Combine PGA and LPGA Tour Events?

[iacas]

Just now, rehmwa said:

However, it is interesting how pushing many agendas seems to be in direct conflict with just good business sense....

Huh?

[Vinsk]

8 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

o that the conditions for the women weren't quite as good as for the men.

Not to mention the intentional changes as well....

[boogielicious]

19 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

I can't see how you could have full-field events sharing the same course, there aren't enough hours in the day.   A similar idea was tried out in 2014 when the US Opens for men and women were held on consecutive weeks at Pinehurst #2, and that did seem to draw a little more attention to the Women's open than it would usually get.  The downside was that the course gets pretty beat up during a full week of competition, so that the conditions for the women weren't quite as good as for the men.  It wasn't as bad as some had predicted, but the wear and tear was noticeable.

The only place I could see it happening would be a 36 hole venue with men on one and women on the other. But logistics would be a nightmare.

[David in FL]

13 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Not to mention the intentional changes as well....

Yep.  

A lot of people were hoping to see how the women would fare on a course, if not identical to that which the men had played, at least very similar.  By the time they were done widening fairways, mowing rough, and slowing down the greens, any thoughts of an honest comparison was long gone.

[DaveP043]

39 minutes ago, David in FL said:

Yep.  

A lot of people were hoping to see how the women would fare on a course, if not identical to that which the men had played, at least very similar.  By the time they were done widening fairways, mowing rough, and slowing down the greens, any thoughts of an honest comparison was long gone.

At Pinehurst there really was no rough, just fairway and "natural area", and the vegetation in the "natural areas" was pretty stunted due to the very dry spring.  The only change may have been slowing the greens a bit, and that may have been necessary to keep them alive.  Champion Bermuda is pretty heat-tolerant, but it won't survive indefinitely.  

[RussUK]

I can see it working with a Ryder/Solheim cup style format which would be fun to watch but not as an individual format.

 

[NJpatbee]

The LPGA has to stand on its own and provide a product that the American audiences (where the $$ is) will follow.  I find it interesting to watch a few LPGA events and the players are talented and I can also identify more with their distances and course management than the PGA Tour.  The LPGA does need more American superstars which should bump up the viewership and perhaps bring higher purses.  But the reality is that the best golfers in the world are on the PGA Tour and they generate the most interest and revenue.  

[skydog]

I would be all for a mixed doubles event...maybe top 50 in the world of each gender? Any male that doesn’t participate gets shamed for not caring about gender equality and growing the game 😁.

 

[RemyM]

On 9/17/2019 at 11:27 AM, DaveP043 said:

At Pinehurst there really was no rough, just fairway and "natural area", and the vegetation in the "natural areas" was pretty stunted due to the very dry spring.  The only change may have been slowing the greens a bit, and that may have been necessary to keep them alive.  Champion Bermuda is pretty heat-tolerant, but it won't survive indefinitely.  

The greens at Pinehurst for the 2014 Opens were bent grass, and they did slow them down a foot for the women.  I played it the Saturday after the women's open and there were no issues with the turf conditions, you could hardly tell where the crosswalks were.  Two days after I played they ripped out the bent and grew in the Bermuda.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 9/16/2019 at 1:45 PM, rehmwa said:

in the soccer stinkup - did they ever figure out if the women's team had a better, worse, or just different (voluntary and signed by both parties) contract than the men's?

The way I heard it explained was this. Women's soccer will, by necessity, generate a smaller amount of money than men's since the pool of countries who play, and invest in, women's soccer is much smaller than the men's. Let's remember, there are countries in the world where women are not ALLOWED to participate in sports of any kind! so there just isn't as much money to be spread around. 

And the WNBA only exists because the NBA wants it to! It doesn't really make any money, and has to be propped up by the NBA. Cleveland had a team for a little while, and absolutely nobody showed up! Women's tennis does a little better because there are some genuine stars and there's more money. 

