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Increasing LPGA popularity and how to solve problems if any


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So let me start off by saying this is the first time I have started a thread on the LPGA forum, and one of the very few times I have posted here. I find this situation involving the US Open, Lee6, and Haney fascinating and it actually promted me to think more about womens golf, golf in general, and how sucessful and unsuccessful sports organizations are marketed. I also see that the moderators seem to be killing anything related to this topic so I also realize this might be short lived, but I'm interested in hearing from people who follow the LPGA and are fans.

 

1. Haney made some comments that were definitely questionable regarding his status in the golf industry. However I think he attempted to take a satirical every mans type stance and just did a really poor job. If you can successfully set up a comedic alter ego/character you can say whatever you want and get away with it, he did not do that. But personally I don't think his intentions were racist or sexist, I do think they were critical of the LPGA and how they manage their product however.

 

2. The fact that a Korean woman that shares her exact name with 5 others in the field thereby necessitating her to have a number 6 after her name doesn't seem to help the LPGA's image, not to mention the choppy translated interview in the winners circle. The air kind of went out of that Haney balloon quickly and he may actually come out of this better than he was prior.

 

3. So I took a look at my personal feelings regarding women's sports, because honestly, I have almost no interest in many of them, and I asked myself why. I came up with a few reasons but then I chose to focus on the women's sport that I enjoy, and that's womens MMA. I think this is where the UFC has got it right. You have the best women fighters in the world, you tell their story, you allow them to express themselves, their personalities, and even make mistakes in the public eye. Womens fights are on the same card as mens fights.. I have never watched a womens only MMA event, but I rarely miss one on a mixed card. There is no pro woman fighter who could beat a pro male fighter in their weight class, maybe even within a few weight classes. Just like I feel no women's pro golfers could beat a PGA pro without some concessions. Men and women are different, especially physically. So when you watch a pro women's event, you're not watching the best version of that activity, so why is it interesting? With fighting, for me, it's raw, it's pure and uncomplicated and there are very real consequences for those girls. That's one reason why I like to watch the q school stuff, or when the announcers talk about how this guy or that guy is on the cut to keep his card for next year.

 

4. When you look at successful sports entities most if not all of them do a good job of telling a story. Boxing and MMA like the UFC have embedded series getting to know fighters, the ultimate fighter is a good example. Big Break was kind of a watered down less interesting version but I like the premise. I know nothing about this Lee6 and maybe that's my fault, but you hear some things like Wei's injuries or stories regarding Paula Creamers pink equipment for breast cancer etc.. but it seems mostly pretty vanilla and bland and impersonal. And how can it not be impersonal to US fans when many of the star players don't speak english or show much emotion . I contend that things like Tigers public divorce troubles injuries, and drug problems is good for the tour. It shows a real human struggle, a story. I would have loved to see a Tiger rehab special, showing what he went through and how he got back. Similarly I love watching the pre fight training specials before a big title fight, men's and women's.

 

So I ask myself why am I not interested at all in women's golf and what could change that (I'm also not interested in the senior tour at all). When I boil it down I find that when I watch a sporting event what I'm really interested in seeing something I can't do. Skills, strength, endurance I don't have. The best male athletes show me things I can't do all the time when I tune in or watch in person. I don't really feel that way when I watch teh LPGA or Senior tour. I think finding a way to have events where the women and the men play on the same courses in the same general time-frame would be interesting. Understandably the women's scores would not be nearly as good if they get the same set up and distance but right now I don't think we really have a good contrast and comparison of the skill level between the PGA and LPGA. The LPGA courses are shorter, and seem to be set up much easier from what I have seen, and played in the past. What if the womens US open was held at Bethpage 2 weeks before or after the men's US Open? Keep the set up the same but adjust the length proportionally. Is that a crazy idea? I'd like to see how they stack up, but this is something that the LPGA seems to be avoiding, direct comparison.

 

What would you guys change? include? make different? Why do you guys, the fans of the LPGA think it's not more followed and more respected? Do you even think there's a problem? I'm genuinely curious.

