It’s a good thing that the LPGA moved the first major of the year so there is no conflict with the Augusta National Women’s Amateur or The Masters. Most people over a certain age will remember the first major as the Dinah Shore or the Colgate Dinah Shore, then it became the ANA Inspiration (which was held in Palm Springs) but with the new sponsor came a new venue in Texas at The Club at Carlton Woods, the Woodlands, Houston.
Last year was the first year at the new location and Lilian Vu won in a playoff against Angel Yin. I don’t think Vu is likely to play well enough to defend her title because she has been dealing with back issues. Perhaps if Angel plays well she may have a chance but my money is on the LPGA’s number one player.
Yes, just as I picked the number one player in the world on the men’s side to win The Masters, I am picking the number one female player in the world, Nelly Korda to win the Chevron Championshiop. Korda, like Scheffler, has won multiple times on tour this season.
In fact, if she wins the Chevron that will be five (5) consecutive wins this season. The last player to win five in a row in the same season was Nancy Lopez back in 1975 in her rookie year. The only other LPGA player to win 5 consecutive tournaments is Annika Sorenstam but she did it in two seasons (end of one season and beginning of another season).
The other players I’ll be watching are:
(1) Lydia Ko – if she wins that will give her the final point she needs to be eligible for the LPGA Hall of Fame. The most difficult Hall of Fame to get eligibility for based on a point system.
(2) Brooke Henderson – I always cheer for the Canadian star to win.
(3) Rose Zhang – came on tour out of Standford with a bang by winning her first professional tournament but hasn’t done much this season so maybe the first major will be the spark to get the 2nd win.
How to Watch the Chevron Championship
The Golf Channel will show the championship early (10 am – 2 pm and late 6 pm to 8 pm) on Thursday and Friday. And the weekend telecast will be on NBC from Noon to 6 pm.
Both Peacock and ESPN+ will offer steaming of the championship so if you have subscriptions there is an opportunity to see more of the event live.
Below are the dates, times, and options:
Thursday, April 18: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; 6-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel/Peacock) Friday, April 19: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; 6-8 p.m. ET (Golf Channel/Peacock) Saturday, April 20: 2-3 p.m. ET (Peacock); 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock) Sunday, April 21: 2-3 p.m. ET (Peacock); 3-6 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock)
This weekend I watched the inaugural event of the Grant Thornton Invitational which was a joint PGA Tour and LPGA Tour event with 16 teams. I really enjoyed the format of the event and seeing the camaraderie within and among the teams. Not to mention the fact that there was some great golf played.
The format was three days of golf. Day one was a scramble, day two were foursomes (alternate shot), and the final day was a modified four-ball where both players tee off, and then they switch balls for their second shots and play that same ball until it is holed. The lower score of the partners is then counted as the team score for the hole.
There were low scores and great shots. After day one the team of Nelly Korda and Tony Finau were leading, day two Lydia Ko and Jason Day shot 66 to take the lead and although other teams came on strong Lydia Ko made a clutch birdie putt on the 18th hole to win the event for team Ko/Day with a 26 under par.
The Canadian team of Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners finished second moving up the leader board by shooting an impressive 9 under, 63 total. And the Swedish team of Madelene Sagström and Ludvig Åberg shot 12 under to move up six places to finish third.
There were teams that every golf fan could get excited about whether it was because they were representing a fan’s country or whether it was a team with two of the most popular pros on each tour; and they did not disappoint. For example, the team of Lexi Thompson and Rickie Fowler gave the crowd a fun moment at the Par 3, 16th when Lexi made a hole-in-one.
I used to watch a ton of golf on TV but this year I just got turned off by the PGA tour/LIV news and really spend more time watching the LPGA, the Majors, Amateur golf (including college golf); and as I mentioned in a previous post YouTube golfers. I really don’t miss watching the weekly PGA tour events.
This mixed tour event is exactly what professional golf needs and I hope that the Grant Thornton Invitational continues for many years. For me, next year, it will be a must watch golf event.
We have the pandemic to thank for the Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup being contested in the same year and back-to-back. If you love team competition and golf then this fall is your time to enjoy hours and hours of match play from across the pond.
Dates for each Cup: The official days of competition run Friday through Sunday.
Solheim Cup Competition days: Friday, September 22 – Saturday, September 23 – Sunday, September 24. Golf Channel coverage is from 2 am to 1 pm on Friday and Saturday and 5 am to 11 am on Sunday.
