Galleri Classic's success begs the question: Why did LPGA walk away from the desert?

Watching the PGA Tour Champions play in the desert at the Galleri Classic last week, seeing the top players on that tour play in glorious weather on a golf course that looked as good as perhaps it ever has, one question kept popping up.

How could the LPGA not make this work?

This is the first weekend of April, and that means it should have been the weekend the LPGA plays a major championship at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. That won’t happen, of course. The LPGA is taking the Chevron Championship to Houston this year, a move that opened up the end of March for the PGA Tour Champions.

By now, the story is a familiar one. After 51 years at Mission Hills Country Club, the LPGA said goodbye to the Dinah Shore Tournament Course and the leap into Poppie’s Pond and a roster of Hall of Fame winners. A new sponsor, Chevron, wanted the tournament closer to its base of operations in Houston, and the move would include a date away from the Masters. The move even means the LPGA event will now be televised on network television on NBC.

More: From tee to green, David Toms had the winning formula at Galleri Classic

The reasons for the move, including activities at Augusta National like the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and even the Drive, Chip and Putt, scheduling in the desert, a relatively unknown sponsor in All-Nippon Airways and dwindling attendance are all pretty well known. The tournament’s time might just have run out in the Coachella Valley.

But then you see the Galleri Classic last week. This is professional golf on a different scale than what the LPGA envisions for its major championships. It is the PGA Tour Champions, and there isn’t as much hoopla in terms of television or purses or fan interest.

And yet there were fans. No, the tournament didn’t outdraw what the LPGA would draw even in recent years, and certainly not what the LPGA drew 20 years ago in the era of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa. But there were fans on the course. And there were grandstands and volunteers and television cameras. There was perfect weather, there were questions about going for the green in two on the famous par-5 18th with its island green, and there were raves from players about the Shore Course and its pristine conditions and the entire week of activities.

All the elements are still here

So if the senior male golfers could make it work, even on a scaled-back level, why couldn’t the LPGA make it work? As PGA Tour Champions player and long-time Mission Hills Country Club resident John Cook said, it makes you scratch your head.

If you are a fan of the women’s game, you have to hope that the Chevron Championship in Houston in a few weeks is a huge success. You have to hope that the event can build on the legacy of the last 51 years in the desert while forging its own identity at a new course and in a new community. You have to hope the LPGA can embrace and hold on to a multi-national sponsor like Chevron, the kind of sponsor every tour in the world would want. Chances are the tournament will be very good.

But you can’t ignore the original question. With this weather, the Shore Course as a host facility and five decades of history, how could the Coachella Valley no longer work for the LPGA? Was it the LPGA? Was it Chevron? Was it Mission Hills? Was it really Augusta National? The truth is it was all of those things in a snowball effect.

Desert golf fans can hope that the LPGA, Golf Channel and some sponsor somewhere all watched the Galleri Classic last week and have the idea that the desert can still be a home for an LPGA event. Maybe the first quarter of the calendar won’t work for a new tournament with both The American Express on the PGA Tour and the Galleri Classic played in the first 90 days. Maybe a fall date would be best, but the LPGA would have to have that work for its schedule.

But it is important for everyone to remember that the LPGA worked in the desert for five decades. Maybe it can work again, since it was clear last week that the PGA Tour Champions works here.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan. Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Desert Sun.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: LPGA: As Chevron Championship nears, just why did the major leave Palm Springs area?