Ladies doing it for themselves
The topic this week is whether sponsors should be allowed to invite lady golfers to compete in their tournaments. Norman claims it is being done as a "gimmick", Els says it's "a publicity stunt", Montgomerie wants to know "where it's all going to end."
Harrington, on the other hand, insists: "it's good for the game". And now the fun starts all over again this week with the participation of the one-time great English player Laura Davies in the ANZ tournament in Australia.
The trend began last year with Annika Sorenstam's appearance in the Colonial tournament on the US Tour. It aroused huge media which continued in Hawaii last month when 14 year-old Michelle Wie came within a shot of making the cut in the Sony Open. Once again, TV and newspapers flocked to report the action. In each case, nobody was happier than the respective sponsors, Bank of America and Sony.
Noting all this with considerable interest were the people behind the ANZ Championship which starts at the Horizons Golf Resort, Port Stephens on Thursday.
If you go down the same road as Norman and Els, ANZ were simply jumping on the band wagon in issuing Laura Davies with an invitation to take part. Laura is well-known to love a challenge and a flutter so she had no hesitation in replying in the affirmative.
Enter Ernie and Greg to shout stop and for Padraig to say, good on you! "I don't think it should happen and it should stop", moaned Norman. "We can't go and play their tour because we weren't born female. Anyway, if the girls think they can play against the guys and fail every time that can't be very positive for the women's tour."
Els declared: "I don't think it is the natural thing to do. Guys are going to start complaining and there are quite a few who oppose it."
Not Padraig Harrington who has little sympathy for those who scrape into the men's tournaments every week in the last few places.
"Ladies like Annika and Laura have done more for golf than the 156th guy and if he has a problem with that, he should go out and play better", Harrington observed. Colin Montgomerie's question about where it would all end sounded like a typical sulk from the Scot. Trouble with his stance is that it could actually end with a small but significant number of women earning their place on a regular basis in men's events.
As Harrington noted: "physique is a requirement but not the only requirement" and the cynics might even say that Laura Davies has no problems in that respect! Fact is that the top women are playing better and better golf, auspiciously led by the brilliant Annika Sorenstam. US LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw has steered clear of the controversy but you can't overlook his words and his description of how well the ladies tour is doing.
"2003 was an incredible season, there were so many highlights, it's impossible to rank them", he claimed.
"Annika featured in most of them. Her continued dominance is having such a positive effect because she is increasing everyone else's desire to improve. The standard has been getting better all the time."
Sorenstam's season was crowned in October when she was inducted into the World Hall of Fame. Her appearance in the Colonial topped the lot, even if she missed the cut by four strokes. Says Votaw: "That was a hugely significant week. Never before has a television audience been able to watch every shot of a player's round but USA Network showed every one of Annika's on the Thursday. The exposure we received that week was phenomenal."
A comment which appears to prove Harrington's argument that "it's good for the game."
Votaw went on: "One of the greatest things was how she responded to the pressure and how the gallery embraced her." Sorenstam and Wie (who played on the Canadian and Nationwide Tours as a 13 year-old in '03), Laura Davies in the Korean Open, Se Ri Pak in the SBS Super in her native South Korea, Jan Stephenson in the Champions Tour were other females to tee it up alongside the men last year. They met with varying fortunes. Pak, a three-time winner in the States in '03, shot rounds of 72 and 74 to become the first woman since the legendary Babe Zaharias in 1945 to make the cut at a men's event. She followed up with scores of 69 and 71 over the 7,052 yards Lake Side Country Club in Yongin to tie for 10th, eleven behind the winner.
Ty Votaw believes all this meant "visits to the LPGA website jumped by 250,000 a month to 450,000 while TV audiences increased by 13% and attendances at the 31 tournaments by 15%".
There's no doubt that women's golf is on the move with Sorenstam, Pak, Davies and the other current stars already coming under pressure from a whole host of teenagers led by the remarkable Wie, Jane Park and Aree Song.
We in Ireland still can't produce a lady professional of note but Europe as a whole is blessed with strength in depth as their runaway victory in the Solheim Cup demonstrated.
Even the losing US captain, Patty Sheehan, admitted that "it was the best golf I've ever seen in the Solheim Cup", while commissioner Votaw added: "We had 90,000 spectators watching some of the best play you'll ever see. It was a wonderful week, certainly one of the high points of the year."
Not for the first time, is Padraig Harrington among the men talking the most sense. Given a choice of the 156th man or a lady of the quality of Annika Sorenstam or Laura Davies in this year's Nissan Irish Open, which would you take? No answer required!
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