 

 

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I totally get where you're coming from and to some extent, yeah, I kind of agree that a viewer has to see something that wow's them.

 

For me, the consistency and the scoring are really impressive. The fact those girls have less power than me and yet shoot way better scores is the thing that does it. I can't shoot 65 so for me what they're doing is mysterious in a way that TW or Rory aren't. They also tend to be very consistent with hybrids and fairways because they have to use every club in the bag. Often times with guys like me (I'm 33) who have a bit of power, we don't really have to hit a lot of long clubs into greens at our local country clubs. So for me, to see someone who has to work their 3-hy or 5w pretty much every round, well, it's kind of impressive. It's different, but it's impressive.

 

But I also just enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of the telecasts. Try watching an LPGA event for a week and then go back to the PGA Tour. The LPGA is so much smoother and more relaxed. The PGA broadcasts try and come off like NASCAR or something. The announcers won't shut-up. The same horrible ads play over and over. The commentators fawn over how heroic all the players are. It's just a huge turn-off.

 

I watch a lot of the more prominent men's stuff: majors, The Players, etc. I sprinkle in LPGA stuff because it's fun.

 

 

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I've also suggested that trying to chase American viewers might be unwise. The average American just doesn't really go for womens' sports and that's okay. I don't know if that's a war the LPGA can ever win so maybe it's better to avoid it altogether and embrace the global nature of the women's game?

 

Many including myself have pointed out that the South Koreans are incredibly well-trained and quite well seasoned competitively when they arrive. They are really upping the quality of play on the tour. So in that way their presence is a win.

 

Meanwhile you have talent from the U.S., all parts of Europe, Canada, Australia, and lots of other Asian countries, too. Right now there is incredible diversity with ladies from all over the world. That's the nature of the tour. This just isn't a sport that the U.S. is going to dominate. But none of that has deterred me from enjoying the sport. I've come to appreciate that aspect of the women's game. Our young girls just aren't that into golf. We're probably not going to get a female Tiger Woods that is just obsessed with beating everybody.

 

If traditional fans aren't into it, who's to say that's bad? I think it's a niche market. Trying to grow it is hard.

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Lol, I can't watch women's fights. Call me old fashioned, but women beating on each other makes my skin crawl. Come to think of it, I don't like men's fights either. Not a pacifist mind you, just don't like it as a sport. But I don't judge, I respect the sport.

 

I don't think there is anything anyone can do to rally people to a sport they are not predisposed to watching anyway. I will not watch the PGA for the examples Mellow cited. A few years ago the announcers were fawning over Dustin Johnson, "...look at him, he has a gun-fighter swagger..." Oh please, gag...

 

I do agree a half-hour show once or twice a week following a specific golfer, men's or women's, about their journey and back story would garner some interest, but just not enough to move the needle. Who would tune in? People already interested likely, I doubt it would attract new viewers. Golfing World on YouTube has some good pieces, but they're only around 5 or 6 minutes. I would love to see where some of the Korean, English, Japanese, Thai, Spanish, etc. golfers come from, but would imagine production costs would skyrocket. Do some interviews with good translations maybe?

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To your second point she’s not #6 on the lpga tour she is #6 on the Korean lpga your. Unlike the pga tour that is predominantly a us based tour that has some events in Canada, Asia, Mid East and stars that play euro tour the lpga is more of a global tour with sanctioned events all around the world that aren’t shared with the euro or Asian tours. So while we may be more watching with a biased interest towards wanting to see an American win the fact is the tour is trying to draw worldwide attention.

 

Like any sport or activity the organization needs to have a product that draws attention to it and gets fans interested in it. Unfortunately outside of certain events around the world very few women’s sports draw fans and thus the sponsorship money and tv money. WNBA without support from the nba would have folded. Women’s soccer leagues have failed here despite them having better international success than the men. As you point out ufc does a great job promoting their woman’s division but a lot of that had to do with Rousey and now that she is gone they don’t really have a big name to feed off that can draw the crowds and ppv buys like she did.

