Hi everyone, Having just watched a very entertaining (ultimately disappointing as Europe lost) Solheim Cup this weekend it was very interesting to see some of the newspaper stories that came out almost immediately. Before getting into it, I would like to add how good I thought the coverage was, especially seeing their ball speeds and distances as they had pro-tracer on Sky. Let me give you some reference – when I’m hitting my driver really well my ball speed is around 150mph. Some of the girls were slower than that and a couple quite considerably, but imagine my horror, as a professional myself, when I saw a few of them comfortably topping 160mph. On the final day, one of the young American girls flew the corner on hole 18 with a carry of over 270 yards. I can assure you I can’t even sniff that! 270 total maybe but it will have pitched 25 yards further back. So to my mind this made things even more interesting as the distances they were hitting the ball were actually more realistic and more in line with how some of us play the game. Having said that the standard at times was quite phenomenal with birdies flying in everywhere and it underlined how good these girls are.
This leads me on to some of the stories. Now, some of what I’m about to say may be viewed as controversial and I make no apology – they are my views based, I believe, on common sense. I will also throw in the other side of the argument as you will see: One of the stories, somewhat predictably, focused on inequality of pay between the men’s and ladies game. Our wonderful ‘left-wing world’ that we now live in seems to be totally pre-occupied with boosting minorities and one of their favourites at the moment (the BBC especially) is women’s sport. Let’s be clear – I have no real problem with this and certainly more exposure will definitely help all women’s sports. However, the subject of pay is a very interesting one.
Tennis is the one sport that has led the way in this as Wimbledon has for some years now had equal pay for the ladies and men. To argue this I think we need to examine, quickly, how sportspeople get paid and why. A little while ago I talked about how golfers and other sportspeople are actually entertainers and need to understand this fact. Well that argument has relevance here. Actually at no time is any tournament pro, in my opinion, being ‘paid’ in the way people with ‘jobs’ do. Winning money in a tournament should not be looked at in the same way, so I want to get away from the word ‘pay’ in the first place. We turn up to play tournaments because there is money to be won. How much money depends on money being put in by competitors in the bottom end of the game, and by sponsors who are looking for exposure at the top end. The ladies golf tours by the nature of the game cannot run alongside the men’s as in tennis, so they have to attract their own prize-funds. I have often argued how interesting it would be to separate the men’s and ladies Wimbledon Championships and have them on different weeks. Which one would attract more sponsorship? I’ll let you answer that question but it underlines the issue.
I actually believe that, because of the equal amount of exposure, the Wimbledon Championships would not be so far apart and this in some way answers the question about pay in golf and other sports. If sponsors can see a chance for great exposure they will come. This week’s Solheim Cup was very entertaining and the coverage by Sky was superb. The amount of money up for grabs will naturally increase in future as a result of this and therefore more ladies will see the game as something they want to do, more will practise harder and so the game gets better and better, just the way that the men’s game has gone. The key is exposure which is why I cannot disagree with more ladies sports being given airtime. That sets a level playing field and if it is interesting and of a high enough quality, then more people will want to watch and the rest follows naturally. To simply demand equal pay is ridiculous and somewhat unfair in my opinion. In a normal job if a woman is doing the same job as a man then she should be paid the same but if you are an entertainer then it is about how much wealth you are creating by being entertaining – if you entertain then the money will increase.
To top everything off it seems the LPGA have decided to have a clampdown on the clothing that many lady tour pros are wearing. Shorts are to be of an appropriate length with basically no bum cheeks showing and I believe there was a mention of cleavage. This is, unfortunately, a case of the old school still running things. No one is suggesting that girls should be allowed to wear very revealing clothing or for the game to become totally about glamour. However, young girls want to dress in modern fashions and some of them are quite risqué compared to older fashions. Anything that encourages young girls to play is a good thing and I cannot see how being backwards where clothing is concerned is going to help. On this note I would like to point out that on the first day of the Solheim Cup Charley Hull was wearing what I can only describe as ‘sprayed on’ shorts. They were knee length so they would not infringe the new rules at all but to say they left little to the imagination is an understatement. If she were my daughter I’d have been more upset about that than if they were a bit short but actually less revealing. Think on ladies golf – you have it all in your hands at the moment as 45,000+ on every day of the Solheim Cup showed. Don’t blow it!
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