All of those things

contributed to a wonderful competitive year on the LPGA Tour. And what

those competitive results have created for us is an ?? is continued and

tremendous strides in our business goals for the organization.

A couple of things I want to point out to you today that reflect our fan

growth and the increased attention that the LPGA has generated, has created

greater fan growth, is the fact that attendance in 2003 is up 8% in total,

an average 15 percent week?to?week. Our network viewership up 13 percent

over 2002. Our cable viewership is up one percent if you take into

consideration without war impacting coverage earlier in the year, we’re up

about one percent in cable. One of the things that’s a very interesting

trend as far as we’re concerned and I think golf generally is concerned, is

that our ratings are up 27 percent on cable and 33 percent on broadcast

network in the 25 to 54 age group which is an increasingly attractive age

demographic for our advertisers and reflects perhaps a youth movement

in the audience of fans of golf generally and certainly the LPGA.

One of the most exciting trends in our fan growth is on LPGA.com where

We have experienced 50% increases in page views and 60-percent increases in

unique visitors on a month-to-month basis over 2002. In July alone, we had

10 million page views and 500,000 unique visitors, the highest single month

in our history. All of these things reflect a growing fan base. One of the

things that’s very important to us as well is while our fans are our core

customer, another core customer of ours are our sponsors. The LPGA scored

very high marks in sponsors in a most recent SBJ 2003 report card. Survey

responses which we were compared with the 1999 SBJ report card showcased

significant increases in several number-one rankings for the LPGA in the

area of sponsor relations over the past three years.

Things to consider: The LPGA was ranked No. 1 over sports property such

As NASCAR, the PGA Tour, the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, on and

on, 16 overall sports properties of which the LPGA was included, we were ranked No.

1 in delivering exclusivity and protecting sponsor investments. We were

ranked No. 1 in understanding the sponsorship objectives of our sponsors.

We were ranked No. 1 in being client-centered and service-oriented and in

making our programs easy to coordinate between the (inaudible) the LPGA and

our franchises or our teams which in this case would be our tournaments. We

tied with NASCAR in being the number-one client-centered property and we

also showed an increase of 17 percentage points since 1999 in that category.

We were one of only six properties to have become more client-centered and

service-oriented since 1999.

What is important about this as far as I am concerned, this is not how the

media perceives us. This is not how we perceive ourselves. This is how our

customers, people who we do business day in and day out feel the LPGA is

doing servicing their needs and certainly a large part of that is the

association with our players; certainly our staff is doing a wonderful job

in making sure our sponsors’ objectives are being met, but this is the

industry saying how they feel about us; not necessarily how the media

perceives what we are doing or how we perceives ourselves. It’s undeniable,

it is irrefutable, it is objective based, it’s something we are very proud

of.

Another area that we have made sure that we have made a lot of effort in

over the past couple of years when we launched our new strategic plan, is

the area of professional and member development. It’s one of the four key

business areas the association has and one that’s going to be an

increasingly important part of our ongoing efforts. Professional

development is the main area of our business that focuses on giving the

members of the LPGA more benefits helping them achieve their career goals;

not only before they come out on the LPGA Tour and during their LPGA

career, but also in transitioning away from the LPGA. We are also doing the same

emphasis in our Teaching and Club Professional membership as well to ensure

they have the best environment possible to succeed in the sports

entertainment industry from the moment they enter the LPGA; until they

decide to leave the ranks of professional golf.

Our professional development initiatives include three specific segments

designed to meet all the needs of all of our members. A pipeline to meet

the developmental needs of new incoming members with our work with the

AJGA, our Futures Tour, our Official Developmental Tour, the National College Golf

Coaches, all of which are used to make sure that the players who want to

aspire to the LPGA know what is expected of them when they come on to the

LPGA in the area of the five points of celebrity and also their obligation

to the overall organization.

In addition to the pipeline which addresses future stars, we are also

talking to our active membership to meet the developmental needs of our

current active memberships through workshops, to educate them on our

expectations, to rules training, through media training, and seminars that

many of you have reported on over the past couple of years.

Finally, the transition to meet the needs of the members leaving the ranks

of the LPGA and professional golf, through either transitioning to something

like the Women’s Senior Golf Tour, which is our official Senior Golf Tour,

to career planning programs, in order to transition them away from a

competitive environment to also going into a career planning identification

for our members.

With respect to culture diversity, we are exploring a number of initiatives

within our professional development business core to help strengthen and

better understand members of varying background and cultures. One of the

areas we’re going to be focused on over the coming months and years is

revamping our rookie training which again is consistent with our pipeline

approach of professional development. We are also looking at ways in which

we can enhance our membership for our staff member capabilities with respect

to addressing and helping the assimilation of diverse cultural background

and our Tour, while we are understanding those diverse cultural background

of our members.