 

Like baseball where fans are watching for the long ball and the offense they watch the pga tour to see guys hit it a mile. There’s names there that the media can tell stories around. The lpga lacks that it at least the consistency of the big names to stay at the top and dominate. The trend lately on the lpga has been a few years if dominance by one or two players then they fall and someone else takes over. If the lpga could find someone like Annika or Ochoa that can win consistently and for an extended period of time it might help the tour get more recognition and to an extent respect.

 

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Not going to happen in the US, even in Canada with Brooke it's still rarely watched or talked about, though when she was leading in the Canadian events people tune in and the club TVs switch over. Only reason I watch limited LPGA golf is because I have a friend who has her card and I check to see how well she is doing.

 

Womens sports are not big draws, even fully subsidized ones like the WNBA have teams that are hemorrhaging money and struggle. There two womens hockey leagues folded this year and are attempting to have the NHL merge them under their banner and subsidize the teams. Even when there were womens teams that were selling 800 tickets for the games. The only time womens hockey matters to most people are the Olympics.

 

If you want the LPGA to grow they have to make some drastic changes. They need to stop playing Thurs-Sunday. Even when there is no golf on the channels in most golf clubs are on anything but the LPGA. If the women played Sunday - Weds that gives them the opportunity to be covered more. It stops overlapping with the mens game and it gives it a chance. The LPGA needs to get the players on the courses that the men play after the mens event or before it, Pinehurst was interesting because you got to see the course two weeks in a row.

 

If you want to grow the game in English countries, the players need personalities. Rory won a bunch and was the new darling and he keeps being pretty open with his comments and puts his foot in his mouth a bunch. Brooks got a bunch of coverage with his chip on the shoulder, clown nosing Brandle stuff. Rickie got big on his bright colours, motocross, young vibe, he was funny on twitter and in Ryder Cup photos, he took his most overrated player win and then answered it with winning the Players. Phil is brash, high risk high reward play and famous for historic chokes, people either love him or hate him. Professional gaming has this problem with Korean pros who are majority of roster spots on teams and higher ranked players in the world in some games, games where they are getting six to seven figures a year for playing a video game. The guy who comes out and talks loud, is fun to watch he either backs it up or gets knocked down and torn apart by the fans. Korean players 99/100 times will say they just want to show good games and hope you cheer for them.

 

In regards to people would rather watch Patrick Reed, no one wanted to see him win, it was watched because they wanted to see him choke or someone take the win away from him.

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"In regards to people would rather watch Patrick Reed, no one wanted to see him win, it was watched because they wanted to see him choke or someone take the win away from him."

That's funny.. and true.

 

Some of the points I think are spot on.. I kind of tune into the sports, including the PGA tour mostly for the freak aspects of some of these guys. Granted I am a pretty good player, and I feel like I get a measuring stick of how i stack up both shot making wise and decision wise but I agree the announcing hurts, I usually have the volume lowered... But I really enjoy that holy s*** moment that you get once in awhile. Maybe if there were a dominant player... I mean golf was never more popular when Tiger was crushing souls... When Michelle Wei came out she was advertised as that game changer, they put her in some men's events and I don't remember but I don't think she did that well, then never really had the career everyone expected, lots of hype. Imagine if a girl came out and dominated. Hit the ball a mile, complete game, personable, emotional, a little controversial... I'd tune in.

 

I played with a women's long drive competitor who was also working toward getting on a womens tour last year. She was long for a female, me and my buddy played the tips and she from one tee up. She was about even with him and about 15-20 yards behind me most of the time which would put her at a real life average of 275-280 yards. That would put her at the top of the LPGA tour distance stats and honestly those stat numbers look padded. The thing is she was only ok with her irons, had no short game and was a so so putter. She was fit and strong but not a big girl by any means, I feel like we should be closing the gap a bit women to the men. Short game and putting should be a wash, and there are some pretty incredible women athletes out there so the power gap should be narrowing. On the PGA tour we have seen the emergence of better athletes and better training, has this shift manifested on the LPGA tour? Are young female athletes just not getting into the game? As the purses grow you'd think you might see some more 6ft tall female specimens pick golf as opposed to basketball, soccer, softball, etc.. Imagine a string of girls coming out carrying it 280 with complete games...

