Former Pac-12 commissioner, WTA CEO Larry Scott a polarizing choice for LPGA post. Why?

USA Today

05-03-2025

Former Pac-12 commissioner, WTA CEO Larry Scott a polarizing choice for LPGA post. Why?
The name Larry Scott hit the golf world like a thunderbolt.
Annika Sorenstam's public backing of the former Pac-12 commissioner to lead the LPGA left many in sports utterly shocked. And behind the scenes, she's not the only one pushing Scott's name.
Longtime University of Washington coach Mary Lou Mulflur called it laughable that someone of Sorenstam's stature and reputation could endorse a candidate who oversaw so much of the Pac-12's downfall. Especially given that Sorenstam played college golf at the University of Arizona, where Scott was booed out of the Wildcats' basketball arena.
'It was the demise of our conference,' said Mulflur, 'and I have no problem saying that he is a large part of the responsibility.'
Many in the golf world feel the time has come for the LPGA to really shake things up. Find a visionary to lead the 75-year-old organization, someone who's bold and brings along a deep Rolodex.
Given what 60-year-old Scott did for women's tennis as CEO of the WTA, he certainly checks many of those boxes. Scott has a history of leading superstar athletes like the Williams sisters into the promised land of equal pay and mega sponsorship deals. He knows what it's like to put together a global schedule and juggle a large number of constituents.
While he's an outsider when it comes to golf, the Harvard grad's history as a professional tennis player is about as close as it gets to understanding the nuances of the ancient game. The parallels between golf and tennis run deep.
Yet critics will say all that success happened more than 15 years ago. There's so much baggage now. The bad PR alone raises concern.
'It's hard to kill a 110-year college conference that produced Jackie Robinson and Annika Sorenstam, Barry Bonds and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,' said syndicated columnist Jon Wilner, 'and yet his strategic decisions over the course of 12 years and his management internally with the campuses contributed immensely to the demise of the conference.'
There's simply no getting around the fact that in the eyes of many, Scott is a failed commissioner.
There were highlights to be sure, such as the historic 12-year, $3 billion media rights deal with Fox and ESPN in 2011. That victory, however, is now largely overshadowed by the gamble Scott took on launching the Pac-12 Networks without a network partner and his failure to cut a deal with DirectTV.
'His decisions on the Pac-12 Network were catastrophic,' said Wilner. 'His doubling down on the Pac-12 network when ESPN offered a lifeline was catastrophic.'
Many in the tennis world don't know much about what happened to Scott after he left the WTA.
Longtime tennis reporter Peter Bodo recalls Scott being a clever and ambitious player and leader. Scott studied European history at Harvard, where he was an All-American in 1985. Hobbies listed on the ATP website include reading, snow and water skiing, squash and golf.
He served on the ATP Board of Directors as a player before eventually working for the tour as its chief operating officer and president of ATP Properties. In 2003, he became CEO of the WTA.
'Larry's style, I think he was very, very rational,' said Bodo. 'I hesitate to use the word bloodless because it has so many negative connotations, I guess, but I think that was kind of his style. … I don't think people felt particularly warmly about him, but I think they respected him.'
Scott pushed for equal pay and more dual-gender tournaments. Wimbledon and the French Open achieved equal pay under his watch, and in 2005, Sony Ericsson signed on as the WTA's title sponsor in a landmark $88 million, six-year deal, the largest sponsorship in the history of women's professional sport.
In 2009, he introduced the WTA Roadmap, which shortened the season and increased prize money for top players.
'He fixed the unfixable, to the extent that it can be fixed,' said Bodo of a complex global schedule.
Pam Shriver, a Hall of Fame tennis player turned broadcaster and eight-time club champion at Brentwood Country Club in Los Angeles, noted that Scott has always been well-respected in every corner of the tennis world.
'There's so much these two sports have in common,' said Shriver, who praised Scott's ability to utilize behind-the-scenes meetings with superstars to get things done.
