Golfgal on GFW

Pace of play only applies to amateur golfers (and the LPGA)

I was reading the March 2008 edition of Golf Digest this week and saw a little side story titled "Venting".  It shared the thoughts of some PGA players and their caddies on the biggest breaches of golf etiquette that amateurs make during Pro-Ams.

No surprise, the number one was the amateur moving while another player is hitting.  Hard to believe anyone who actually plays the game does that more than once.  Even at municipal courses, new players are given the evil eye if they try that. 

Anyway, the 2nd most unpopular practice was "slow pace of play".   According to Aqua-man Woody Austin, "Nothing tops pace of play. Amateurs refuse to pick up their ball or they take too long to make a decision."

I find it amusing to hear the pros talk about pace of place.  I guess they are oblivious to their own failings in that area.   I watch a lot of European Golf and it is rare that I don't see at least one group being "put on the clock".  However, I've never seen them actually penalized for slow play. 

The rules of golf are severely enforced by officials all the time in the PGA (even calls in from spectators can make an official go back and watch replays of a shot to see if a rule was broken.  They have no qualms about enforcing a rule long after the fact..  But pace of play is a joke in the PGA.

Last week's PODS Championship was a good example.  The winner, Sean O’Hair is a really nice guy, and his history with his estranged father gets him the sympathy vote, but on the course, he's the guy you want to report to the marshal.

I’m a regular reader of sports writer, Karl MacGinty of the Irish Independent.  And as he puts it, "This guy spends so much time agonizing over the most obvious options on the golf course, one wonders how he manages to get out of bed in the morning.  It probably takes a couple of calls to the tailor before deciding which trouser leg to pull on first."

O’Hair was put on the clock on Sunday in Florida, but it made little difference to his play. And no penalty ensued.  Why?  I expect the answer is something like, “How do you penalize a player who's in contention?”   And my response would be, “Oh, you don't know?  Easy...just watch the LPGA.  Angela Park was "awarded" two extra shots for slow play at the SPG in Hawaii, without warning.  And she was in contention - if they hadn't penalized her, she would have finished 2nd at worse.  Who knows, she may have actually won the tournament, but having to play 8 more holes knowing she was dinged really could have been the difference between winning and losing for her.

Back to the PGA...

JB Holmes is another example.  I love MacGinty's description of JB, " Holmes resembles a preying mantis painstakingly stalking its lunch as he goes through his staccato pre-shout routine."

Wood's website posted a plea for action against slow play a week after Tiger beat Holmes at the Accenture Match Play.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.

But even when the world's number one complains, the "entitled" Holmes could care less, "You’re playing for $1m. If someone thinks I’m slow or taking too long, I don’t care.”  Hey, maybe that's the difference between the PGA and LPGA.  The LPGA is only playing for $150K, while Holmes is chasing a million!  Oh, don't get me on that rant again!

Slow pace of play isn’t new.  Remember back in 2005 when hothead, Rory Sabbitini walked off the 17th green and headed to 18, because he was so angry at Ben Crane's painstakingly slow pace of play (Crane was still on the fairway!)? Sure Rory isn't my favorite sportsman, but it's hard to judge him too harshly on that move.  If I was playing with them, I'd probably have laid down on the grass for a nap at the 17th green to get my point across.

There are a lot of slow players in the PGA.  So I ask again, why doesn't the PGA do something about it like the LPGA?  Maybe it all comes down to "balls" and who has them.

Golfgal
www.golfgal-blog.com

Photos by: © Anita Patterson Peppers | Dreamstime.com

Lorena starts her year with a bang and a whimper?

If you were watching golf on TV this weekend like I was, you might have noticed a slight discrepancy in the TV coverage of the different tournaments.  While the Honda Classic and European Tours enjoyed 3 hours per day of coverage, the LPGA was only afford 1 hour a day by The Golf Channel.  1 hr...sigh...

But in those few minutes we were granted by the powers that be...we enjoyed a very exciting debut of the world number 1, Lorena Ochoa, at the HSBC Women's Champions.

It was amazing to watch her break away from the pack, but it was also exciting to watch Annika and Paula push hard to try and catch her.  Too bad that Suzann Petterson struggled all weekend - not breaking 70 across all 4 days.  But I'm not too concerned. She'll be back.