 

I'm going to make a point to watch some LPGA over the next 2 weeks and get better acquainted. as a side note I honestly do wish though that there were more good female players around, though there aren't even that many good male players around.. But I have genuinely enjoyed playing with the high level girls that I've come across. I think that women tend to be more balanced and rationally intelligent than men and I figure that's why less women play golf. They realize much quicker than men do that golf is a black hole of time wasting and stupidity.

 

 

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> @Tasals said:

> If you want the LPGA to grow they have to make some drastic changes. They need to stop playing Thurs-Sunday. Even when there is no golf on the channels in most golf clubs are on anything but the LPGA. If the women played Sunday - Weds that gives them the opportunity to be covered more. It stops overlapping with the mens game and it gives it a chance. The LPGA needs to get the players on the courses that the men play after the mens event or before it, Pinehurst was interesting because you got to see the course two weeks in a row.

 

No offense, but those suggestions seem pretty arbitrary. I'm not sure it's feasible to move all the events to follow the men's tour. And I can't think of why any sporting event looking to draw viewers (in person or at home) would give up holding their events on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

 

> @Tasals said:

> If you want to grow the game in English countries, the players need personalities. Rory won a bunch and was the new darling and he keeps being pretty open with his comments and puts his foot in his mouth a bunch. Brooks got a bunch of coverage with his chip on the shoulder, clown nosing Brandle stuff. Rickie got big on his bright colours, motocross, young vibe, he was funny on twitter and in Ryder Cup photos, he took his most overrated player win and then answered it with winning the Players. Phil is brash, high risk high reward play and famous for historic chokes, people either love him or hate him. Professional gaming has this problem with Korean pros who are majority of roster spots on teams and higher ranked players in the world in some games, games where they are getting six to seven figures a year for playing a video game. The guy who comes out and talks loud, is fun to watch he either backs it up or gets knocked down and torn apart by the fans. Korean players 99/100 times will say they just want to show good games and hope you cheer for them.

>

> In regards to people would rather watch Patrick Reed, no one wanted to see him win, it was watched because they wanted to see him choke or someone take the win away from him.

 

Let's be real, a select few on the PGA Tour have personalities (i.e. Phil). This is golf we're talking about. The _overwhelming majority_ are uninteresting. Rickie Fowler has ZERO personality. Justin Thomas is just another face. Dustin and Brooks are downright stoic. Even Tiger is a pretty boring guy. Spieth is annoying AF anytime he gets on camera. Patrick Reed and Jason Day have a bit of swagger, I guess, but people hate Reed and Day doesn't dominate.

 

And really that's what Americans want--someone who can dominate. They are a put-up-or-shut-up people.

 

Michelle Wie turned heads because of her prodigious length and her potential to dominate. It didn't happen but her talent made a few folks take notice. Lexi can't putt so she isn't any threat to take over. But that's what the American market wants.

 

But let's be smart about it. The dominance we've seen over the years on both sides is only going to get more and more rare as the fields get better. Dominance was once holding all 4 majors. Now it's more like 6 months of strong play.

 

Building around that if it's there is pretty easy. Tiger made life quite nice for the PGA Tour for a long time! But trying to chase that when it's not there is kind of futile.

 

And TBH, if you want to talk personalities, the LPGA is actually not doing so badly. Lydia and Brooke have both been easy to market.

 

And just as with the men there are a slew of characters that may be liked or disliked depending on how someone sees them: Lexi Thompson, Charley Hull, Ariya Jutanugarn, Danielle Kang, Minjee Lee, Sei Young Kim, So Yeon Ryu, Lizette Salas, Christie Kerr and many more.

 

If those names aren't characters to somebody, that person simply doesn't watch the LPGA (which is fine). But they are no less "personalities" than Rickie Fowler who is as boring as they come.

