Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Paula Creamer is no ordinary teenager.
She's a champion golfer, a player who earned a professional victory before she graduated from high school and $1.5million by the time she finished her rookie year on the LPGA tour last season.
When she talks, the conversation usually is about her career.
"My main goal is to win a major championship," says Creamer, 19. "I want to be consistent and be in contention every week."
There's nothing unusual about those goals, but as the LPGA opens its season Thursday at the SBS Open in Hawaii, there is a lot more going on than just golf for Creamer and a few other players who figure to be the future of women's golf.
Maybe for the first time in the organization's history, the LPGA has a group of young, talented players capable of making a mark in the business of golf. Among those are Morgan Pressel, who represents Callaway Golf, and Michelle Wie, who represents Nike.
Creamer represents TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, which provides shoes, clothes and clubs, and Bridgestone, which provides golf balls. In all, she has six companies paying her to represent them, everything from golf shafts to sunglasses.
At the PGA Merchandise Show last month in Orlando, Creamer spent an afternoon going from one of her sponsors to another, giving interviews, signing autographs, posing for pictures and smiling a lot.
"I think the appeal of the LPGA has broadened," says Dan Murphy, senior director of marketing for Bridge-stone Golf. "We compare it to tennis when the Williams sisters brought a lot of attention to their sport."
'Exposure and excitement'
The LPGA has had talented players in the past, especially in the late 1970s and into the '80s when Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel, Pat Bradley and Betsy King were forging Hall of Fame careers. Lopez was the most popular, and she was the one who got the most endorsement contracts. None of them sold a lot of golf equipment, clubs and balls, the staple of the industry.
In 2002 Titleist, the industry leader in golf balls, dropped full sponsorship of all LPGA players, including star Karrie Webb. The company still sponsors players, but only for ball, shoe and glove contracts.
Larry Dorman, who wrote about the players in the 1970s and '80s before joining Callaway Golf, believes this group has two things that make the players good representatives for a golf company.
"If you do a survey on what moves product, it's exposure and excitement," says Dorman, Callaway's senior vice president for global public relations. "There's a real good chance there will be excitement on the LPGA this year."
Callaway recently signed Pressel, 17, who has great promise as a player and a penchant for speaking plainly. She begins her rookie campaign Thursday and already has said that Wie, the most popular of these teenagers, should have to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. Wie, 16, got an exemption last year, and theUSGA might give her another this year.
Wie has signed a lucrative contract with Nike, which is expected to use her in worldwide marketing, especially in Asia, once she finishes school and begins playing golf full time.
Wie plays her first LPGA event of the season next week at the Fields Open in Hawaii.
"We believe these players can create brand awareness," says Cindy Davis, general manager of Nike Golf in the USA. "There has been an evolution of women in sports in general. Their acceptance has changed dramatically in the last 20 years.
"These are young vibrant athletes who have a lot of energy and confidence that they can play," says Davis, who played college golf at Furman before going into the business world. "That excitement drives TV ratings and produces opportunities."
Davis says the current crop is different from players who came onto the tour 25 years ago. "They're more developed," she says. "They're more athletic, and their skills are more refined."
Dorman and Davis believe these players have to be considered on the world stage, especially Asia, where male amateur golfers tend to pattern their games more after the professional women.
Callaway has had Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, the No.1 player, under contract since 1995. She makes millions in her endorsements and appearances around the world.
"We tend to get parochial here," Dorman says. "Women's golf has never been as strong as it is today. I think the interest is the combination of an international superstar (Sorenstam), playing at the peak of her career against these young players."
Much in demand
At the heart of this is Creamer, the daughter of an airline pilot. She was trained to be a pro golfer, and she has won at every level. She likes the color pink and likes to be called "The Pink Panther."
Her pleasant personality and easy smile keep her from appearing arrogant.
At the PGA show in Orlando, fans circled an equipment booth and waited in line just to get her autograph. She smiled through every request, always writing her name legibly so fans could read it, a lesson she learned from Arnold Palmer.
Amber Johnson, whose husband runs a golf club in Duncan, Okla., wanted two autographs -- for daughter Amanda, 11, and son Brad, 14. "Amanda loves her so much," Johnson says, "that she wears pink every day. Brad thinks she's beautiful."
Creamer is taking a step toward the elite class that Palmer ruled. He was respected by men and loved by women. Creamer is respected by women and loved by men.
"Paula's appeal for us is that she's a strong player," Bridgestone's Murphy says. "The elements of performance and competitiveness are her appeal."
Bridgestone's executives believe there's a growing market among female golfers. Last fall they introduced golf balls in pastel colors, including pink, to attract those women. Murphy didn't say he had Creamer in mind, but he did say she's going to be part of a marketing campaign to sell the balls.
That will include print ads and possibly a TV commercial. He won't confirm a premium ball will be made in pink for Creamer. But, like a true spokeswoman, when asked about the ball, Creamer smiled and said, if Bridgestone makes her a performance ball in pink, she will play it.
"I want to be someone who changes women's golf," Creamer says.
If she can persuade middle-age American men to play the equipment she plays, then she'll have changed golf more than she could have imagined.
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
© Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