Meanwhile back to the pathetic inequality in golf - one of my favorite rants.  Women golfers being treated as second class citizens is not "news".  It's par for the course, as is a huge disparity in purses in the professional tours.  Let's take a look at 2008:

PGA Tour: US$300 million
LPGA Tour: US$60 million
Champions Tour (9 less events than the LPGA): US$55.2 million

With numbers like those, it's no wonder that the two best players in the world don't even come close in terms of winnings.

Sometimes it seems like the golf equality battle will never be won. Even Lorena said in an interview with the Sunday Times, "Sometimes you have to understand that's just the way it is and there's nothing we can do."  Nothing we can do???  Oh Lorena, I wish you hadn't said that.  Don't wimp out on us girlfriend!  We need you to drive progress and change in this sport. 

Yes, yes...it all comes down "Show me the money".    But did you know that the TV networks PAY PGA Tour to broadcast their events, the LPGA has to PAY the TV networks to get coverage.   I find that shocking.

LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens said the strive for parity is one of the LPGA's top priorities, "If we don't strive to be equal, then we're going to be under-achieving."   I'm glad to hear her say that.

We've seen "No dogs, no women" signs in UK clubs, and "white men only" clubs in the US.  These battles for gender and race equality are almost behind us, but we're still seeing appalling stories of discrimination.

But let's not role over and play dead on the greens!  Let's take a lesson from some of the great ladies of sport and see what their determination and drive has achieved for their sport. 

Almost 30 years ago, Billie Jean King went on a mission to gain support on equalizing the purses in tennis.    She was insulted and ridiculed for her efforts, but did you know that today, because of women like her, women's tennis achieved equal prize money in all four of their majors last year?

So there is hope.  The LPGA is the strongest its ever been in terms of talent and competition.  What we need now is for more women (and their supportive golfguys)  to speak out and drive equality forward at their home clubs, in the media, through blogs, Facebook and Yahoo groups, in golf magazines and on golf forums everywhere.   

Never give up...never surrender.  Let's make that the new motto of the LPGA.

Golfgal

www.golfgal-blog.com

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The Straits Times
02 Mar 2008

Dare to Dream: LPGA + PGA Championship

Yesterday, I posted about the new Captains of the President's Cup and asked why we don't have a Ladies' President's Cup.   I'm sure the problem is getting sponsors, but let's get creative people!

Sponsors want network coverage.   How do you get it?  Well, do something different.  When Michelle Wie played in the Sony for the first time in 2004, the ratings skyrocketed.  Even if some fans hated her being there -they flocked to watch.  Even later when she couldn't make a cut, the cameras still loved her.

So maybe we should learn from that - putting men and women together in a tournament is a good thing.  And we've seen that with the Merrill Lynch Shootout, the Tavistock Cup and some Skins Games, but what if we could take that fun and good natured competition to the next level.

What if we had a tournament that brought together the very best of the LPGA with the best of the PGA in a "world championship".  I think that would be awesome.  We could match 1 male and 1 female player by nationality. They'd play three days of golf - best ball, alternate shot and possibly combined stroke play.  We could match man/woman by country or by continent, but in the end, this would be an international event that would draw a huge TV audience (if the best of the best really participated).

I know..I know...trying to get Tiger to play would be tough. But what if he did...can we dare to dream?  Make it count towards Fedex, Ryder or Solheim Cup points if that will bring them out.  Money isn't the answer...so find the carrot that is!

Some of my "dream pairings" would be:

• - Annika Soremstan and Henrik Stenson
• - Paula Creamer and Tiger Woods
• - Karrie Webb and Adam Scott
• - Se Ri Pak and K.J. Choi
• - Laura Davis and Justin Rose

I could go on and on and on...

Okay, so we would have a few challenges - for example, South Africa...who would we pair with Ernie Els or Retief Goosen?  Who would we pair with Lorena Ochoa from Mexico?  I don't think Lee Trevino would come out of retirement for this. :)

But these are just technicalities...

The point is that combining the best of both the PGA and LPGA would create an event to which male and female golfers would flock, and over which sponsors and TV networks would salivate.

Anyway, I think it's a great idea.  Why hasn't it been done before?  We'll have to ask the commishes..Tim and Carolyn...what on earth are you waiting for? 

Golfgal

www.golfgal-blog.com