Part of Scott's success at the WTA can be traced back to the simple fact that he wasn't an outsider, said Steve Tignor, who has covered the game for Tennis Magazine since 1998.
'I think tennis has had some trouble with outside executives coming in and trying to reorganize things,' said Tignor. 'He didn't do that.'
One big change Scott pushed for that didn't happen was the merging of the WTA and ATP, though Tignor believes Scott did improve relations between the two tours.
'I think when (a merger) didn't happen, that was part of him leaving,' said Tignor. 'So, you know, he's ambitious for his organizations. He's ambitious for himself. That was always the feeling I got.'
Those who followed the Pac-12 closely use other words to describe Scott's style. Wilner said Scott had a reputation of managing up and out very well but struggled internally. The columnist said Scott can come across as smooth, sharp and confident to outsiders, although those working beneath him often felt otherwise.
Sorenstam noted in her statement to SBJ that she believed Scott had 'great relationships with sponsors and the gravitas to command respect any time he enters a room.' Wilner posted on X that he could think of 12 rooms where that is not the case.
'He was viewed as authoritarian by a lot of people – coaches, athletic directors, very much about Larry,' said Wilner. 'Larry is about – or at least he was – Larry was about Larry, and he surrounded himself at the Pac-12 office with people who were drinking the Kool-Aid.'
Another common criticism of Scott's was his spending habits.
Longtime Oregonian columnist John Canzano wrote a scorching column on Scott last week in which his subhead asked 'Is the LPGA dumb enough to hire him?'
When Scott moved the Pac-12 headquarters from Walnut Creek, California, to San Francisco, Canzano reported that it cost the conference $92 million in rent over the course of 11 years.
One longtime Pac-12 coach recalled visiting the headquarters for a meeting and being blown away by the coffee bar and latte machines. Meanwhile, back on campus, the coach told Golfweek that they struggled to get a pot of coffee in the break room.
In 2019, Canzano reported on Scott staying in a luxury suite in Las Vegas that spanned two floors and featured a private butler during the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament. The suite was reportedly comped but ran $7,500 a night.
USA Today's Steve Berkowitz noted on X that Scott's 2016salary of $4.8 million was more than Big 10 and SEC commissioners' salaries combined.
"Larry is a lavish guy, he likes extravagance," former Washington State commissioner Bill Moos told Canzano back in 2018.
"He runs the Pac-12 like he's the commissioner of Major League Baseball.'
When the Pac-12 parted ways with Scott in 2021, Berkowitz reported that the highest-paid commissioner in college football received a $1.5 million severance, plus $750,000 in bonus and incentive pay. Critics dubbed him 'Champagne Larry.'
Although LPGA purses have increased substantially in recent years, especially in the majors, the league's operating budget was down at least $2 million last year. With South Korea's JTBC failing to pay its bills, that deficit could rise substantially in 2025.
While the LPGA needs a shakeup, it's not in position for someone to come in, take a big swing and miss. And certainly not double down on a mistake.
The LPGA has operated with Band-aids and shoestrings for much of its 75-year history. Luxury on this tour is added health-care benefits.
In that sense, the WTA isn't so far off from the LPGA, where the rank-and-file scrape together a living while chasing a dream.
'I think there's always this sense in tennis of the WTA could do more,' said Tignor. 'Women's tennis could be bigger because there's always the men's tennis there in some way to overshadow it.'
Sorenstam declined to speak for this story through her husband Mike McGee, who works as managing director of the Annika Foundation. McGee said Sorenstam will let the process play out as there are a lot of good candidates.
Scott, when reached through a friend, also declined an interview request.
As the search committee begins to sift through its options, it's difficult to imagine there being a more controversial candidate in the mix than Scott.
'I mean it was quite a 12-year rollercoaster for the conference,' said Wilner. 'He wasn't the only reason it collapsed. For sure his successor made a bunch of mistakes, too, but Larry kind of set the car on the path to an existential crisis.'
It's the kind of thing people don't forget.