How can and should the LPGA cash in?
Reflecting on the state of the PGA and the LPGA these days, I am wondering whether and how professional women golfers can come together to take their game to new heights.
The men's game, especially in the US, seems to be in an ugly place. Consider your own feelings about men's professional golf after (1) another ugly US loss in the Ryder Cup, (2) Phil's decline following his US Open collapse, (3) the strguggles of the non-Tiger "Big Five," and (4) the lack of intriguing young American talent. Of course, Tiger will always draw a crowd (in person and on TV), but he needs some serious competition for anyone to really care.
Meanwhile, as documented at the Samsung Championship, Annika's status as the female Tiger is being challenged now by the young Mexican superstar Lorena Ochoa. And, other young guns like Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer have all elevated the Q-rating for women's golf even without a steady record of success.
In short, this is a unique and uniquely important moment for women's golf and the LPGA (which always seems to be struggling financially). I think the LPGA ought to be thinking "outside the box" to generate lots of excitement over women's golf during the next 3-6 months (when the men's game is essentially on hiatus).
For example, how about the LPGA challenging the PGA to a male v. female Ryder Cup event?
Here is the basic idea: add Karrie Webb, Christie Kerr, Brittney Lincicome, and Julie Insker to the list above to make a team of 10 superstar LPGA players, and then challenge the PGA to put up 10 men to take on this group. Set up a course in Hawaii with the women playing from up tees to minimize the impact of length, and then let's see who prevails. Winning team gets all the $$ made from event, losers go home.
This sort of event sure would be a lot more fun to anticipate and watch this winter than another Skins game. Ah... if only I could be LPGA commissioner for a day.
ADDENDUM: All the early commentors say that leading PGA men would not want to compete in an event like this, which is all the more reason the LPGA ought to propose it and then make a big deal about the men "being afraid" to play and lose. Imagine Annika calling out Tiger, asking if he fears his team can't even beat women from Europe. And Lorena Ochoa can call out Sergio in Spanish.
16 Comments:
What men would want to compete in this event? It is a lose-lose. The money can't be strong, and if you win, big deal, but if you lose, you are added to the list of men beaten every three weeks by Wie.
Maybe the answer is a guy from the Hooters tour, but that means the draw to the event will be even less, and who among the ladies would want to be associated with an event like that?
as for you comment about Tiger, I hardly think he needs competition for anyone to really care. If that were the case, the ratings wouldn't be as high as they are (when Tiger competes). In my opinion, men's golf is hardly at an ugly place. The U.S. Tour may have plateaued, but the Fedex Cup was the response. Who knows if it will work, but at least they are trying something (not that I agree with it). As for golf around the world, it is booming. Australian golfers seem to win every other week on the PGA Tour, and the europeans have shown that they have a massive supply of young talent that is assured of making a statement on the PGA Tour. Growth at the global level may be unrecognized by an american, but the game of golf as a whole is growing in leaps and bounds compared with most major sports.
As for the LPGA, how can they grow? Well, unfortunately it is a women's sport. Like all other women's sports, this is a handicap. Sure, women's soccer had a spout of interest during the olympics, as did the WNBA, gymastics, and ice skiting at one time. But it is virtually impossible for a women's sport to keep its popularity steady. I think the LPGA has done this better than any other women's sport. Why? Men are willing to watch. Most other women's sports take something amazing to get men to weatch. The opposite is true for men's sports. Women are willing to watch, and men are fanatics. While I can't imagine the LPGA to explode, it hasn't plateaued either. It has a little bit of growth each year, which is pretty good for any female sport, and better than most.
The LPGA is always going to be a niche sport because it is golf and it is womens golf. In general, most sports fans are guys and most do not watch golf... in general, most people that watch sports want to see the best of the best and that is the PGA tour, and more specifically that is the PGA tour when Tiger plays.
The LPGA players competing with the PGA players will not work for a couple of reasons. As PowerFade said, what guy is going to want to sign up for this? Surely not any of the big name players unless there is massive dollars involved. Also, in order to make it fair, the ladies are going to need to tee off at least 50 yards ahead just to be hitting the approach from the same place. But still they will be at a huge disadvantage because the real gap between the LPGA and PGA tours is the short game and more specifically, how difficult the greens are and where the pins are placed. Put your average PGA and LPGA player in the middle of the fairway 100 to 150 yards out and the PGA guys are going routinely hit approaches closer and routinely make more putts. The bottom line will be the LPGA is going to look really, really bad in comparison when people see how much of a gap there is and the LPGA is not going to want to risk that. If they did allow the LPGA players to hit from forward tees, there is always going to be that asterisk next to any LPGA win.
I think the LPGA needs to do what it has so far done this year. Have exciting competative tournaments, Kraft Nabisco, Webb holes out and wins in a playoff, McDonalds, Pak almost holes out in a playoff, US Open Sorenstam wins in a playoff, 3 players fighting for player of the year. What is not to like for those of us who enjoy watching good golf?
Though I don't claim to know much about the golf events and viewership, I agree that the LPGA appears to be in a position to generate an unprecedented fan base with a killer combination of excellent and/or highly telegenic players.