Ryder Cup Competition days: Friday, September 29 – Saturday, September 30 – Sunday, Oct 1. The Ryder Cup gets more TV coverage (including the Junior Ryder Cup and opening ceremony on Thursday). You can find all the times on How to Watch the Ryder Cup on the website.
I assume you will also be able to see replays on YouTube.
Note: When the 2020 Ryder Cup was moved to 2021 (due to Covid), it meant that the Ryder Cup would now be played on “odd” years and therefore be the same year as the Solheim Cup. The LPGA and LET decided to move from their traditional odd years to even so that do not have to “complete” every year with the Ryder Cup. They could not move the 2023 event so their only solution was to not wait 2 years to wait for the next Solheim Cup so there will be a 2024 Solheim cup, in the USA.
My thought was that it would be amazing if the men’s and women’s tours could work together to have one big “match play week” where they combine the events and also add some mixed match events into the event.
If you are interested in a bit of insight, read the overviews below.
SOLHEIM CUP OVERVIEW
The Solheim cup is much “younger” than the Ryder Cup since the first competition was in 1990. The record stands with the USA 10 wins and Europe 7 wins. Team Europe has won the last two cups.
The Solheim Cup is being contested in Andalucia, Spain at Finca Cortesin. The European Captain is Suzanne Petterson and the USA Captain is Stacy Lewis. Details can be found on the Solheim Cup website but let’s look at the players.
Team USA players: I would say that there were no really big surprises in the captain picks from Lewis. Rose Zhang is the new star on the LPGA (winning her first professional tournament her first week on the LPGA) and as a recent college graduate she has played a lot of match play. The other captain picks were all next in qualifying points.
The players earned points starting at the Portland Classic in 2021. The USA has the recent number one ranked player, Lilia Vu and the US Open Champion in Allisen Curpuz. Rose Zang is the new star on the LPGA and has a steller match play record from college. Watching the LPGA tournaments the last few weeks it appears most players are coming into Solheim in great form. For example, Megan Kang just won her first tournament on tour (the Canadian Open). The two players that are struggling are Jennifer Kupcho and Lexi Thompson. In fact, Lexi Thompson has had seven missed cuts in her last 9 tournaments and her best showing was a T31 at the Founders Cup in May. She is on the team because of all the Solheim cup points she accumulated in 2021. But both Kupcho and Thompson love match play and so hopefully they will rise to the occasion.
Lilia (automatic qualifier)
Nelly Korda (automatic qualifier)
Allisen Corpuz (automatic qualifier)
Megan Kang (automatic qualifier)
Jennifer Kupcho (automatic qualifier)
Danielle Kang (automatic qualifier)
Lexi Thompson (automatic qualifier)
Andrea Lee (automatic qualifier)
Rose Zhang (captain’s pick)
Alley Ewing (captain’s pick)
Angel Yin (captain’s pick)
Cheyenne Knight (captain’s pick)
Team Europe players: Suzanne Petersen has stated this is the best European team ever and that’s a big statement given the Europeans have won the last two Solheim Cups. Only time will tell if it is the best team “ever” but she does have a stellar list of players. Celine Boutier (#4 in the world who won back-to-back at Evian Championship and the Scottish Open), Charley Hull with an 11-5-3 Solheim Cup Record and Leona McGuire with a 4-0-1 record from 2021. It is interesting that there are five swedes on her team and three of them were captains picks. The big surprise was Carolina Hedwall because she’s not highly ranked but she is a fierce competitor and did well in past Solheim cups.
Celine Boutier (automatic qualifier)
Marja Stark (automatic qualifier)
Charlie Hull (automatic qualifier)
Leona McGuire (automatic qualifier)
Georgia Hall (automatic qualifier)
Linn Grant (automatic qualifier)
Carlota Ciganda (automatic qualifier)
Anna Nordquist (automatic qualifier)
Madelene Sagstrom (captain’s pick)
Gemma Dryburgh (captain’s pick)
Emily Pedersen (captain’s pick)
Carolina Hedwall (captain’s pick)
Morning Foursomes
The Morning Foursomes for Friday were announced today (Thursday) at the opening ceremony. I am a bit surprised to see Lexi going out first; and Rose Zhang, Lilia Vu are not playing. I’m not sure what Stacey Lewis is thinking. Let’s hope she sees something in the player stats that made these morning pairings make sense. On the European side, Suzanne Petterson has stacked her foursomes with Lin Grant, Celine Boutier, Leona Maguire, and Charley Hull.
RYDER CUP OVERVIEW
The Ryder Cup was first played in 1927 and the record stands as USA 27 wins and Europe 14 wins. If you love golf history you can read about every Ryder Cup on the Ryder Cup Website.
The Ryder Cup is being contested in Rome, Italy at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club. The European Captain is Luke Donald and the USA Captain is Zach Johnson. Details can be found on the Ryder Cup Website but, as we did with the Solheim Cup, let’s look at the players.
Team USA Players: If you are a golf fan you know the most controversial pick was Justin Thompas (JT). He has played well below his normal standards this year but was picked because of his stellar match play record. Hopefully, JT plays well but I can’t imagine the pressure he must feel given so many feel he did not deserve to be on this team.
Scottie Scheffler (automatic qualifier)
Max Homa (automatic qualifier)
Brian Harman (automatic qualifier)
Patrick Cantlay (automatic qualifier)
Wyndham Clark (automatic qualifier)
Xander Schauffele (automatic qualifier)
Brooks Keopka (captains pick)
Sam Shepard (captain’s pick)
Rickie Fowler (captain’s pick)
Collin Morikawa (captain’s pick)
Jordan Spieth (captain’s pick)
Justin Thomas (captain’s pick)
Team Europe Players: The European team is solid and they have a few players that are coming into this Ryder Cup is exceptional form. There is Viktor Hovland who won the FedEx Cup and Ludvig Aberg who, like Rose Zhang, was a college star that came on tour and won quickly. I think the United States will face a very tough European team.
Viktor Hovland (automatic qualifier)
Rory McIIroy (automatic qualifier)
Jon Rahm (automatic qualifier)
Matt Fitzpatrick (automatic qualifier)
Tyrrell Hatton (automatic qualifier)
Robert MacIntyre (automatic qualifier)
Ludvig Aberg (captain’s pick)
Tommy Fleetwood (captain’s pick)
Nicolai Højgaard (captain’s pick)
Shane Lowry (captain’s pick)
Justin Rose (captain’s pick)
Sepp Straka (captain’s pick)
So grab your cup of morning coffee (or tea, in my case) and sit back and enjoy the golf. Hopefully the matches will be great battles and make each cup exciting and closely contested.
After the completion of the NCAA D1 Championships, two notable amateur golfers turned professional. Rose Zhang the #1 female amateur golfer in the world and Sam Bennett the #5 ranked male golfer in the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
Rose Zhang
You cannot call yourself a golf fan if you do not know about Rose Zhang. She won the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, she has been ranked the #1 female golfer in the world for a record 141 weeks, she has won the D1 Individual NCAA Championship title back-to-back (2022 and 2023). Other notable wins in her amateur career include the U.S. Girls Junior (2021) and the U.S. Women’s Amateur (2020). Her other amateur accomplishments are too long to list.
She had all eyes on her at the LPGA’s Mizuho American Open (at Liberty National in New Jersey where the President’s Cup was held in 2017). How did she do? She WON!!!
It’s incredible that Rose Zhang won her 1st LPGA professional event. Her scores were:
Round One: Tied 12th at 2-under par
Round Two: Tied 4th at 5-under par
Round Three: Leader at 11-under par
Round Four: Tied 1st at 9-under. Won in playoff.
It was an exciting ending for fans (probably very stressful for Zhang) because she was in a playoff against Jennifer Kupcho. Zhang won on the 2nd playoff hole.
It really is remarkable what she has accomplished. The last player to win in her debut on the LPGA was in 1951.
Sam Bennett
Although Sam Bennett was not the #1 amateur in the world; he became an amateur darling with his stellar performance at the 2023 Masters taking home the low amateur honors but more impressive was his T16 (2-under) finish. Of course, he was invited to the Masters as the reigning U.S. Amateur.
Bennett made his professional debut at the Memorial Tournament (notable for being hosted by Jack Nicklaus at his course at Muirfield Village in Ohio). So how did Bennett fare:
Round One: 1-under
Round Two: Even
Round Three: Even
Round Four: Tied 63rd, +12 (an 84 on the last day was not a great finish)
Final Thoughts
Sam Bennett had a very respectable showing for his first PGA Tour event. Just making the cut in your debut on tour would be considered a major accomplishment.
As for Rose Zhang – she has once again shown the golf world what a special golfer she truly is by winning her first professional tournament. Keep an eye on her at the U.S. Women’s Open because she holds the course record (63) at Pebble Beach. And even better is that she is now eligible for The Solheim Cup this fall. I would bet my house on Zhang being a captain’s pick by Stacey Lewis.
