LPGA’s “extraordinary” charity Tournament of Champions to feature A-list celebrities

Philanthropy, friendship, and the growth of golf.

Those are the words to describe this week's LPGA Tour season opener, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

This unique event is celebrating its 10th anniversary overall, and Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida will be hosting the tournament for the third consecutive season.

A-list celebrities will join the world's best female athletes to raise millions of dollars for children's charities within the Orlando and Central Florida area.

“Celebrity demographics attract ordinary people who want to come out and may not necessarily be avid golf fans, but if you have celebrities from fields as diverse as sports, entertainment, and music, you have a much broader audience that would come. ,” Mike Frasky, the tournament's founder and former CEO of Diamond Resorts, said in an exclusive interview with Playing Through.

Mr. Frasky also founded the Payne Stewart Invitational, which raised $140,000 at its inaugural event in December. He also started the Invitational Celebrity Classic, a similar event held annually in Dallas on the Champions Tour.

This year's Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions will feature 36 LPGA stars and dozens of celebrities who won in 2023.

Ray Allen, Brian Baumgartner, Roger Clemens, Landon Donovan, Urban Meyer, Emmitt Smith and Brian Urlacher are among this year's competitors.

Defending champion Mardy Fish, one of America's top tennis players throughout the 2000s, will also compete this week at Lake Nona.

So is Annika Sorenstam, a 10-time major winner on the LPGA Tour.

Sorenstam and her family live in Lake Nona, and she competes in the celebrity category every year because she is close friends with Frasky.

“What took this event to the next level was Annika's announcement that she would be competing in the celebrity section of the event,” Frasky explained.

“She's the best of all time, so I think that made this event really special.”

Without a doubt, Sorenstam's presence adds to the prestige of the LPGA's season opener.

But so are Frasky's and Hilton Grand Vacations.

Three years ago, Frasky sold Diamond Resorts to Hilton Grand Vacations. However, Frasky wanted to ensure that his tournament continued to thrive in the future.

“I know this is a labor of love for me because I love the philanthropic aspect and I love the LPGA, and this was the first tournament I ever made,” Frasky elaborated.

“And I didn't want to exit as part of this sale…so I was able to go to Mark Wang, CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations, and say, 'Look, Mark, we have the option to change the tournament'' from Shiki. [Golf Club] To Lake Nona, the Hilton brand is not compromised in any way in its partnership with Shiki, and vice versa. ”

Prior to that meeting, Mr Flasky met with Joe Lewis, a British investor and majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur.

Frasky and Lewis made a handshake agreement to move the event to Lake Nona once the deal is completed. Lewis owns Lake Nona, a 27-mile community he owns near the Orlando airport, along with a golf course.

The sale was completed and Lewis agreed to host Frasky's event at Lake Nona, securing the tournament's future. He also ensured that the Hilton brand would remain intact at Four Seasons Golf Club.

“It means a lot to me that the CEO of Hilton Grand Vacations welcomed this event,” said Mr. Frasky.

Photo by Ben Jared/Getty Images

“[Wang] When we took over the event, we quickly raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. He truly made this the Northstar experience and the event of the year for Hilton Grand Vacations…I'm honored that he allowed me to continue competing in the tournament and competing in the Celebrity Division. ”

This year's tournament has a total prize pool of $1.75 million, an impressive number for an LPGA event with just 36 players. Last year's event raised $1.5 million. In 2021, the last year Diamond Resorts attached its name to the tournament, the prize money was his $1.2 million.

Rose Zhang, Lilia Vu, Nelly Korda and Leona Maguire are some of the LPGA's biggest stars in this week's limited field. Brooke Henderson emerges as the defending champion.

“I look forward to meeting the leaders of the LPGA,” Frasky said.

“We celebrate women's golf and look forward to continuing to move the needle for women and the LPGA, supporting the tour and continuing to strive to achieve what they want to do. But for them, It was a big deal, wasn't it? TV shows on network TV aren't as mainstream as the men's tour.”

The LPGA has struggled to draw attention to the men's game in recent years, even though its popularity has skyrocketed since the pandemic.

Still, Frasky has made it a priority to have his tournament broadcast annually on network television.

NBC is scheduled to broadcast Saturday's third round from 3 to 5 p.m. ET, an impressive time slot for an LPGA tournament.

Golf Channel will air the first, second and final rounds for three hours daily from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET. Golf Channel will also broadcast the third round for one hour from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET.

But with the NFL dominating American television, NBC has no choice but to broadcast the NFL's divisional playoff game between the Detroit Lions and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon. Therefore, NBC will broadcast live coverage only on Saturday instead of both Saturday and Sunday.

“It's tough for the LPGA in terms of advertising and sponsorship,” Frasky said.

Photo by Roy K. Miller/Getty Images

“That's why companies like Hilton Grand Vacations and Diamond Resorts have to support this LPGA brand and help keep it going north, because what's going on there? Because these athletes are great athletes if they know what they're doing, but it's more important than that,' and they care about that, right?

In fact, LPGA stars care deeply about their fans, voters and the children who are interested in the game. Lexi Thompson's presence at the PGA Tour's Shriners Children's Open last October is a case in point.

“According to PGA Tour standards and LIV Golf standards, [LPGA stars] They’re not wealthy,” Frasky explained.

“But it’s very impressive for them to be able to come out and compete and play at the level that they’re playing at. [it’s amazing for them to] We offer as much to sponsors, fans, and pro-am players as we do to the course. I think that's extraordinary, and I think that's something that a lot of people don't know about. ”

The LPGA is a great organization with so much talent, but this circuit doesn't get the attention of the average sports fan.

Of course, avid golf fans will focus on the biggest LPGA event of the season. But that's why Fraskey wanted a celebrity to play in the LPGA's big-name event. These familiar names help draw attention and attention to the women's game.

More attention means more revenue for players.

None of this would have been possible without Flaskey and Wang. Without their leadership and vision, the LPGA Tournament of Champions would not have achieved the success it has year after year. We also wouldn't have been able to grow the women's game and help millions of South Florida kids.

Advent Children's Hospital, Florida Children's Hospital and University of Florida Shands Children's Hospital are all important beneficiaries of this event, but so is the women's game as a whole.

The LPGA deserves more attention, but its priority as the 2024 season begins is to raise money for those less fortunate.

This is something very special and speaks to the importance of not only elevating the world's best female players, but also sowing seeds of compassion through golf.

Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.