[leftybutnotPM]

2 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Women's tennis does a little better because there are some genuine stars and there's more money. 

And more money means more stars. It's a chicken and the egg thing.

But combining men's and women's golf does nothing except diminish both.

Young women will want to play because they see someone who they admire and can look up to, not because they see women playing alongside men.

And if the money's good there's an added incentive, which attracts more players.

 

[Mr22putt]

On 9/16/2019 at 1:09 PM, Bonvivant said:

Erik Anders Lang talked about the exact opposite when he was in Japan. Over there the female tour does way better than the male tour, in viewership/revenue/etc. He interviewed/played a match with a Japanese American woman that went to Japan to play because it was a much better deal for her over there. It really is about what the people want, and you can't make people like something by lumping it together with something else.

The same can be said for S. Korea.....Koreans have far more interest watching women's golf.

It was crickets (minimal galleries) at the recent men's Asia Tour event in Incheon as covered by Golf Channel this week...yet there were really large galleries when the LPGA Hana event and Int'l Crown were played last fall in Incheon.

I have always blamed women themselves for the lack of interest in the LPGA.

Asian women LOVE golf....although there are many Asians here...there are proportionally so many Asian women who love to play golf. 

The PGA tour has no incentive to combine with a LPGA event. 

[Braivo]

Looks like the European Tour is doing something like this. 78 men and 78 women competing against each other for the same purse/trophy with OWGR points awarded. I have lots of questions but it will be interesting to see this play out. 

European Tour, LET announce new mixed event

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The Scandinavian Mixed will feature men and women competing with and against each other for the same trophy and the same purse.

Quote

 

The European Tour and Ladies European Tour are taking their most significant step yet bringing male and female pros together in competition.

For the first time next summer, they will co-sanction men and women competing with and against each other for the same trophy and the same purse in a 72-hole, stroke-play tournament with official world ranking points offered on both tours. 

The tours announced jointly Monday that the inaugural Scandinavian Mixed is scheduled June 11-14 with a field of 78 men and 78 women playing for a total purse of €1.5 million at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Stockholm, Sweden.

 

 

[Vinsk]

1 hour ago, Braivo said:

Looks like the European Tour is doing something like this. 78 men and 78 women competing against each other for the same purse/trophy with OWGR points awarded. I have lots of questions but it will be interesting to see this play out. 

European Tour, LET announce new mixed event

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The Scandinavian Mixed will feature men and women competing with and against each other for the same trophy and the same purse.

 

Yeah there’s probably an asterisk * with the ‘Compete against each other’ part.

[GolfLug]

If I were a legal counsel for the PGA I would tell them there is not only no incentive to do this, there is a huge potential downside. After the soccer equitable pay case, last thing the PGA wants is to open that door. 

[David in FL]

2 hours ago, Vinsk said:

Yeah there’s probably an asterisk * with the ‘Compete against each other’ part.

Ya think?!   

[p1n9183]

A Plan...
Monday.. LPGA and PGA official practice round. (More practice? previous week)
Tuesday.. LPGA 1st round.
Wednesday.. LPGA 2nd round.
Thursday.. PGA 1st round
Friday .. PGA 2nd round
CUT for 36 holes on LPGA and PGA
Morning tee times for LPGA, afternoon tee times for PGA 
Saturday.. 3rd round LPGA/PGA
Sunday .. 4th round LPGA/PGA.

Problems I see.. The course will be overwhelmed on monday. There´s no wednesday pro-am event. 

B Plan.. 
Find a complex with 2 golf courses and split fields.. 50% on each course of PGA tour players and 50% LPGA tour players. Each player plays 18 holes on each course and after the cut, all of them plays on saturday on course A and on Sunday on course B.

[Vinsk]

22 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

after the cut, all of them plays on saturday on course A and on Sunday on course B.

After the cut there  won’t be any LPGA players left.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Vinsk