 

So again, it's not really for a lack of potential characters. It's that the fans you're talking about want dominance.

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I watch a lot of golf on TV but only minimal amounts of women golf but I would definitely watch more, it does interest me, but not in a trade-off against PGA Tour.

 

TV/media is king so why go up against the PGA Tour, why not try some tournaments that run Wed-Sat, Sat-Tue, Sun-Wed or another combination? Surely it's worth a try, of course I appreciate there are other considerations such as spectator attendance, corporate stuff etc.

 

I'm sure the LPGA are frustrated that a lot of their current stars need interpreters as it does make it more difficult to sell their personalities/stories to the public.

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Again, scheduling a tournament so as not to conflict with the PGA Tour is not really the problem.

 

First, a lot of the events are not even in the contiguous 48-states. Those events are taped and re-aired at some point on Golf Channel (sometimes in the AM hours!). Many other events are on the west coast which means the coverage is not thrown up on Golf Channel until about 11pm that night after the PGA/Champions stuff has been aired. In the case of smaller tournaments, the LPGA coverage is often aired in the afternoons (2pm-5pm). I don't know who's watching that on a weekday!

 

Why doesn't Golf Channel simply show the LPGA on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening you might ask? Because that's when they re-aire last week's PGA event alongside shows, news, analysis and movies.

 

If the LPGA moved their tournaments so that they were live on say, Tuesday evening, do you really think The Golf Channel is going to air that versus their normal stuff? I don't. I think that the LPGA stuff would finally get aired at like 11pm that night.

 

Honestly, the LPGA is pretty much only aired so that a few people can DVR it.

 

It's not really competing with the PGA Tour. To even suggest that is to kind of miss the point. Are there really people asking how the WNBA can better compete with the NBA!? I would think not. You aren't ever going to drag someone away from the PGA Tour if they like that product.

 

I started to become disinterested in the PGA Tour which is why I ventured out. Again, I still watch all the bigger events or at least the highlights but the smaller events? I have no reason to tune in. Why would I want to watch a bunch of random dudes?

 

I'll watch the prominent men who are highly ranked but I'm not tuning in to follow Chez freakin' Revie.

 

When it comes to watching a top-flight LPGA event versus a B-tournament on the men's side I'm going with the former. In other cases, I just prefer the LPGA during certain house (i.e. mornings). I'll have that on as I do stuff at the house.

 

It's 2 different things IMHO.

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Too many think that the LPGA = The American Women's Professional Golf Tour when that couldn't be further from the truth. The LPGA looks at global viewership more than just the US ratings because the sport is oriented globally. In 2018 the LPGA was shown in 175 countries and the Women's PGA Championship had over 500,000,000 viewers per ESPNW. The LPGA markets itself better socially as well as at events. Nearly all the LPGA players are at the pro am draft parties compared to the PGA pro am draft parties where 1 player shows up.

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> @legitimategolf said:

> Businesswise the LPGA seems to be doing well. Total purse has been increasing yearly since Mike Whan was hired.

 

That's true and it's a really good point.

 

But on the other hand people are probably correct to point out that's been accomplished by embracing diversity. So Whan has the leverage now to get that money but for how long? After all, it's not a lie to say the tour **is** dominated by South Koreans. At the end of the day, that is true.

 

There is a downside to that from the perspective of sustainability here. I agree with those that say there needs to be something (or someone) to inspire American girls. The longer the LPGA goes without those figures, the worse off women's golf in the U.S. will be and that can only undermine the leverage of Whan (and the LPGA in general).

 

If there are college scholarships available, parents will be all too happy to push their kids towards golf. That helps. But it's going to take a few who really love the game in an almost unhealthy way to compete with the LPGA elites. That hard to ask for given the current climate.

 

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> @Hubijerk said:

> What if the womens US open was held at Bethpage 2 weeks before or after the men's US Open? Keep the set up the same but adjust the length proportionally. Is that a crazy idea? I'd like to see how they stack up, but this is something that the LPGA seems to be avoiding, direct comparison.

