HEAR THEM ROAR
In 2000 Donna Orender, then the PGA Tour's senior VP of strategic development, topped SPORTS ILLUSTRATED's ranking of the most powerful women in golf, but last week she left the game to become president of the WNBA. Here's our updated rundown of golf's most influential women.
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Rank | Title | 2000 Rank | Credentials |
1 Annika Sorenstam | LPGA player | -- | An LPGA rarity: a marketable star based on Hall of Fame performance, not looks |
2 Mary Lou Bohn | VP of advertising and communications, Titleist and Cobra | 3 | Directs one of the largest advertising budgets in the golf industry |
3 Karen Durkin | LPGA chief marketing officer | -- | Potential successor to lame-duck commissioner Ty Votaw |
4 Cindy Davis | U.S. general manager, Nike Golf | -- | On the rise after stints at the LPGA, the Golf Channel and Arnold Palmer Golf |
5 Dockery Clark | Director of sports marketing, Bank of America | -- | Calls shots on sponsorships and sponsor exemptions, like Sorenstam's at Colonial |
6 Michelle Wie | Amateur player | -- | Only 15, she'll be worth eight figures the instant she turns pro |
7 Ruth Ann Marshall | President, MasterCard Americas | -- | An avid golfer, she oversees millions of sponsorship dollars |
8 Sara Hume | Executive director, Executive Women's Golf Association | -- | Golf is finally realizing that women like Hume are key to expanding the game |
9 Elin Nordegren | Mrs. Tiger Woods | -- | The power of pillow talk should never be underestimated |
10 Jan Beljan | Senior associate, Fazio Golf | 9 | Has helped design more than 30 courses, including PGA National |