Evaporating tournaments, shortage of income and lack of confidence in its executives have led to a crisis in the Women's Professional

Golfers' European Tour. At this year's a.g.m, members expressed their feelings of frustration by openly criticising those at the helm,

Terry Coates and Gill Wilson, respectively the tour's chairman and chief executive and its deputy chief executive.

At the moment the tour has a definite 15 tournaments, including the Guardian Irish Women's Open held at Luttrellstown last month.

Prize-money is difficult to come by, however, for the simple reason that figures are not provided.

For the season, it could be something in the region of £

2.5 million. One of the biggest events, the WPGA McDonald's

Championship, worth £300,000, is under the auspices of the

PGA, while the British Women's Open, at £525,000, belongs to the Ladies' Golf Union; there are two other events in Britain but not a Scottish, Welsh or English Open.

This dismal picture triggered some justifiable criticism which caused Wilson to storm out, resign and allegedly tell the players to

"get stuffed." Coates moaned afterwards to the press that the meeting was a "bearpit" and that he had to endure "abuse from young women who had never run a business."

The chairman went on: "They were telling me how it should be done.

I know when I'm hearing garbage and I don't need it." Arising from this, John Peterson, representing the tour's overall sponsor American

Express, declared that the women were "very stupid."

It occurs to me that if you run a company and you fail to fulfil expectations, you are responsible for that failure. Is it surprising that some of the best women golfers in the world are concerned about the shortcomings of their executive directors?

And how is it that the tour's overall sponsor is a company which regards them as "stupid"? Does American Express think all women are stupid or just those who play the women's professional tour?

What message is the company sending? Should I, as a woman, give

Amex my support when this is their view?

Despite frayed nerves, Coates is still in place and Wilson is now a consultant to the tour. The Amex man has not been moved sideways or replaced.

Meanwhile, the feelings of the women professionals are coming across loud and clear: Karen Lunn admitted that she made just

£100 for coming 13th in a tournament in France and that she could not earn a living from the professional tour.

Lunn is a former British Open champion and the winner of five tournaments in Europe. What hope is there for the lesser lights and for the young players trying to come through? Florence Decampe, a

Belgian winner in Europe and the US, suggested that speaking a few languages might help. Certainly, an understanding and empathy for different cultures is essential: lack of communication seems to be a fundamental problem.

In 1992, the European women exceeded all expectations by winning the Solheim Cup at Dalmahoy where they overwhelmed the Americans against the odds. "The achievement of the century in women's golf,"

said the European skipper, Mickey Walker. And she meant it. The inspirational Laura Davies commented: "That should set the women's tour in Europe on its feet."

Coates arrived in 1993 and the women's memorable effort has since come to naught. The tour is still in the doldrums although the overall standard gets higher all the time. European women dominate in America, Nicholas the latest to join women such as Davies, Annika

Sorenstam, Lotte Neumann, Trish Johnson and Helen Alfredsson, to name but a few.

This season, Lisa Hackney, partner to Davies in the Solheim Cup, is leading the US rookie standings and has finished fourth in a tournament there.

How is the next Solheim Cup captain, Pia Nilsson, going to choose a team when the home-based players have so few events in which to shine? Even five picks may not be sufficient for a confrontation in which the Americans have continually been allowed to move the goalposts to their advantage.

We have to bring on young players to field the formidable figure of 12 in a team. And if we don't stand any chance of victory, the matches will die.

A few years ago, the British economy was blamed for the lack of tournaments. Now, Britain is among the leading economies in Europe.

The men's Senior Tour is increasing its schedule and overall prize-money every season - currently worth more than £2

million with 19 events - and is becoming a healthy place to earn a living for groups of men who are way past their prime and far from being household names.

Colin Snape, the former chief executive of the PGA and the WPGA

(as it was then), promoted the women's tour so successfully in the first half of the 1980s that the players had 22 tournaments and

£2 million in prize-money in 1987. But in the biggest mistake the women professionals ever made, they let him go.

Subsequently, their tournaments and prize funds sank and didn't reach the £2 million mark again for another seven years.

Snape understood how to put the tour on a stable footing by building on small events and solid sponsors in Britain. And rather than reacting adversely to criticism from the players, he stood his ground and talked through any problems that arose.

"I remember once in Southampton, the players gave me a bloody roasting," he recalls. "I thought it was part and parcel of the job.

It is important for professional golfers to air their frustrations.

It's a hell of a lonely life with its share of disappointments, so you need a safety valve."

Snape went on: "I never lost sight of the fact that the paid officials are there to provide that safety valve. You need someone who understands the perceived inferiority of women in a male dominated sport."

Snape succeeded in promoting his players before Laura Davies won the 1987 US Open and before the Solheim Cup was launched. The three executive directors who followed him never understood the selling of the tour in the way that Snape did.

As a co-founder of the women's tour with Vivien Saunders, I am saddened by the current state of affairs. We became involved because we thought that women should be able to earn a living on tour and we cared enough to get it off the ground.

An early and highly supportive sponsor was Carlsberg, without whose backing of 12 tournaments at £3,000 each for the inaugural season of 1979, it would have been impossible to make the venture viable.

Meanwhile, Snape assured me: "In a month, I could put together a nucleus of people and a proper business plan for the next five years.

It would go backwards before going forwards, but endless recriminations don't help." He concluded: "There is no immediate panacea. You need a brutal assessment of future prospects, without the frills. And most importantly, you need to know who your friends are."

Personally, I would place my trust in him once more. He has a proven record and plenty of confidence in his own ability. And his return would be a way of making amends for the blunder of 10 years ago.