Beginning in 2004 we’ll have a non-voting member of the LPGA Board of

Directors; an Asian, Grace Park has agreed to do that which we’re very

excited about that and her leadership with respect to helping us understand

the Asian/American and Asian communities that are a part of our LPGA Tour.

We are also, as I said, going to be helping our headquarters staff in

training so that our staff members can be more understanding and sensitive

to and responsive to the various languages and cultures and needs of our

international membership.

Clearly the LPGA membership has evolved and will continue to do so over

time. The composition of our Tour membership is an example of how varied

and how diverse we are as a member organization. Currently there are 95

Tour members representing 24 different countries and 24 different cultures

on the LPGA Tour. Additionally, the LPGA itself will continue to have

global appeal not only for the diverse membership, from all parts the world,

but also with tournaments in so many different corners of the globe, to

television distribution, and fans across the globe, and a thriving

international licensing business bringing the LPGA brand to a worldwide

audience. Cultural diversity of the LPGA whether it be from our stars from

Asia, United States, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Sweden and any number of

others in those 24 countries that I have mentioned, is something our

organization will continue to celebrate. The global appeal areas of the

organization provide and the organization provides us with a wonderful

opportunity to broaden the LPGA’s appeal to a global body.

We have been able to and will continue to identify ways to provide all

LPGA members with a greater understanding of the following: What it means to be

a member of the LPGA, the responsibility not only to the association, but

the fellow members, the areas of rules, etiquette, cultural diversity, et

cetera. What it takes to be successful as an LPGA member and in the sports

entertainment arena, not only competitively, but also with respect to

sponsors and media obligations. That goes back again to the five points of

celebrity which again, if you’ve been to my other press conferences, you

know that I mention that periodically.

We’re exploring several tactical concepts that we can put into our action

over the course of the next three years and to give you an idea of the type

of thing I am talking about — and I mentioned briefly — we’ll be taking a

hard look and revamping a rookie orientation so that it does a better job of

addressing the change in composition base of our incoming Tour members, but

also provide a better understanding of what those member obligations are if

they go forward.

In 2004 and as a part of this overall discussion about cultural diversity,

the LPGA will be convening what we consider to be an historic event in women

’s golf, that is, the World Congress of Women’s Golf. We’ll be staging the

first of this during the Sybase Classic tournament week in New York, May of

2004. The World Congress of Women’s Golf was created by the LPGA and

will be led by the LPGA as an opportunity to unify and strengthen women’s

professional golf around the world, of providing shared leadership,

knowledge, friendship and an inclusive and encouraging environment.

Women’s professional golf organizations from around the world, as well as

supporters of women’s professional golf will be invited to attend and

participate in meetings in a number of panel discussions that will take

place during the tournament week of Sybase. Thus far we have received

commitments from the LET, the USGA, the R&A, Ladies Golf Union, the

Royal Canadian Golf Association, the JLPGA, the KLPGA, the Futures Tour, the

AJGA, Women’s Senior Golf Tour, Swedish Golf Federation, Spanish Royal

Federation of Golf, Australia LPGA, the Israel Golf Federation, South African LPGA,

Tournament Sponsors Association of the United States, and Japan.

We’ll have a press release that you will all have at the conclusion of this press

conference which talks about this in greater detail, but we’re eager and we

are energized for this event that will include topics such as development

for golfers around the world, building a pipeline for future professional

golfers, sponsorships, television, women’s World Golf Rankings, golf in the

Olympics, et cetera. We will have more details forth coming in the months

ahead but we wanted to make sure that as part of this discussion we share

this exciting news with you and how much we’re looking forward to having the

World of Women’s Golf convene in New York with us in May of 2004.

Lastly, and then we’ll open it up for questions, I want to talk about our

2004 tournament schedule. In light of the things that we talked about so

far and in light of the fact that we have had a wonderful year

competitively, we have had a situation where our field strength has averaged

close to seven ?? just over seven of the Top?10, close to 15 of the Top?20,

and 23 of the top?30 on an average basis week?in and week?out making the

competitive environment which I talked to you about, very compelling for

fans to watch, very compelling for you to cover. That alone with the fan

growth that we have achieved we’re very happy with all the momentum created

throughout the season to be able to announce our 2004 schedule which

reflects our stability and growth that should reflect the momentum we have

talked about. We’ll provide you with a hard copy of the overall schedule so

I won’t go over it line by line, but highlights I’d like to give you today

include our 2004 schedule include a 33?event schedule, which will be 24 full

field events up one from 2003. And 8 limited field events and one

unofficial money event. We will return to Nashville, Tennessee, which we

had a presence in for 15 years and took a year off in 2003. We’re very

excited about coming back to Nashville, with the Franklin American Mortgage

Championship benefiting the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and hosted by

Vince Gill and Amy Grant. That event was a very popular one on our schedule

and will continue to be as we come back to Nashville and will be the only

professional golf event in that market in 2004.

The Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill will offer a $2.2 million purse in

2004, which is a $600,000 increase over its purse in 2003; making it the

most significant purse increase of an LPGA organized event in the LPGA’s

history and the second highest purse only to the U.S. Women’s Open on our

2004 schedule.

Some other highlights relative to purse increases, the Sybase Classic

Presented by Lincoln Mercury in New York, which will host the Women’s

World Congress of Golf, will offer a $1.25 million purse, a $300,000 purse

increase from 2003. The Office Depot Championship hosted by Amy Alcott,

will offer a $1.75 million purse an increase of 250,000 and if you will

recall this event raised its purse $500,000 the year before that, so over

the past two years this event has raised its purse over $750,000 reflecting

Office Depot’s commitment to women’s golf and suggesting the value of

women’s golf around the world.

In addition the Safeway Classic Presented by Pepsi in Portland -- that

event has been on our schedule for over 30 years. Safeway has expanded its

involvement with the LPGA, having taking over full sponsorship of a second

LPGA event in Phoenix, The Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola. It

will increase its purse by $200,000. Each Safeway-sponsored LPGA event

will feature a $1.2 million purse.

In Toledo, we welcome the addition of Owens Corning to the LPGA title

sponsor family with the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic Presented by

Kroger, featuring a $1.1 million purse up $100,000 from 2003.

Finally the Wegman’s Rochester LPGA increased its purse 100,000 ($1.3

million) and the Samsung World Championship, a limited-field event,

increased its purse by $25,000 ?? again with 24 full-field events in 2004 up

23 in 2003. There is a TBA that’s on the schedule that will ?? that is the

first weekend of October. We are currently in discussion with a perspective

tournament for that week. We have not been able to finalize prior to today’

s announcement if that event comes on and we are cautiously optimistic that

it will, the total purses in 2004 will increase by over $4 million, which

again is a significant increase over 2003 and reflective of the momentum

that we have been able to achieve.

So, in the course of the past 15 or 20 minutes we have certainly

highlighted our fan and business successes; talked about our 2004 schedule;

talked about the cultural diversity of the LPGA, and the initiatives that we’re going to be going forward with respect to that issue. Certainly we talked about the World Congress of Women’s Golf. That’s the State of the

LPGA, it is healthy, vibrant. I continue to be bullish on the overall

organization, and if there are any other subjects that I can talk to you

about, I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Q. Ty, there is talk this year about the Vare Trophy and the 70-round

requirement. Will you look into tweaking the minimum amount of rounds in

the off-season?

TY VOTAW: We’ll look at it. I think it’s something we take a fair amount of

time to look at every year. I think that one of the things we’ll have to

examine is 2004 — 2003 an anomaly in relation to this, because frankly, with

the same number of full?field events that we had last year, same number of

tournaments that we had in 2002, this wasn’t a problem in 2002. Whether or

not the fact that we have the same number of tournaments — and this has

become an issue in some peoples’ minds — is something we’ll look at, but it

not something that I think is ?? I am not sure we’ll look at it very long,

but we’ll look at it. Clearly I know you are referring to the fact that

Annika is currently leading the stroke average but will not get into the

current number of ?? the current required number of rounds, but she’s played

certainly five less events this year in 2003 on our schedule than she did in

2002 with the same number of events, she actually played one more 54-hole

event in 2002 than 2003. We’ll look at it and see but it’s not a question

of the number of our events on our schedule. I think it more a question of

the number of event that the player plays and I am not sure that if we ?? if

the market would ever come back to a degree that would allow us to have 40

events on our schedule, one, we would have to look and see if that is the

strategic direction we want to go in but even if it did I am not sure that

will mean that players are going to play more events; which again goes back

to our brand promise of delivering the very best in women’s professional

Golf on a week-in and week-out basis. Certainly, having a significant

number of rounds played to motivate players, to play in as many events as

possible if they want to achieve this award, is consistent with delivering

that brand promise on a week-in and week-out basis. But we’ll look at it.

Q. Was the World Congress an LPGA idea and is the thinking there that it’s

a good time to capitalize on all the positive publicity?

