Inkster: ‘I Just Don’t Think We Get The Respect We Deserve”
Victorious U.S. Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster had some strong words to say about how little respect the women’s pro Tour players receive compared to its PGA Tour male counterparts.
“As women golfers we always get shortchanged, and it irks me.”
“Even from the PGA Tour down, I just don’t think we get the respect we deserve,” she continued. “I’m going to say it right now, and I probably shouldn’t say it, I just don’t understand how all these companies get away with supporting PGA Tour events and not supporting LPGA. It makes me a little upset because I think we’ve got a great product, I think we do a lot of things really good and I think the golf is fantastic, and I think we deserve our due.”
As the AP wire wrote, only one LPGA event from this season boasted a purse higher than $3.5 million, whereas only two PGA Tour events in 2017 had purses less than that amount, and both were alternate field events opposite World Golf Championships.
There’s no doubt the ladies receive less coverage than the men in their prime (they do get about the same as the Champions Tour geezers). So, the obvious question is why?
The ladies play a far more relatable game with smooth swings sending shots good but not superhuman distances. Scoring wise, they’d clean the floor of us male amateurs. And they are usually extremely accessible to media and fans. Plus, some are cute as a button–which is always a plus in the entertainment field.
In other sports like gymnastics and ice skating, the female participants attract way more viewers than the men. Why is that? Pure marketing. Olympic coverage believes the lades are simply a better product (or is it simply self-fulfilling prophecies?) while the men get an LPGA-like pat on the head.
Or, its…
The reliance of their caddies to line up full shots and putts? Its purely bad optics and gives the impression women need far more mental/emotional support than the guys.
Anyagolf.com believes its the 20% female golf participation which means fewer female viewers tuning in. She adds…
When I played on the LPGA, most of the spectators were men. Scattered across the course were dads with their little girls exposing them to the game, while I rarely saw mothers on the course with their daughters. Rarely did I see groups of young women come to spectate, when quite often I saw groups of young and old men walking the course cheering on their favorite players.
Besides Nike, who started using Michelle Wei more often in their spots after she won the U.S. Open in 2014, club companies don’t even feature their own female players.
Try googling Ping golf commercials and you’ll see spots with Hunter Mahan, Billy Horschel (before he switched to PXG clubs in 2016), and Bubba Watson. Google TaylorMade golf commercial and Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, and Sergio Garcia are the main stars. Callaway made sure to go out of its way to not use the No. 1 player in the world Lydia Ko in their ads and instead used instagram golf star Paige Spiranac for their campaign for 2016.
There’s also the utter current domination by the Korean golfers. Understandably, female golf is big time in Korea and the other Asian markets. Unless more American players start winning regularly on the LPGA Tour, American fans will yawn more than applaud.
I’d put more men/women matches together in the mix. While they’ll never be as long as the men, many put up some excellent scores and the exposure would definitely help their cause. I’m just not sure how much the PGA Tour truly wants to help–or even cares for that matter.
