Kay Cornelius

There aren’t many opportunities for the LPGA to capture new fans. When one of the best players to ever play the game has the chance to do something extraordinary, the tour must abandon whatever else is going on and capitalize. That didn’t happen today. Lydia Ko was 10 under through 15 holes, which means she had to birdie the last three to become only the second player in LPGA history to shoot 59.  The LPGA was not on TV at the time and was not streaming. The tour did nothing to let fans know this was going on. Didn’t post on X. Didn’t send a scoring link or a photo.  I actually tagged the LPGA on X asking for updates! Send someone out to let us know what’s going on! Post videos in the moment from a phone! At the very least alert fans of the moment. There was no lead-up to what could’ve been an historic day on the LPGA. No building of suspense. Why isn’t the LPGA waving its hands saying, “Over here! Look at us!” It’s Opening Day for MLB and March Madness. The LPGA needs something special to break through and Lydia was delivering it! To the tour’s credit, they did send along a Zoom link so a couple of us could get on and ask Lydia questions. Two national reporters and two LPGA staffers asked Ko about her round. With so little media coverage – both on the ground and away –  the LPGA must get better at telling the story in real time to drive an audience. The tour’s first mention of Ko on X came after her round. They posted a scorecard that required a magnifying glass to see that she’d shot 60. Two hours later, there’s one video clip of Ko’s putt missing on the seventh, and that’s it as far as action from the day. No video clips from her presser. A grand total of three tweets and one Instagram post. It has to get better and not by inches … by miles. (📸 Getty Images)