TY VOTAW: It was an LPGA idea that we’ve talked about, a way in which we

could bring all of the interest and all of supporters of golf, in women’s

professional golf, that are out there, and it’s not just the organizations

that I mentioned. We’re looking at the companies, we’re looking to

involve companies that are global sponsors, global supporters of women’s

golf; not necessarily LPGA sponsors, but sponsors of women’s golf around the

globe to come together, to unify them in some way to talk about similar

issues, to talk about share leadership, and it is a reflection on the fact

that women’s golf perhaps more than any other side of the game of golf is so

global and so international and so culturally diverse.

Q. Is there a thought about having world rankings like the PGA Tour does

and also affect the competition where people get into events based on world

rankings?

TY VOTAW: There are a number of informal ad hoc women’s rankings that are

?? that I know there’s one in Europe, there’s a publication Golfweek here in

this country does one, but I don’t think it has necessary any of the

existing ones have the support of the entire universe of women’s

professional golf organizations. I think that’s one of the topics that will

be discussed during the World Congress of Women’s Golf. I also think that

the creation, if that’s going to be created, that’s the first step. Then we

have to determine whether it will be used to determine eligibility for

certain events, but it’s also something that I think over time we’re going

to have be forward thinking about as an industry and talk about a way in

which we would select if golf were ever to be added to the Olympics, a way

in which membership or achievement to get into the Olympics is determined.

Q. Could you see an international federation of Tours emerging out of

this?

TY VOTAW: That sounds very similar to what the PGA Tour does and I don’t

want to be accused of doing the exact thing, but I also think that the

strength of ?? from an economic basis and from a purse level basis, other

women’s professional golf Tours around the world isn’t as strong as perhaps

some of the men’s international golf Tours and so how the thing is

configured going forward is something we will also talk about. But I am not

sure it’s going to be quite as formalized as the International Federation of

PGA Tours, but it may very well be as effective, if not more effective, by the way we structure it.

Q. Full-field events in Florida, where are you guys with that?

TY VOTAW: 2004 schedule doesn’t have any full-field events in Florida. It’s something that we want to continually look at and see what markets

in Florida can sustain it. Our criteria is to make sure we go to markets

that have long-term potential for success; that have a golf audience and

have an infrastructure and a time of year that’s conducive to success and we’ll continue to look at that, but we’re not going to simply add an event to

our schedule to add it. To make a prediction as to when we may have a

full-field event in Florida, I think would not be prudent simply because it’s conjecture of the highest order, but it’s something we continue to look at.

Q. Related to that, you guys are again taking January and February off,

just want to know (inaudible) Is it something long-term? What are the pros

of cons of that?

TY VOTAW: Part of it is market driven. Part of it is strategic in terms of

what we think what’s best for the overall flow of the schedule. I think

every sport has an off-season; every sport has a regular season; every sport

has a Playoff. I think our schedule as it exists right now in 2004 is a

very solid and good schedule. I think the off-season that we’ve had, plus

perhaps some built-in breaks at various points throughout the 2004 year, and

what we have had in 2003, contribute to the fact that we had 7 of 10 and 15

of 20 and 23 of 30 of our top players playing week-in and week-out on

average on the LPGA Tour which is, again, makes the sponsors happy; makes

the fans happy, and arguably makes the media happy with covering our sport.

An increased schedule may not necessarily produce those types of

numbers.

I said this in a number of different contexts; whenever

you have the greater percentage of our top players playing in a greater

percentage of our overall schedule, we will provide more compelling

competition that’s more interesting to watch and to follow and to report on

than if you perhaps don’t deliver the very best in women’s professional golf

on a week-in and week-out basis. From our perspective, we don’t see a

situation where we would add a couple of events in January; take six weeks

off and then come starting in March. I think if we add any events, it will

be the latter part of February, if we can find a market or markets that are

conducive to that and perhaps shorten that off-season by a little bit. But

certainly in January you compete with the NFL Playoffs which is a very

difficult thing from a media and television viewership ratings perspective

to compete with. And it shortens what I think is an otherwise conducive

off?season for our sponsors in the middle of the year.

Q. You talked about how great things are going. There’s also seem to be a

real theme of cultural issues that you want to address. Are you at all

worried that you might be running into a ?? kind of a disconnect especially

with American fans given the number ?? all the issues of the Asian players

and things like that?

TY VOTAW: Well, I don’t think so. I think that from, as I have said in

other contexts and to some extent here, I think our cultural diversity is an

advantage for us. I think our cultural diversity is something that we

should celebrate in terms of making us distinguishable from other sports

property. And the disconnect with American fans, I don’t think anybody

really cares about the disconnect that you refer to, I don’t think anybody

really cares that Annika Sorenstam isn’t a United States citizen. They just

want to see excellent golf. And they certainly see that as embodied by her

and the other international players who are at the top of the LPGA money

list. I mean, having said that, there’s no country that’s better

represented in the top 50 on our Tour than from the United States.

