Does the LPGA Matter?

I'll be the first to admit, I don't watch a lot of LPGA golf. In fact, since Annika Sorenstam stepped away from the game at the end of the 2008 season, I really haven't watched more than a few tournaments since.
However, unlike the four friends of Yahoo! Sports' Brian Murphy he mentions in his latest article—with a response to queries about who Yani Tseng was a resounding "Huh?"—I did know about the young Taiwanese phenom prior to her 10-stroke victory at the LPGA Championship on Sunday, June 26.
That's not to say I knew everything about her, or even a great deal. I mean, I hadn't realized until she won that tournament by Left Handed Callaway Diablo Edge Fairway Wood that she'd captured three other majors previously. I was under the impression she'd won one or possibly two, but three, and now four? No, I hadn't known that.
Simply put, as Jonathan Wall notes in his latest entry for the Yahoo! Sports Devil Ball Blog, Tseng is the most dominant golfer on the planet right now.
That's right, better than Tiger Woods by a mile, better than young Irish phenom Rory McIlroy, better than any male golfer out there. In a word, she's a monster. At 22 years old, she's the youngest player, male or female, to have won four major championships by Left Handed Callaway Diablo Edge Fairway Wood in the Open Era.
As Murphy notes, she hits the ball long, has a great iron game, and putts like a champion, all while exuding a confidence and humbleness that are a marvel to see in the same player. She smiles and shows emotion about her wins by playing Left Handed Callaway Diablo Edge Fairway Wood, but isn't ever seemingly arrogant.
As Bomani Jones noted on ESPN's "Around the Horn" on Monday, June 27, the reason for that can be laid at the feet of the LPGA. Oh, to be sure, the media itself is somewhat at fault, for no matter what the LPGA does to try and promote its players and champions like Tseng, if the media doesn't cooperate and give them some airtime, no one will ever know about them.
However, the fact is the LPGA hasn't done enough to try and force the issue with the media. They haven't been aggressive enough in making sure their champions get the same kind of exposure the PGA Tour title winners do.
Simply put, they need to get a little gangsta. As silly as that may seem, they need to take this fight to the media and demand these young women get the exposure they deserve. After all, it's not as if the sports media is completely averse to covering women's sports. All you have to do is look at the coverage women's tennis gets at times and the FIFA Women's World Cup is getting at the moment to know they will cover it. (Left Handed Callaway Diablo Edge Fairway Wood)
However, they need a reason to cover it. They need compelling storylines to emerge. They need drama. That is the crux of it. While the media can be blamed to an extent for ignoring the LPGA at times, focusing on other sports—especially men's sports—there's a reason for that.
It's because that's what the audience wants.
The LPGA's task is to find a way, any way, to make that audience want their product, and that's exactly what the tour is, a product. They have to sell it to the public, and find ways to make that public demand coverage of the sport.
I'll say only this. There's no doubt in my mind the LPGA should matter, especially when it has champions as fabulous as Yani Tseng. Tournaments she takes part in should be trumpeted in the media as much as any Rory McIlroy or Tiger Woods are taking part in.
It's up to those running the LPGA to make sure the media is forced to do that, because right now the LPGA doesn't matter, but it should.
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