Yani Interested in Playing with the Men

[iacas]

Article is here :

Quote:

World No. 1 female golfer Yani Tseng revealed for the first time Saturday that she is interested in entering a PGA Tour event to learn from her male peers.

“If an opportunity presents itself, I would like to play in a PGA tournament to learn more from male golfers,” the Taiwanese star said after the second round of the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open in China.

I think it'd be good for her to learn from the men, but at the same time, I don't think she needs to play in a PGA Tour event in order to learn. She should just become friends with and play with some more of the guys at Isleworth or Lake Nona or wherever she lives.

The PGA Tour has little to gain here. Yani, unfortunately, has very little traction with the U.S. audience. Far less than even Annika Sorenstam. Anyway, if she makes the cut, the PGA Tour will look bad because "a woman" beat 70+ guys, and if she fails, the PGA Tour will just escape looking bad - it won't look "good."

Yani's won 11 times and two majors this year, I think. Her scoring average is 69.38 and her driving distance is 267.9. In both categories she ranks #1 on the LPGA Tour. That driving distance would rank her as... DFL on the PGA Tour.

What do you think of Yani's statements?

[x129]

I would think less of her as an athlete if she didn't want to face the best possible competition. It is 2011. No one cares if a woman beats some men. When a 15 year old girl was missing the cut by a couple strokes no one thought it made the PGA look bad.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by x129

I would think less of her as an athlete if she didn't want to face the best possible competition. It is 2011. No one cares if a woman beats some men. When a 15 year old girl was missing the cut by a couple strokes no one thought it made the PGA look bad.

I don't think that's true. I didn't particularly care, but I know of some people who thought it looked bad, including some of the players she beat.

[The_Pharaoh]

I don't think she should play on the men's tour. There is a men's tour and a ladies' tour for a reason.

However, having said that and as someone above pointed out, we are in 2011 and perhaps now is the time to consider one tour regardless of gender.

[jamo]

I don't think she should play on the men's tour. There is a men's tour and a ladies' tour for a reason. However, having said that and as someone above pointed out, we are in 2011 and perhaps now is the time to consider one tour regardless of gender.

The PGA Tour doesn't actually specify gender. There's a women's Tour and there's a.... Tour. I don't think a singular Tour would work either. Not to sound sexist, but there are very few women ever that could compete with the men. Even Sorenstam couldn't do much. If they can make it into an event more power to them, but I don't think that's likely to happen all that often. Yani might be one of the few who could actually do well. I think the way they're set up now is fine.

[sean_miller]

Sorry to be terribly blunt, but would the average fan even notice?

[mchepp]

Making a cut on the PGA Tour hardly qualifies her as better than the 70+ guys she beat. Now if she competed over a season on the PGA and made it into the top 125, now that would be very impressive.

Personally I think the LPGA needs as much publicity as it can get, the powers that be on the LPGA should be lobbying the powers at the PGA to get her in a tourney.

[RFetters]

She should stay on the LPGA tour and be happy she's winning.

If she could actually "earn" the right to play that might be different, but I dont think she wants to go thru tour school.  Playing on a sponsor's expemption is a bad idea for the PGA.  Wie tried the PGA tour and struggled to make the cut,,in the end she was more of a "freak" show rather than a true competitor.

[clubchamp]

At least she's actually won playing on the LPGA tour before trying to play on the PGA tour. If I'm the LPGA commish I hope she does play and I hope she does well since it could garner attention for the LPGA tour. Now for me personally I don't care either way but if she doesn't do well the first time I hope she is smart enough to stop.

[SAGolfLuvr]

If I were the commish. I would have her play in the Skins Game like Annika (Fred Funk was pretty cool to wear the dress when she outdrove him) and no more than 2 celebrity golf events to introduce her to the rest of the world. If she does very well then put her in a couple of PGA events that seem to struggle for ratings but demographicly is a host city to an LPGA or Futures event. If that goes well then build on it. I would learn from the Michele and Annika experiment. Too much hype for both, so ease her in semi-quietly. Let her clubs do the talking. If her clubs are too quiet, then she will focus on the women's tour on her own. No harm, no foul.

With the golf equipment today, if you can outdrive Fred Funk, and then hit long irons and hybrids into the green, and have a wiked Paul Azinger short game, it is possible to play in the PGA, it matters not what sex or age you are. It should be all about who is the best golfer in the world.

However, I totally think Lana Lawless should NOT have been allowed to compete in the Women's Long Drive tournament.

http://www.golfmagic.com/news/long-drive-champ-had-a-sex-change/5995.html

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by iacas

I think it'd be good for her to learn from the men, but at the same time, I don't think she needs to play in a PGA Tour event in order to learn.

Exactly. What does she expect to able to be to learn by playing with the men? That she doesn't hit it as far or have the touch of a PGA Tour pro?

I guess if nothing else, she can learn to handle some serious butterflies in her stomach for that entire week, with every camera on her. She sort of gets that anyway as an LPGA player, but the exposure during this event would be pretty intense. That'd probably help her, maybe.

Personally though I'd think it be entertaining to see what she'd score and how she'd handle herself out there. I didn't follow golf during the Annika years so this would be a novelty for me.

