sport news Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley dismisses calls for a women's ... trends now
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While women's college basketball ratings have soared past their male counterparts, Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley is still resisting calls to host an LPGA event at the home of the men's Masters tournament.
Speaking Wednesday ahead of this year's Masters, Ridley expressed excitement about the club's five-year-old amateur women's tournament, but stopped short of committing to a professional event in Augusta, Georgia.
'[T]here are some fundamental difficulties in that,' Ridley said during Wednesday's press conference. 'We happily were able to find a way to have a competition for juniors and a competition for women amateurs sort of wrapped around the Masters tournament, and it just seems to fit really well.'
One issue, Ridley explained, is the schedule at Augusta.
'To have another tournament of any kind would be very difficult based on our season, based on the fact that this is essentially a winter and spring golf course,' he continued. 'It's not open in the summer. It doesn't play the way we want it to play in the fall for a major tournament.
Lottie Woad is presented with the trophy by Fred Ridley The Chairman of The Augusta National Golf Club after her one-shot win in the final round of the Augusta National Women's Amateur
'We really have a limited period of time we could play any additional event,' Ridley added. 'We close in the third week of May. Then you add the element of ... sort of the mystique and the magic. And, you know, we need to make sure that we really respect the mystique and the magic of
