When Jim Ritts was appointed LPGA commissioner in June 1995, he laid out a three-year goal for the women to play at least 40 tournaments for just over $30 million in prize money.
"We've gotten there faster than I thought we would," Ritts said this week.The LPGA schedule features 43 tournaments next year with total prize money of at least $36.2 million, up nearly 50 percent from when Ritts took over. Almost half of the tournaments have increased their purses, and 11 will offer $1 million or more.
The heart of the schedule is in June -- four tournaments with at least $1 million purses, two of them major championships.
"The way our summer looks in 1999 is how I would like to see our entire schedule look in 2001," Ritts said. "We've got to stretch a little bit in all of this, but the relationship that we have between the tour and the sponsors have never been more positive than it is now."
The tour lost a couple of sponsors and a couple of tournaments this year, but that is no longer cause for panic. Among the additions for 1999 are events in Naples, Fla.; Boston; Columbus, Ohio; and Austin, Texas, the first full-field tournament in the Lone Star State since 1986.
Ritts said most sponsors are under three-to-five-year contracts, and many of them are from outside the traditional golf market.
"As companies have increasingly moved to dual audiences, the LPGA has clearly become one of the alternatives to them," he said.
DALY DOWN: John Daly may have arrived at another crossroads in his ongoing recovery from alcoholism -- coping with Sunday pressure.
Twice in the past two weeks, Daly has been in the hunt on the final nine holes and came up short.
He missed two short putts on the closing holes in the World Cup of Golf, where he and teammate Scott Verplank finished two strokes out of the lead. In the Hong Kong Open last week, Daly was done it by three bogeys on the last five holes.
"I just cannot handle the pressure anymore," Daly said after the Hong Kong Open, where he finished at 5-under 279, seven strokes back. "When I got to 6- or 7-under, I started gagging it. I cannot handle the nerves like I used to. It's tough.
"It does not really give me encouragement to play like that and miss out because of the pressure," he said. "It hurts more than it helps."
Daly will tee it up Thursday with Laura Davies in the mixed team JCPenney Classic, his last event until next season.
BALL TEST: The USGA has sent notice to manufacturers that its overall distance and initial velocity standards for golf balls will change by the spring of 2000.
Since 1941, the USGA has measured initial velocity using a wheel that strikes the ball at 143 mph. Under the new proposal, the wheel will be replaced by an air cannon that fires a ball at 180 mph at an 8-ounce plate, about the same weight of a driver.
Titleist chief Wally Uihlein, still steamed over the spring-like effect test for drivers, said the ball proposal was simply another example of the USGA abusing its power.
"Are we expected to believe that after using a test for 57 years, the USGA has now suddenly and mysteriously found some new way of measuring a golf ball's initial velocity?" Uihlein said.
USGA spokesman Marty Parkes said a test protocol should be finalized in time for the annual meeting in February, and it then would be open for comment from manufacturers.
"This exercise is not designed to kick hundreds of balls off the conforming list," Parkes said. "There may be a few that won't make it, but I don't think you'll see huge numbers one way or the other."
COMING UP ROSES: More than four months after his four brilliant days at Royal Birkdale, Justin Rose continues to reap the benefits from his fourth-place finish in the British Open.
The English teen-ager got his second major endorsement this week from Taylor Made -- a three-year deal in which he will wear the hat and play the clubs.
"We like to do our contracts where we give a base foundation to stand on," said Debbie Hall, tour relations director for Taylor Made. "And if they play well, they can make some money."
But where? Not only did Rose miss every cut since turning pro after the Open, he didn't even make it through Europe's qualifying school and will likely spend most of his time on Europe's version of the Nike Tour.
Taylor Made is hoping to get a bang for its bucks down the road. Hall is quick to point out that David Duval was on the Nike Tour not too long ago and has finished no worse than 11th on the money list each of the past four years.
"We're banking on Justin to do that," Hall said.
Rose earlier signed an incentive-laden deal to play the Maxfli Revolution ball.
DIVOTS: The purple pants that Jesper Parnevik wore when he finished second to Justin Leonard at the 1997 British Open will be offered at a silent auction Dec. 11 to benefit the LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program. . . . Mark O'Meara, unhappy with the way he had been putting recently, tried out the new Taylor Made Nubbins putter during the Skins game. He won eight skins for a record $430,000. . . . Nick Faldo moved up five spots in the world rankings to No. 61 without even playing.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Total prize money for the month of June on the LPGA Tour will be $4.9 million next year. Twenty years ago, the total purse for the 38-tournament season was $4.4 million.
FINAL WORD: "If I signed that contract, I would walk and hold hands with everyone in the gallery." -- Fred Couples, on the $87.5 million contract of New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams.