After years of lobbying, the world’s top women’s golf tour – the US LPGA – finally debuted in Taiwan in October last year, thanks in no small part to the dominance of Taiwan’s Yani Tseng on the LPGA tour and world rankings. At the inaugural Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship 2011, Ketchum Taiwan’s golf-savvy team was on hand to provide PR support.

As part of the build-up to the tournament, Ketchum arranged two separate media tours of the course at Sunrise Golf and Country Club which hosted the event. Pre-event publicity also included three press conferences, including one photo opportunity in front of Taiwan’s landmark Taipei 101 Tower.

The Ketchum team managed the media centre through the entire tournament week, which was broadcast live to 42 countries around the world. An unprecedented 67,000+ fans turned up at the golf course to watch Yani and other star players in action, breaking Taiwan’s all-time attendance record for a golfing event when Tiger Woods visited Taiwan in 1999. According to on-site LPGA officials and many of the participating players, this event is probably “the most successful event for lady golf anywhere in the world.”

The Taiwanese government officials also played an active role in this event, lending substantial support to the organizers who have successfully brought on board some heavy-weight international and domestic sponsors such as Audi Motors, China Airlines and Chunghwa Telecom. All told, 1,867 print and web media reports and 45.5 hours of TV air time delivered a total equivalent advertising value of US$22 million.