LPGA observations

[Mister Bater]

I think i've said my piece on this in the past.

The fact that the two of you combined have watched less than an afternoon of LPGA in your lifetimes speaks volumes. And, as Bravo pointed out, it's because it's never on TV. And there are no sponsors. And men think women are inferior.

Get some sponsors, get some advertising, give away tickets, you'd have more people coming out to watch.

I like the LPGA. Not only because it's full of lovely ladies (not all of them), but because they are talented with the sticks. They could kick our asses three times from Sunday.

But it will never happen (sponsors). Unfortunate.

R35

Sponsors and advertisers inject money into sporting events in order to get maximum publicity for their goods and services. They are not charities. You need public demand for events before business will plough in good money.

Are you seriously suggesting that every LPGA tournament should be free to enter to get crowd numbers up?

Or are you suggesting that free tickets to a tournament in Florida will lead to paying crowds in another State?

Don't blame the sponsors. They don't get involved due to lack of public interest. So that leaves you with blaming either the public or the tour itself.

All this hippy-egalitarian-love-each-other viewpoint is all well and good. Until you get into the real world. Then you have to deal with facts.

 

[daddymack]

I just started watching golf maybe two years ago, but unless Tiger is playing or the Big 4 or 5 are in the hunt I think I prefer the ladies.

However you have to wonder how good they actually are when women whose job it is to play golf get spanked by girls who have to play in between school, homework, and a social life.

Male so called prodigies like Barnes and Tryon got ate up by the tour.

anyway, I still like watching the girls play .

 

[Loop]

Silver, my Bell ExpresVu channel really sucks... I don't even have NBC

Agreed goatster. If more american could play and step up the level, there would be more attention, then more coverage. Americans are very nationalistic, and I surely don't blame them for that. This is also why events like the Ryder Cup or the Solheim Cup gets full attention. So hopefully, we'll see in the future more good US female players. In the old days, it was Juli Inkster and Nancy Lopez. Tomorrow, it might be M. Wie.

At first, I thought the name Birdie was given by her parents, maybe golf addicts

 

[Bravo]

After hearing Annika's interview last weekend during the men's USOpen - and watching the women's USOpen yesterday - I think LPGA is going to grow.

As Annika said, there are some tremendous young players coming up and that is the lifeblood of the future of the LPGA...

She has several good years left in her and the youngsters are going to add to the interest...

Editorializing a bit here...

I think one of the reasons for the small crowds at LPGA events (and subsequent lack of network coverage) is the fact that tennis is the sport of choice for women now - not golf.

At our facility, women's tennis league is huge. They play on Wednesday's and fill up all the courts for half a day and the facility has 12 courts - so you get some idea of the numbers involved.

On the other hand, on the golf course, "Ladies Day" is Tuesday and women have precedence on all the tee times on Tuesday. Men can only play when the women are not....and I will tell you that the women only take up a precious few early morning times and then it dries up. They are just not playing much golf now.

I tried very very hard to get my 14yo daughter into golf. They have a great metro-wide girls clinic that I had her in last year. Then came the Black Hole called Dance Team and golf went out the window. She wants to start again but is asking about tennis.

The problem with golf is you need a pretty regular group to play with and girls are just not into it.

I see a bifurcated future where men are playing golf and women are playing tennis....

 

[DaveE]

I think one of the reasons for the small crowds at LPGA events (and subsequent lack of network coverage) is the fact that tennis is the sport of choice for women now - not golf.

This is it exactly. The LPGA will never have the number of fans they need until more women become interested in golf. Sponsers don't create a fan base, it's the other way around. Any "for profit" company has to look at the bottom line when it comes to sponsoring anything, whether it be golf or NASCAR.

I can't help but think that some of these young US amatuers will attract more young girls into the game and that will help. One thing that can't be changed is that the men had a huge head start. In the US at least, girls didn't even have high school sports until Title 9 was passed.

When I was in high school, ( yeah, yeah back before electricity) the closest thing that girls had to a sport was cheerleading.

More women golfers = more LPGA fans and sponsers. Simle as that IMO.