There were a lot of great stories to follow this week in golf. The stories included which bubble boys of the PGA tour would make the top 125, Charlie Beljan being so ill on Friday that he had to go the hospital after his round and then he wins the tournament on Sunday, and Stacy Lewis clinching LPGA Player of the Year; but I want to acknowledge Cristie Kerr’s win at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
First, I followed the action on Twitter and my Golf Channel iPhone App because the tournament was not televised. Hopefully the LPGA and the Golf Channel were monitoring the twitter conversation because I was not the only fan that lamented the fact it was not on TV. It should be noted that the tournament page on the LPGA website lists TV times on November 15, 16, 17 and 18 but in my mind that is “a day late and a dollar short.”
Fortunately, the LPGA YouTube channel has highlight videos. It was interesting to see that Angela Standford missed her birdie putt on the 18th hole which would have tied Kerr at sixteen under. Then Kerr misses her birdie putt on the 18th and has a testy par putt to win. Even Kerr said that she “had to make it interesting” in the end. If you don’t want to watch the full video below, fast forward to the time of 1:53 to see Stanford’s putt and Kerr’s highlights and interview.
It was nice to see Cristie Kerr win. She is 35 years old and this was her 15th career win and she has 17 of the 27 points needed to get into the Hall of Fame. It’s a big challenge to become a Hall of Fame Golfer but I believe Kerr has the determination and game to make it into the Hall of Fame. However, as Brent Kelly wrote in his article, “The LPGA’s Hall of Fame Criteria are Anything but Easy,” the LPGA’s point system is “much more stringent than those of just about any other sports Hall of Fame you can name.”
Finally, some people may not be as positive about Kerr winning or wish her the best because the rumors on the internet indicate she has a prickly personality. I do not know Kerr so I’m not going to judge her interpersonal skills. This is about acknowledging an athlete overcoming a two-year drought and winning again in a very competitive sport.
Another US Women’s Open has come to a close and most bloggers will be writing about the winner, Na Yeon Choi but I’m going to highlight a player that did not even make the cut — American golfer, Tiffany Joh. Why? Because, whether it is intentional or not — she is in the process of building a unique personal brand.
This year Joh is struggling a bit with her game and is 115 in the Rolex World Rankings. However, Joh is a solid player and shows promise. Joh won twice on the LPGA’s Future tour. As a member of the LPGA 2011 Rookie Class, Joh had an excellent year with $237,365 in earnings and ranked eighty-seven (87) on the Rolex Women’s World Golf rankings list. Joh also had a top 10 finish in 2012. She was second at the Navistar Classic. Unfortunately for Joh, it was the tournament Lexi Thompson (Golf’s newly anointed “phenom”) made history as the youngest winner (at age 16) on the LPGA.
So what makes Joh unique? The PGA may have the Golf Boys but the LPGA has Tiffany Joh. She loves music and has become known for her music videos. This week, the week of the 2012 US Women’s Open, she posted her most recent video on her YouTube channel (Just Your Morning Cup of Joh.) The video is All I Do is Win (LPGA Remix). A parody of the song, “All I Do is Win” by Ludacris.
Joh has had a YouTube channel since 2008 but she really got noticed for her LPGA video last year “Grip It” (a parody of Freak Nasty’s 1996 hit song “Da’ Dip”). It’s amazing how she get’s her fellow LPGA players to be silly on video.
Not only is she clever and creative with music videos but she has a great channel title “Just your morning cup of Joh” and user name “CupofJoh” and has a cartoon-like drawing (self-portrait – I’m guessing) and uses it as her YouTube channel and Twitter background. All creating a unique personal brand.
The one thing that surprised me is that her website does not carry this branding. However, if you visit the website, Joh’s humor and attitude come through loud and clear with just a single page stating “You are a Nerd…Websites are for Nerds.” Is she ahead of the curve or just representative of her generation who live on social media? I believe it is the later. After all, the websites of the big golf stars are supported by big sponsor money. So Joh’s site may get an upgrade if she lands a major sponsor.
It’s not just that Joh is using social media but she is savvy too — do you think the timing of the recent video was a fluke? No way. The US Women’s open gets more press than any other women’s golf event and Joh’s video was all over twitter (at least the people who tweet about golf).
As I mentioned earlier, Joh did not make the cut at the US Women’s Open but her sense of humor never fails. Here is a screen shot of her tweet from the airport the next day:
If you are old school and think golfers should only get noticed for their golf achievements than Tiffany Joh’s style may not be your “cup of tea” (or joh); but I respect the fact that she has developed a personal brand that sets herself apart from all the other young female golfers on tour.
