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For The Good Of The Game?

Sex is in, Commissioner Bivens is out as the LPGA Tour looks to the next six decades

By: Naimah Jabali-Nash

(page 1 of 6)

There is a trite fierceness associated with modeling. That sentiment, however, was muted when stepping off the elevator at 300 Park Avenue and replaced with a magnetic energy. An energy magnified twice a year, for fashion’s coming out party known as New York Fashion Week. Fresh faces sat on the lobby’s bench, portfolios clinched. Their eyes instinctively darted toward every newcomer that approached the receptionist’s desk. From around the corner the clanking of wooden-soled shoes drew closer. ‘Are you comfortable doing lingerie? How long ago was this picture?’ asked an agent as he flippantly skimmed through a rail-thin model’s catalogue. This is Wilhelmina Models. And a week before the first tent was pitched in Bryant Park, I was here to talk, of all things, golf.

“Welcome,” said the stocky, spike-haired, Rodney Fetaya, Director of Wilhelmina Sports. A division that began last year, once former Wilhelmina Chairman, Dieter Esch, attended a LPGA Tour event. After which, he told reporters, “…the Tour has done a pretty pathetic job marketing its product…” So, the modeling management powerhouse wasted no time in capitalizing on the niche market of women’s golf. “You buy on Park Avenue before it becomes Park Avenue,” Fetaya quipped. “It’s an investment. There’s so much opportunity to grow. It’s such an undervalued, under marketed commodity.”

The minds behind Beverly Johnson and Rebecca Romijn formed golf’s first Charlie’s Angels—Wilhelmina 7 (W7). Its mission, according to Fetaya: “To provide the best service to our talent as possible. Whether that’s building their personal brand and images, making sure that how they’re viewed by their fans and their public is manicured and measured.” Its members: Sandra Gal (Germany), Anna Grzebien (USA), Kim Hall (USA), Minea Blomqvist (Finland), Johanna Head (England) and Mikaela Parmlid (Sweden). The search for the seventh member continues.

 

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