Liguori: Big, Bold KPMG Women's PGA Championship Sets The Bar High

By Ann Liguori
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There's serious golf talent in the New York metropolitan area this week. Players whose drives average over 260 yards. Yes, average! Golfers whose scoring average is a stellar 69. Yes, the top four female golfers in the world -- Inbee Park, Hyo Joo Kim, Lydia Ko and Stacy Lewis -- all average under 70 strokes per round. In fact, the scoring average of the top 55 players on the LPGA Tour is 72. That's inspiring!

And "inspiration" is a key buzzword here at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Westchester Country Club, where 99 of the top 100 women golfers -- including Park, Kim, Ko, Lewis, Suzann Pettersen, Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, Jessica Korda, Morgan Pressel, Paula Creamer, Juli Inkster and Michelle Wie, to name a few -- get started Thursday morning to compete in the second major on their calender.

KPMG, the presenting sponsor, also organized a women's leadership summit that took place on Wednesday, in which former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was the keynote speaker. The goal is to empower today's female leaders and cultivate the next generation of them.

Lewis, winner of two majors and 12 LPGA titles, is endorsed by KPMG and has played a key role in contributing ideas to making this first partnership between the PGA of America and the LPGA a successful one.

"I've enjoyed the behind-the-scenes and kind of getting in (KPMG's CEO) John Veihmeyer's ear a little bit," said Lewis. "It was cool for me to kind of pass some ideas around, throw ideas at him. They are coming to me, what makes the U.S. Open great, what makes Arkansas so great that everybody loves it. They have tried to take a little bit from every of the best tournaments we have and put it into this one and I think they have done a pretty good job for the first year."

LIGUORI: NEW MAJOR WILL BOOST WOMEN'S GOLF

"Just talking to other players and the caddies and just getting the feel being here, it's amazing," added Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam, a winner of 10 major championships and 72 LPGA titles who participated in the women's business summit. "It's big and it's bold and I think its fantastic. I think this is something that the LPGA has worked very hard to get. I feel like they really deserve this."

Suzann Pettersen, who collected her 15th win last week, agrees: "To be quite honest, I think this is how our majors should be like, and I think LPGA and women's golf have to be very thankful for KPMG and the PGA of America to help stepping this up, because this is where I think our major should be. The bar is set ... I feel this is what we deserve. I mean, we work as hard as the guys. I don't see a difference why we shouldn't have events like this. You can compare to tennis. There was back in the days a major difference between men and female tennis. Now at least the slams are equal. And I think that's fair."

"The LPGA Championship has a very proud 60-year tradition and I couldn't be more excited to carry this forward in an even bigger way with the partnership of KPMG, the PGA of America and NBC," said LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan. "This event will change lives -- both for female professionals who are competing in the KPMG Women's PGA Championship and for the women it will impact in the women's leadership summit."

Getting women's professional golf the recognition it deserves has been a long, arduous process. But under Whan's watch in the last five years, the LPGA Tour has grown from 23 official events to 32 with over $61.6 million in total prize money, up from $41.1 million in 2010.

"Golf is a niche sport to begin with" said LPGA chief communications officer Kraig Kahn. "And the LPGA is a niche within a niche. It's a crowded landscape out there and you have to provide value beyond the obvious."

And that "value added" is why the pro women are a delight to follow. They make themselves accessible to their fans, spend lots of time signing autographs and know how to give back to sponsors. They get the big picture. And that's one of the reasons KPMG has made a five-year commitment as the title sponsor.

Check them out. You'll be glad you did!