I agree with power fade that most men would be loath to compete with women for the stated reasons, so that's probably not an option.
The thing is, the women can't be afraid of media attention, even if it's not always directed at their game. The more excitement and buzz they can generate, the higher the viewership will be. Say anything you want about Michelle Wie, but I do believe she's been positive for women's golf.
Does Nike's Michelle Wie dress code improve her status as a tv star? I think golf is taking after womens tennis.
lpga has 2 choices:
1 - keep doing what they are doing. these girls really do rock and they are making a great showing going in the direction they are going - look at how purses have increased on this tour.
2- seel the women out by exploiting them as the golf channel is trying to do on the latest big break. think about it - the average golf channel viewer is an affluent male over age 45. in their latest big break they have lined up old guys to play against 20 something hotties. now if that is not exploitive i don't know what is.
to me it points to the real problem with growing the game - it is still a game dominated by stoggy country clubbers who are a bunch of arch conservative, racist, female hating, gay bashing old farts who love to exclude. their poster boy is hootie johnston and his band of green jacketeers.
how can the average joe who plays a few rounds a year relate to hootie?
the lpga is a much more open group of people. i think they should promote their lesbian roots and the diversity that exists - more asians, latinos than all the male tours combined - and most of them are killer dressers!!!!! one thing i don't understand is why their are any black players on this tour. do black women throughout the world shy away from golf?
my point is i think the lpga has the most potential to gr
I think the aformentioned comments are on right on, except the one about the dress code. The LPGA needs their women to look like women, and let's face it, to look American.
The biggest problem the tour faces is too many anonomous players with the last name of Lee. The LPGA MUST reduce the # of foreign born players. The Korean players are not ony boring, but most of them are unattractive, they all have the same golf swing, and they are just not exciting players to watch. They can play! Let's not act like they can't, but so what? This is about developing the tour, and making money, and the money is going to be made of players that you like to look at for 2 hours, know how to dress, have an interesting personality, and play with some zest! And that's what I mean by looking American. Se Ri Pak is Korean, but she looks American. She dresses nice, and plays with ZEST!
Starting in 1992, the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge has featured teams from the LPGA, PGA TOUR, and Champions Tour on network TV in a competition similar to what Douglas proposed. The LPGA has won three times.
You think the LPGA should "promote their lesbian roots"? Oh yeah, that'll gain them a HUGE audience share no doubt. Are you a regular listener to Air America? Oh yeah, they're bankrupt.
OK, just a couple of comments from a woman's perspective: Please don't worry about shows like Big Break exploiting women. I mean, which women are being exploited by the show, and how are they being exploited? The show is there to get ratings, right? If the show is popular because of the hotness of the contestants... it's doing its job. And any crossover we can get in this sport...any new fans, new players, etc... is a good thing. We women know that, if we're eye candy and that helps - great, if we're just excellent players - great too. We're OK with that, I think it's the men who aren't. And the men? Tigerless, how exciting would men's golf be to anyone other than the aformentioned country club curmudgeons? Oh, and as far as the Korean players being unattractive and not looking American enough, that doesn't even warrent a response. So guys... it's just my opinion, but perhaps worth considering. If any of you are interested in more on golf from a completely female perspective, check out my blog. http://www.thegolfgirl.blogspot.com/
"Oh, and as far as the Korean players being unattractive and not looking American enough, that doesn't even warrent a response."
That's not even what I said, I said there's nothing interesting about them,and there's too many. It's common knowledge that this is a problem on the tour. The golfing media understands this, but it's not EVER mentioned because it's not PC. Look how Jan Stephenson was villified.
Stephenson Apology
You can be PC all you want, doesn't change reality.
I personally enjoy watching emotionless Korean drones play thoroughly robotic golf and when they win not be able to speak any English for the acceptance speech. That, my golfing comrades, is good TV!!!
"I personally enjoy watching emotionless Korean drones play thoroughly robotic golf and when they win not be able to speak any English for the acceptance speech. That, my golfing comrades, is good TV!!!"
Glad you and the other guy watching enjoyed it.
I think I smell some misogynistic, racist, xenophobic, curmudgeons in the room. Is it politically incorrect to call someone a disenfranchised white male? ...Cause I wouldn't want to say anything that wasn't PC.
Ah...disenfranchised. A favorite word of those on the left; as in, "Those poor voters in Florida. They were disenfranchised". Think you got your definition of the word a bit skewed there, sweetheart. Unless of course you're accusing posters on here of being denied the right to vote...lol.
Being an expert in branding, my advice to the LPGA would be to run an ad campaign around the theme, "WE ARE LESBIANS". Supporting activities could be things like replacing sudden death playoffs with sudden death mud wrestling, calendars featuring "manly" poses such as a lumberjack or fireman and adopting plaid flannel as the official outfit of the tour.
I was watching the Mitchell Tournament of Champions a few weeks ago and was very impressed seeing Kathy Ireland (who was the presenting sponsor) being interview by Dottie Pepper. I have seen Kathy through the year supporting women's sports and particular the women golfer through support of the LPGA. You go Kathy and thank you.
Mark
Post a Comment
<< Home