Certainly if you go down the list of Natalie Gulbis, Beth Bauer and Dorothy

Delasin and Christina Kim and on and on in terms of American, young

American talent that’s coming out on the LPGA Tour. Our rookie class next

year in 2004, 29 rookies, 12 are American. I think the pipeline is getting

filled more and more with great players. I think one of the things that we

have to continue to do is open our arms to the best players in the world to

come play on the LPGA Tour and what that happens, our marketing advantages

and our cultural advantages in marketing on a worldwide basis will all

enhance.

Q. Do you have any concerns that, you know, you have 14-year-old girls

playing on one end, you have got your best players playing in men’s

tournaments, that your Tour itself may actually get a little bit

marginalized because of all these little shows that are going on that don’t

actually involve LPGA tournaments?

TY VOTAW: Interesting question. I take it the opposite way. I think their

participation on the LPGA Tour has provided a platform for their stardom to

make men’s events want them to come play their tournaments. I think that so

long as it’s another way of saying is it a trend, to see women playing in

men’s events so long as there are men’s events who feel that women

golfers will add value to them in terms of marketability, promotability,

media coverage, et cetera, I think it will probably continue. There’s a

performance-based side of it as well and Annika addressed this in her press

conference yesterday about wanting to compete to win and whether or not that

’s something that will kind of override this phenomenon of women playing in

men’s event only time will tell. But I think that it doesn’t marginalize

the LPGA. In fact, we’re helping some other men’s events with the star

power of our players by having them play in those events. We’re happy to

help them.

Q. With the rank of the Asian players, any talk about doing something to

include them in an international team competition, you know, such as The

Solheim Cup or that type of thing?

TY VOTAW: We have had discussions about that. One of the things that we

will have in 2005 to address that to some degree, is the Acer World Cup of

Golf that will be held in South Africa in February of 2005. Certainly that

involves a two-player team or two?player teams from different countries, so

from an Asian country such as Korea, there will only be two players there.

It won’t be a 10? or 12-player situation like you have with The Solheim Cup.

But that is one event that we have added to the schedule that does bring a

pride of country and origin into the competitive mix of an event. We are

very excited about that event to be added back to our schedule. We had a

women’s World Cup of Golf a couple of years ago and we’re going to have this

event in 2005. One of the things that we’re very mindful of relative to a

Solheim Cup-like event is to make sure that we don’t do anything to diminish

the brand value of The Solheim Cup. And we have a number of logistical

issues to work our way through if we were to ever add an event such as the

one you have suggested and that is schedules, that is criteria, what

countries go with what team, what the makeup of most teams would be relative

to how an esprit de core there would be — if that’s the right phrase — with

those teams versus what you have experienced certainly with the American

Team, the Solheim Cup and the European team in The Solheim Cup, all of

those

things have to be, I think, looked at and make — will be factors in whether

or not we add an event such as that. But the marketplace is right for

something like that, and if an appropriate event comes along and the right

format comes along that we can be a part of, or help create, we would be

interested in doing that.

Q. What about TV, number of events and number of hours?

TY VOTAW: Similar to 2003, where we had all but a couple of our domestic

events on television with over 260 hours of television coverage. We’ll have

about the same mix of broadcast network versus ESPN, ESPN2 and Golf

Channel, and we’re looking forward to increasing our viewership numbers like we have

in television over the past two years. And with 260 hours we again have

more hours of coverage than any other women’s professional sport. And we

consider ourselves the leader in that and we think our sponsors are a large

part of why they are — why we’re able to say that because they are

increasingly seeing value in the product, to advertise their wares on our

telecasts. So, we feel very good about our schedule for 2004 from a TV

schedule, but we’ll announce specifics about that as we customarily do in

January and February as we head into the 2004 season.

Q. There is a lot of talk on the PGA Tour about conforming drivers. Is

this something you have thought about and is it something that you will talk

about for the LPGA?

TY VOTAW: We thought about it. We have looked at it. Certainly the cost

associated with testing on site is certainly one factor that we look at. I

am not convinced that it’s an issue for us just yet. There is a difference

in terms of yardages played on our Tour versus yardages played on the PGA

Tour; just as there are differences between the Champions Tour and the PGA

Tour. I am not sure there’s going to be testing on the Champions Tour next

year. Something we will look at, something we will monitor. We’re

certainly not going to have anything in place on a tournament-by-tournament

basis next year. Whether we see the need for that in future years, we’ll

just continue to monitor that.