I'm fine though either way. I understand and respect the reasons why if they say no, but I'd also be excited to see how she does if they say yes. From someone who has only watched golf since halfway through 2008, I'd certainly tune in that week....but I tend to tune in every week, so not much would change for me.

[jshots]

IMO she should try it and she should be allowed to. If she doesn't do well then its probably exactly what most people expected. If she beats a few guys and they are butt hurt about getting beat by an extremely good female golfer its their own problem. Maybe she does really well and then she would get a lot of attention.

[mymizunosrock]

Originally Posted by iacas

Article is here:

The PGA Tour has little to gain here. Yani, unfortunately, has very little traction with the U.S. audience. Far less than even Annika Sorenstam. Anyway, if she makes the cut, the PGA Tour will look bad because "a woman" beat 70+ guys, and if she fails, the PGA Tour will just escape looking bad - it won't look "good."

Wouldn't be her fault that half the field played like a busted you know what. Im not sure she has anything to prove as a golfer, but from a person that watches golf on TV at every opportunity, it would be great viewing and  good to compare distances and club selections when it comes to driving and par '3s. Did they make Wie play off the mens tees?? Sorry, what they did to her was just bad. I know she wanted to compete, but in all honesty, look what its done to her. She should have plenty of LPGA victories by now, but she wasted too much time and effort trying to compete with men and it pretty much stuffed her up. She was just a girl for gods sake. Yani is different. She has grown and matured as a golfer and a person. I'd like to see her have a shot at it.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by jshots

Maybe she does really well and then she would get a lot of attention.

Why would this be a good thing? Is it the job of the PGA Tour to heighten her profile? What does the PGA Tour have to gain from this?

Not to mention that she wouldn't do well because she'd be giving up 50 yards off the tee.

It would be a pointless, embarrassing situation for all concerned. Who needs it?

Scenario #1:  WORLD'S TOP FEMALE MAKES CUT IN PGA TOUR EVENT

Scenario #2: WORLD'S TOP FEMALE GOLFER MISSES CUT IN PGATOUR EVENT.

B   O   R   I   N   G

[ghalfaire]

I think Yani should play if she can get an exemption.  I am sure she would benefit from this in learning where her game is weak compared to the males.  It would be interesting to see how she does, but I would expect that she wouldn't make the cut.  However I don't see any benefit to the PGA because Yani doesn't have near as much of a following as Annika had.

[mdl]

I have no opinion on whether it would be good or bad for the PGA or the LPGA, or Yani herself, if she got an exemption or two and played a couple PGA events.

But I know that personally I would watch that tourney and be rooting for her.  A driving average of 267 is short and if she plays an event with one of those PGA style 500+ yard par 4s then she'd need to hope to roll a 3W up on the green to get GIR, but that would be part of the fun.  She's a spectacular player and if she could find an event at a course that was was set up shorter than average for PGA events I wouldn't bet against her being able to at least make the cut.

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by ghalfaire

I think Yani should play if she can get an exemption.  I am sure she would benefit from this in learning where her game is weak compared to the males.  It would be interesting to see how she does, but I would expect that she wouldn't make the cut.  However I don't see any benefit to the PGA because Yani doesn't have near as much of a following as Annika had.

You have swallowed the PR hook line and sinker.

Yani doesn't need to "learn" anything from the men, and if she did, she wouldn't need to be in a PGA Tour event to do so.

This was a word which was carefully chosen and used so that people didn't start criticising her, thinking that she though she might win, like that airhead Michelle Wie.

She and her management have simply learnt from others' mistakes.

[B-Con]

There've been a couple of women who tried their hand at the PGA TOUR before, but IIRC, none of them were the "world #1" at the time. I think that the LPGA TOUR actually has the most to lose. If she tries and does poorly (say, misses all cuts), I think it'll look kind of bad for the women. Obviously, on average, they can't compete with the male professionals, hence their own tour, but if their #1 walks out of the PGA TOUR not even making the cut then it kind of sends the message that "your best are on par with our worst". Like the LPGA TOUR doesn't have enough trouble generating an audience, the last thing they need is to broadcast how badly they compare to the TOUR. If she tries and does half-decently, eg makes a cut here and there finishing T50 or something, that sends the message that the world's best LPGA player can hang with the middle of the PGA class. It says, "your best can play with us, but aren't noteworthy". It might embarrass some of the players she does beat, but I think it's commonly accepted that the best women in the world can sometimes beat the contending males of the world, so it's nothing really new there. All she accomplishes is not looking bad. This situation is probably the most likely, least embarrassing for anyone, and the most boring. She doesn't stand a chance at a top-10, and a top-30 is (IMO) highly unlikely, so that case isn't really worth considering. If she wants to learn from the men, she needs to learn from the coaches that the PGA TOUR players use. Study how they're taught putting (as an example, since the men are usually taught more emphasis on that). I'm not sure how playing beside random players at TOUR events is going to help with that. She can watch them on TV. Almost makes me wonder if it actually has anything to do with "learning", because it doesn't seem to make sense. I think it's a personal achievement thing.