Is the LPGA OK? Is Carolyn Bivens OK?

[PEZGolf]

Look at the World Series of Poker. Who would have thought you could make Texas Holdem into a dramatic event to watch. If ESPN can make poker exciting someone should be able to make golf exciting. I wish I had some answers.

Here are two suggestions:

1. More segments that profile some of the gals on the LPGA Tour, especially Americans. 2. More interesting interviews so we get to know the girls, their thoughts, training, and course management strategies. I think Chrisina Kim and Helen Alfredsson give GREAT interviews and are interesting to listen to.

[glebert]

1. Most men would rather have a root canal than watch ANY women's sports on TV---except for beach volleyball. They don't watch the WNBA, softball, etc. They want to watch FOOTBALL, FOOTBALL, maybe baseball, some basketball, but NO women's sports. There are three TV's at the bar at the k of C where I go, and if I switch ONE of them to the LPGA, I am threatened with bodily harm.

This is so true and SO ridiculous. My wife and I used to have season tickets to our local WNBA team (the Portland Fire, sadly now defunct) and those games were a BLAST! Yeah it was cool if the team won, but in general people had a good time no matter what. By contrast, going to a Trailblazers game was like going to some sort of sales seminar. I couldn't figure out why people paid 5x the price to see a game that was no better and where no one was having any fun.

[PEZGolf]

This is so true and SO ridiculous. My wife and I used to have season tickets to our local WNBA team (the Portland Fire, sadly now defunct) and those games were a BLAST! Yeah it was cool if the team won, but in general people had a good time no matter what. By contrast, going to a Trailblazers game was like going to some sort of sales seminar. I couldn't figure out why people paid 5x the price to see a game that was no better and where no one was having any fun.

I agree with you, and can offer this explanation----many men are still male chauvinists, and are not afraid to show off their prejudice. I publish a regional golf magazine, and about 40% of the articles are about women or junior girls. Some men have stopped me in public and asked me why I bother doing that. One of my advertisers, a golf store owned by two partners, asked the same question. My response was in two parts:

1. Are you aware of the percentage of my readers who are women? It is around 38%. The owners of the store had to stop and reflect on the FACT that same percentage does apply to them, and women, unlike men, spend money on apparel. Many men buy their golf shirts at Walmart!! 2. Women are great golfers and we can learn from them. When I was Editor of a predecessor magazine, we had Patty Sheehan's permission to run photos of her swinging a club, and they were in sequence, of course. I did the written analysis and pointed how good her swing was in terms of positions, shoulder turn, balance, etc. Her only request was that we send her a few FREE copies, which we were pleased to do. Some "guys" wrote to me and asked why I took up two full pages doing that article. "She is a woman. Why would we look at her swing?" they asked. And let us face the facts. Most of the viewers of sports on TV and in live settings are men. That is why their favorite sports will be #1 in TV ratings. Women are more concerned with what is happening on Lifetime or other "women's channels".