Ladies first, please

I was working in the local Pro shop when I took a phone call last Wednesday
“Hello, pro shop”
“Yes I need to book a time at 5 for a club competition”  
“Sorry Sir, the tee is booked between 4 & 6 for a ladies medal, it is every week”
“But this is for a CLUB competition!!”
“Sir, the ladies have the tee from 4-6, I can offer you 6:08?”
“ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!!! I said this is a CLUB competition!!”
“Yes Sir, you did say, but as I said the tee is booked for a Ladies competition”
“LOOK this is a men’s competition! It over rules the woman!”
“No Sir it does not, would you like to book the 6:08 time?”
“For ***** sake! WHATS YOUR NAME?”
“Its Ray”
“RIGHT we will see about this”

He then hung up.

And here lies one of the major problems for women’s golf.

Men just think they have more rights than female members, so whose fault is it?

Is it the clubs ? To be fair the vast majority of clubs are “equal rights” and promote ladies golf well, unfortunately sexist dinosaurs like Royal St Georges enjoy the continued support of the R&A by being awarded the Open Championship.
So while many clubs do there best to be “equal rights” the R&A  undo all their good work.

But lets be honest the R&A are more likely to come up a middle east peace deal than tackle sexism in golf.

Do the media help? Quite frankly they don’t help.

You go through the UK papers over this last weekend and find any coverage of the women’s  US Open you will be doing well. Even the normally excellent Sky Sports dropped the ball on this, showing the US Open on interactive while concentrating on the Greenbrier Classic! When the Greenbrier ran over its time the highlights package for the US Open simply got cut down!
It’s a wee bit like putting the ladies Wimbledon final on interactive & showing a mens doubles on the main channel!
Do you really think this would happen with any other sport ??

The last Scot to win a major was Catriona Matthew in 2009, the last English winner was Karen Stupples in 2004, so in terms of major wins English and Scottish lady golfers have been more successful this century! Are both household names ? Sadly not. I would venture a guess both could walk into the majority of golf clubs in the UK and go unnoticed and unrecognised.



The main stream media coverage of ladies golf is either poor or non existent.

Is this because of the standard of golf getting played? Well no.

Is it the way the product is presented? Well I think it is.

The biggest complaint you hear from anyone who watches ladies golf is the pace of play and the lining up of players.

Be it the PGA or European Tour you virtually never see players getting lined up on the tee or fairway’s by their caddie, on the LPGA you virtually never see players NOT getting lined up.

I wish the LPGA and LET would actually listen to the fans and start tackling slow play, over 6 hours a round in the US Open was appalling.

The ladies product is good, the attitude of lady pro’s tends to be brilliant but sponsors will shy away without media support.

Last years British Open at Carnoustie I honestly think that the LGU did more harm than good to ladies golf. I don’t know if it was fear of our wonderful Scottish climate but the course set up was far too easy. These are the best female golfers in the world and they deserve to be tested. I hope that the LGU learned their lesson from last year and give Hoylake some teeth.

Was Blackwolf Run tough last week ? Yes, but it produced good viewing and good golf, what Carnoustie produced last year was complaints from fans and players that the course was set up too easy.

If we want to get the media to support the British Open we can not give them the ammunition to shoot it down by softening the course!