[PHOTO: Logan Whitton]
Craig Kessler surely got a lot of advice before he took the job last week as the LPGA Tour’s new commissioner. Perhaps none were more important than the conversations with Mike Whan [pictured], the chief executive of the USGA.
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Whan was the LPGA’s commissioner from 2010-2021 and had a very successful stint, and some in golf have been referring to 39-year-old Kessler “a young Mike Whan”. The comparison, for the time being, is that they both have outgoing personalities.
“I thought I was a young Mike Whan. I don’t really like that quote,” Whan, obviously joking, said in a USGA press conference on Tuesday ahead of the US Women’s Open that begins on Thursday at Erin Hills Golf Course.
Whan doesn’t know Kessler well, but the two have talked several times. Whan was 44 when he took the LPGA job, and they certainly have one familial link in common. Like Kessler, the most recent chief operating officer of the PGA of America, Whan has three sons who were around primary-school age at the time he started as commissioner. Kessler’s boys are 5, 7 and 9.
“He talked to me with tough questions, tough concerns,” Whan said. “He’s a father of really young kids, and he asked me how old were my kids when I took that job. They were a little older than his… I think he expected me to say, ‘Don’t worry, buddy, you’re going to be a great dad and your wife is going to love you and you’ll travel all the time.’
“I said, ‘Listen, sometimes it’s really going to stink. You are going to FaceTime your kids from Shanghai and think, I’m the worst dad in the world. But I promise you, your kids will be watching if you love what you do.’ Like my kids today, when we talk about dad’s career, they talk about [when I was] LPGA commissioner, that I’ve never seen my dad so energetic and caffeinated.”
Kessler’s family is obviously important to him, and he and his wife, Nicole, and sons will continue to make Dallas their home rather than move to Daytona Beach in Florida, where the LPGA is headquartered. He will travel around the world of course, and as for the next major championship, it’s practically a home game, with the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas, that begins on June 19. Kessler doesn’t officially start his job until July 15.
His leadership role will be a crucial one, and not just to players, sponsors and tournament organisers. It will be a job that can have positive effects on his children, as that was the case with Whan.
“I do think kids watch more than they hear, and what I said to Craig is, ‘Your kids are watching you and if you attack this job because it means something to you, if you can make a real difference in the lives of these women on tour and these professional coaches, you’re going to get more back than they are,’” Whan said. “I remember trying to explain this to my wife; I’m not sure how this went over when I took that job. I could try to take a job where I would be home every day at 5 o’clock, but I am not really sure I’m going to be happy, and I want my kids to have the guts to pursue what they want to love, too.
“I feel it in Craig. I feel like everything personally says don’t do it, and everything professionally gets him excited, and I’ve been at that crossroads before. I remember what that felt like. I just told him, ‘Don’t ever lose that because every woman on this tour can relate to that.’ They’re here all the time, always travelling, but when they’re home they wish they could be out here.”
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World No.1 Nelly Korda said she looks forward to seeing what Kessler, also a former chief operating officer of Topgolf, can do.
“I’m excited for the role that he’s going to play and for the future of the LPGA,” Korda said. “I think he’s a great person from the interactions that I’ve had with him. He has so much energy, so much positivity that I think it’s going to be really good for the LPGA.”
Lydia Ko is hopeful as well. The Kiwi Hall of Famer wants to see how Kessler can capitalise on the current popularity of women’s sports.
“I honestly don’t know too much about Craig, but all I have heard about him are nice things,” Ko said. “He’s done so many great things within golf, from Topgolf to PGA of America. I’m excited. Obviously, when there is a change that high up, the dynamic could be a little bit different, but I think he’s the type of person that’s been around long enough to kind of know what to do, and I believe that the LPGA as a whole, we have a great team that has been around for a long time and some new people that will be able to lead us in the right direction.
“Women’s golf, women’s sports is on a high, and I think we’re just going to ride that. I’m excited to just see our tour grow, and yeah, excited to get to know the commissioner better, too.”