I have been following a number of the LPGA players on twitter and it is really amazing how much information they share about their personal lives. Yes, they do promote events they are attending and products they use (or should I say endorse) but overall the tweets are not commercial. In fact, many of the ladies are quite funny.
The best tweets involve photos, food and/or drink, insider jokes, and conversations between players. Below are some examples. If you are not familiar with Twitter, I’ll do my best to explain. One thing to keep in mind is that anytime you see a twitter handle (like @ChristinaKim) just replace it with a name. Here we go….
Here is a tweet from Christina Kim that represents it all (Photo, Food, Humor – self-deprecation). Kim replied to a tweet from Nicole Hage. Hage tweeted a photo showing her recent baking efforts. Hage says “all done” (and includes a photo) and Kim replies ” You bake, and look like you….”
Now, Kim has been tweeting a lot about her workouts at the gym (which adds to this already funny tweet.) If you don’t know this…in the tweet above, there is a photo, Kim is the women in the front (that’s Michelle Wei behind her and the photo is from the Solheim Cup).
Here is a Photo of Nicole Hage. I had to add the photo because Kim said “you bake, and look like you” (so I know my readers would ask, so what does Nicole Hage look like).
Now, many of you who read my blog know I have written about slow play and how it is bad for the game. So here is a funny tweet between two players about the time it took to play a Pro-Am tournament.
As you can see, Kim’s reply comes after Pettersens’ text..5:50, Stop exaggerating. Ugh! The joke is self-evident. Hopefully, now you get how to read the tweets.
Below is a “tweet conversation” that I loved because the players are exchanging a bit of “teasing” before a match. Sophie Gustafson and Karen Stupples were scheduled to go head-to-head in match play (this was tweeted the night before the match).
And, Gustafson attached photo of her foot…to which, Karen later tweeted..love the golf tan.
Here is a great tweet from Karen Stupples regarding a rain delay.
I guess as a traveling golfer you see it all. Here is a photo tweeted from Rachel Connor.
And how about this tweet from Sophie Gustafson at an airport terminal. I can’t attach the video but here is a still of the object on the luggage carousel (yup, it’s a Heinken)
There are so many more good tweets I could show but this post would just get too long. I want to end with two that are not really “funny” like the ones about; but show the great support these players give each other (as friends) on tour.
This week, at the ShopRite tournament, the LPGA will promote the use of twitter by adding player’s twitter handles to name tags that go on the back of the caddie’s bib. Now, as a fan, I already follow my favorites. So the bibs are interesting but I’m not sure it will get me to follow more. As a marketing professional, I say “good for the LPGA for trying something new;” and I will be interested to see if it impacts individual player’s (i.e. will they get more followers.) I plan to do my own research and see if I see any spikes in followers for the players. By the way, the LPGA did tweet about the new name tags.
Finally, are you wondering which LPGA player has the most followers? Well, it is Natalie Gulbis with 115,855 followers (as of May 28 at 2:38 pm). This doesn’t surprise me given I wrote a blog post titled “Natalie Gulbis – This golfer is a savvy Marketer.”
The most amazing thing about watching the Kraft Nabisco TV coverage on Sunday was the sound — the sound of the spectators gasping in unison as they watched, what everyone thought was a “gimme” putt lip-out of the cup. The sound of disbelief that the leader, I. K. Kim missed a one-foot putt.
Instead of winning her first major in regulation, Kim was now in a sudden-death playoff. The players would play the 18th hole over and over again until someone won. Well, it only took one playoff hole and it was heartbreaking to see how Kim looked so defeated. As much as I’m sure everyone was hoping she would win in the playoff, it was not surprising to see Sun Young Yoo make a birdie putt and win.
Once again, we witnessed how golf tests the mental toughness of players. First, the loss of concentration to miss a “gimme” putt. It is called a “gimme” putt because it is so close to the hole that if you were playing for fun (not scoring for a handicap or anything meaningful), your friends would say “that’s a gimme” assuming you would make the putt. So, you’d pick up your ball and move on. But there are no “gimme” putts in majors.
Then, after such a monumental error, the player must have the mental fortitude to get prepared for the playoff. You could tell from I. K. Kim’s body language that she was still in shock from what just happened a few minutes earlier. Her first shot off the tee when left into the rough. That is when I knew that mentally she was done and it would not be a multiple hole playoff.
