What are Coca Cola, Walmart, Macdonald’s and GE doing that the LPGA isn’t doing? Can the LPGA learn from the big boys and girls?

The answer to the first question is that these corporations have recognized the power and potential of the global economy and have established themselves in China, for example. Asia is not only a highly competitive source of production, it is also a burgeoning market with millions of new white-collar consumers entering the economy every year.

The LPGA has assumed that its market exists solely within the borders of the United States. Even though he now has tournaments in Korea, Europe, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Singapore, Mexico, China and Japan. More than a third of its programming now exists outside of the United States.

Don’t claim to be a world tour and don’t privately complain that the rest of the world is coming to play. The LPGA model is simply too US-centric. The Tour needs to step back and start to appreciate where the growth opportunities lie.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Greg Norman’s golf course design company, Great White Shark Enterprises, is involved in 20 golf course projects in China alone. The reason? The market for new golf course development in the US has virtually dried up. The other reason? China alone is increasing in new players at a rate of 50% per year. It is projected to have 26 million gamers by 2020. This is more than the current total gamers in the US.

The second example is Annika Sorenstam, whose fledgling design company is also banking on its future in China and elsewhere in Asia. That recovery will boost the moribund US economy, not the other way around (Economist).

Sorenstam and Shark are just two of a number of other US-based entrepreneurs who are pinning their company’s future on an offshore repossession.

An important wild card for the growth of the game would be the inclusion of golf in future Olympics. This would be a huge boost for the growth of the game around the world. There would be an immediate investment in new courses, tourist golf trips and international competition, not to mention an immediate increase in the number of new players, young and old, entering the sport.

If you are in the golf business, the smart money will migrate to the new growth areas of China, India and the rest of Asia. A professional golf business model that does not embrace this tsunami of growth will be left behind. In fact, we may soon see the day when US-based sponsors are routinely outbid in the LPGA market.

Even now, the biggest source of television revenue for the LPGA comes not from the US, but from Korea. This trend is likely to continue in all aspects of the Tour market.

That is why I have argued that the talk of the Korean players on Tour has been, at best, a false distraction and, at the very least, a total misunderstanding of where the future of women’s professional golf lies.

Criticism of the Koreans, in particular, has been petty. Anyone close to the Tour knows that these Asian players are just as committed to the long-term health of the women’s tour. A group of 47 Korean LPGA members held a press conference in Ohio in July to emphasize their support for the Tour and their willingness to do whatever it takes to help.

Players like Inbee Park have been quick to give back. She donated $50,000 to the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program following her victory at the US Open. Recently, a contingent of Korean players volunteered at the Ronald Macdonald House in Toledo during the Jamie Farr Tournament and later raised $13,570 for the house the same week. Another group of 9 Korean gamers volunteered their time at Habitat for Humanity. I don’t see too many Wall Street stockbrokers lining up to volunteer to give back to their communities!

The resounding message from the Ohio meeting was that the Korean players “want the American fans to know them better.” Hell, this is a bunch of teens and 20-somethings thousands of miles from home in a totally weird environment. Surely the American golfing community can open its arms to welcome you to this great country. Golf, and the people who play and follow it, have been a classy sport. I trust that the fans will embrace the best players in the game, regardless of where they were born or born. The future of the game really depends on it.