Professional golf has found a way to generate some more fan interest. This weekend, at the Colonial tournament in Texas, champion women’s player Annika Sorenstam will tee off.
She will not be the first woman to play in a PGA tour event. Babe Didrickson Zaharias did that a long time ago when she qualified for the Los Angeles Open in 1945.
But she is facing some of the same attitude The Babe did. Some things never change.
Vijay Singh, the seventh rated player in the world, has been the most vocal complainer. In an Associate Press story this past week, Singh was quoted as saying that Sorenstam doesn’t belong in a PGA event. He said he feels that there is the Women’s Tour, the LPGA, and the Men’s Tour, PGA.
And never the twain shall meet.
Scott Hock played with Sorenstam in a mixed team event a few years ago, was more gentlemanly. He said he hopes she plays well but still expects her to not finish very high among the men. Along with many other players, he said he also hopes she plays well just as a representative of the LPGA Tour.
Singh agrees that Sorenstam is the best female golfer in the world, but does not belong in a men’s event.
Columnist Mark Kreidler, writing for espn.com, said this week that Singh is making much ado about nothing. He claims that the 32 year old Swede is just trying to satisfy her curiosity. To see how good she really is.
Sorenstam has pretty much walked away from the rest of the field in women’s events. Kreidler says she is just looking for a challenge.
He notes that she has picked a good place to find that challenge. The Colonial course features short narrow fairways. That is the best place for Sorenstam, who drives relatively short, but is accurate on the fairway.
He also points out, and on this I agree, that Singh seems an unlikely person to be claiming exclusivity for a community to which he belongs.
Back a few decades, it could have been Singh, a dark skinned, native of Fiji whose ancestors came from India, who was being shunned by members of the club.
You’ve got to hand it to Sorenstam; she is taking a big risk. At the pinnacle of her sport, women’s golf, she is making a leap to another peak. She has been playing from the back tees to prepare for the Colonial event.
She could play well for a woman golfer and still not show up high on the final scoreboard. She also could succumb to the expected jeers, snide remarks and general impoliteness that seems to go along with a situation like this.
The pressure could put her off of her own game, ruin the concentration she needs, and cause her to blow it big time. Thus she would have failed to well-represent her gender and would have failed to make the best of the challenge she sought.