The Ladies Professional Golf Association is building on its mobile initiatives by rolling out tournament-specific sites to connect with attendees and athletes at events.

The effort is part of a bigger multi-year project from the LPGA to ramp up its digital offerings. The LPGA is working with July Systems to power the mobile sites.

?The mobile sites are a perfect complement to our mobile strategy,? said Brian Carroll, vice president of emerging television and media at LPGA, Daytona Beach, CA.

?Obviously we are not going to do 28 tournament apps ? of course we could, but it would not make sense financially,? he said.

Mobile information
The LPGA got into mobile into 2011 with a site and iPhone application for its corporate information. Then in 2012, the organization rolled out an Android app.

However, the LPGA did not have any mobile initiatives on the tournament side of its business.

The LPGA owns a few of its tournaments, but for the most part, other marketing companies own and operate the tournaments.

Each tournament has a Web site and is in the process of rolling out mobile versions for all of them.

With the new mobile tools, marketers will be able to create customized, tournament-specific mobile sites.

Take the recent RR Donnelley Founders Cup tournament, for example.

The tournament took place on March 12 in Phoenix, AZ. A mobile site for attendees and participants could be accessed at http://m.lpgafounderscup.com/.

Via the site, consumers could view the tournament?s schedule, find the television broadcast times, watch videos and follow along with the event via Twitter.

Additionally, users could buy tickets to the event via the mobile site.

Going forward, the LPGA is also looking for new monetization efforts for sponsors.

?It?s a sexy thing for the tournaments to say that they have a mobile presence,? Mr. Carroll said.

?We are trying to increase the value for our sponsors,? he said.

Mobile-ready
Given that participants and athletes are most likely on the go while at a tournament, optimizing content for mobile devices is crucial for the LPGA to connect with mobile users at the local level.

The LPGA plays tournaments from February through November, meaning that it is important for the LPGA to quickly get mobile content up for the events.

The LPGA is not the only recent example of sports organizations banking on mobile Web for fan engagement.

For example, the National Basketball Association?s Golden State Warriors recently began using a combination of mobile Web, SMS and apps to connect with fans (see story).

Additionally, NASCAR recently rolled out a mobile site built with responsive design to enhance the viewing experience for consumers (see story).

The LPGA is one of the first marketers to use July Systems? July MX platform and is creating the sites in-house.

When it comes to the differences between mobile Web and apps, there are strong use cases for both depending on a marketer?s goal, according to Michel Maeso, chief revenue officer at July Systems, San Francisco.

?We see marketers using ad sponsorship and building mobile landing pages with calls-to-actions, such as retailers to drive in-store traffic,? Mr. Maeso said.

?One of the advantages of mobile Web is that the conversions are stronger on mobile Web sites than they are on apps,? he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York