Hopefully, Kim will move on and learn from this experience. We have seen other players “shake it off” after a devastating loss. I wrote a post about Kyle Stanley’s amazing comeback after losing at the Farmers Insurance Open and winning the next week at the Waste Management Open.
I’ll be watching now to see if I. K. Kim can over come her “big miss.” Her next opportunity to win will be mid-April at the Lotte Championship when the LPGA goes to Hawaii.
A final note on human nature — the sad thing is that most people will not remember Yoo’s win; but they will remember Kim’s loss.
The Bleacher Report is “the US’s 4th largest sports media site with 25+ million monthly readers,” and they reported that the release of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit photo of Natalie Gulbis was timed perfectly for a charity that is auctioning a chance to caddy for Gulbis in an upcoming LPGA event.
So I went to the site for the charity and to my surprise it is not some big foundation but an Episcopal School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not only do they have Natalie Gulbis but they also have the chance to be a caddy for David Love III as an auction item. You can bid on them or “pay now” for one of them for $8,000.
What a windfall from a PR perspective for the Charity. Now, you might think it makes sense that Davis Love is listed because he lives in Charlotte and went to the University of North Carolina (in Charlotte) but how did they get Gulbis? She did not go to school in North Carolina and she lives in Arizona. I was hoping it was just plain luck on the part of the charity but my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted see if I could find the connection.
Well according to another article I found at Golf Channel, “A parent who works in sports marketing for consulting firm McGladrey helped secure the caddy spots.” And, surprise, surprise, both golfers are clients of McGladrey. Also according to the Golf Channel Article, the head of the school said they did not know that the SI swimsuit edition was coming out. Really? The parent who works for McGladrey surely knew when their client’s swimsuit press would be released.
Whether or not the school was aware of the PR windfall they were about to get this week is probably not that important; but it is clearly not as big a “coincidence” as the original article in the Bleacher Report implied. That makes me a little bit sad because it would have been fun if it were just luck. Wouldn’t it have been great if Gulbis was just a person supporting a charity she liked (i.e. no sports marketing connections). Maybe that makes me a bit of an idealist but it would have been a better “story.”
I guess the only other outstanding question is will someone pay $8,000 to spend 4 or 5 hours to caddy for Gulbis? We will most likely find out after February 25 (the night of the charity event) — I’m sure the folks at McGladrey are already working on the press release.
As a professional golfer, Natalie Gulbis has only one win (in 2007) since her rookie year on tour in 2002. Her current world ranking is 121. If you just look at her golfing statistics you would not assume she was one of the LPGA’s stars; but she is – mostly because of her off-course skills in marketing her personal brand.
This week she is in the news because she is in the 2012 Sport Illustrated Swimsuit edition and she isn’t exactly wearing a swimsuit. She is wearing body paint that looks like she has on a swimsuit. Her photo is very sexy and there is even a video of the photo shoot.
The debate that has come up is whether or not this is good or bad for golf. My question is why is this up for debate? Professional athletes have been posing provocatively for years in magazines and commercials (did people question if David Beckham’s Super Bowl underwear ad was bad for professional soccer?)
Anyone that follows golf knows that Gulbis has always marketed herself as a “sexy” golfer. She did her own swimsuit calendar for years, she posed in FHM (For Men Magazine) which is most known for it’s “sexiest woman in the world” list. She is often referred to as “a golfer, model, and business woman.” She seeks out publicity – she was even on the Celebrity Apprentice (not a high mark in my opinion).
One thing I do find interesting is the LPGA banned her 2005 calendar from being sold in the “souvenir shop” at the 2004 US Women’s Open. Yet, in 2008, she received the William and Mousie Powell award, given by the LPGA, to the player who “in the opinion of her playing peers, through her behavior and deeds best exemplifies the spirit, ideals and values of the LPGA.” For me, what her peers are saying is that Gulbis does a lot of good for the reputation of the tour. Why? I think because she also brings a lot of positive press to the tour via her charity work, her promotion of golf, and the exposure from the number of major bands she represents (i.e. MasterCard, Lexus, Adidas, Taylor Made, Sky Caddie, etc.)
As a woman, do I want women athletes objectified? — Of course not. But the reality is that sports are in the entertainment business and like any field of entertainment, sports needs savvy marketers –like Gulbis — to create awareness of their sport. You can approve or disapprove of her recent choice but you can’t discount her ability to bring awareness to her sport. And since the LPGA needs more fans, they need “personalities” like Gulbis — At least until they have another Annika to promote.
Golf Expectations 