>

No, it's not a crazy idea. It was done at Pinehurst in 2014. The Women's US Open was played on No. 2 a week after the Men's Open.

 

The popularity of women's golf, like most individual sports (men or women), will rise and fall on the personality of the dominant player at the time. It's as simple as that. Serena was and is the face of women's tennis. It'll be interesting to see if that changes now that she is getting older and has started a family. I don't see a similar personality dominating women's golf.

 

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For starters, there were not six Jeong Eun Lees in the field. There were two. Jeong Eun Lee 5 was the other player. There have been six Jeong Eun Lees on the KLPGA. Several of them no longer play. Lucky 6 got the '6' because she was the 6th.

 

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Yes, the fitness 'crazy' is firmly taking hold in the LPGA. Take a browse through Getty Images, search for 'LPGA', and sort by date. The players from even 15 years ago are no where near as athletic as the current players.

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I enjoy watching the LPGA, and womens's NCAA for that matter.

Would love to see them in a weekday primetime slot outside of the GolfChannel. Maybe the banks we bailed out back in '08 should sponsor it (I know).

I can see Brooke, Lexi and the Korda sisters working harder to get to the top and believe it will happen. Tough kids.

Congrats to Lee6.

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> @MelloYello said:

> Again, scheduling a tournament so as not to conflict with the PGA Tour is not really the problem.

>

> First, a lot of the events are not even in the contiguous 48-states. Those events are taped and re-aired at some point on Golf Channel (sometimes in the AM hours!). Many other events are on the west coast which means the coverage is not thrown up on Golf Channel until about 11pm that night after the PGA/Champions stuff has been aired. In the case of smaller tournaments, the LPGA coverage is often aired in the afternoons (2pm-5pm). I don't know who's watching that on a weekday!

>

> Why doesn't Golf Channel simply show the LPGA on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon? Because that's when they re-aire last week's PGA event alongside shows, news, analysis and movies.

>

> If the LPGA moved their tournaments so that they were live on say, Tuesday evening, do you really think The Golf Channel is going to air that versus their normal stuff? I don't. I think that the LPGA stuff would finally get aired at like 11pm that night.

>

> Honestly, the LPGA is pretty much only aired so that a few people can DVR it.

>

> It's not really competing with the PGA Tour. To even suggest that is to kind of miss the point. Are there really people asking how the WNBA can better compete with the NBA!? I would think not. You aren't ever going to drag someone away from the PGA Tour if they like that product.

>

> I started to become disinterested in the PGA Tour which is why I ventured out. Again, I still watch all the bigger events or at least the highlights but the smaller events? I have no reason to tune in. Why would I want to watch a bunch of random dudes?

>

> I'll watch the prominent men who are highly ranked but I'm not tuning in to follow Chez freakin' Revie.

>

> When it comes to watching a top-flight LPGA event versus a B-tournament on the men's side I'm going with the latter. In other cases, I just prefer the LPGA during certain house (i.e. mornings). I'll have that on as I do stuff at the house.

>

> It's 2 different things IMHO.

 

Amen. I used to watch pretty much ever round of the PGA and LPGA (i.e. DVR'd and fast forward). Now I watch every round of the LPGA, every round of the PGA majors and big tournaments, the final round of the 2nd tier events, and maybe the final few holes of the remaining events. It's nice that some new faces, and a few journeymen, are picking up trophies, but they certainly don't move the needle for me.

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I love tuning in to the LPGA final round on a late Sunday afternoon. Every single one of these ladies is better than me and that's all the reason I need to watch (and if Brooke is in the top 10 sure adds to it).

 

Haney's comments are from an era not long ago when men could make fun of women and openly mock their alleged inferiority. Dudes, those days are over...you may still think it but don't dare say it - you'd think that all the male public figures would have caught on to this by now.

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Women's professional sports leagues just aren't popular in the United States. Its a fact that women athletes seem to never get over. Their efforts for "equality" or "equal pay" are noble, and they are certainly talented athletes, but at the end of the day professional sports leagues are driven by money....money that largely comes from advertising revenue, broadcasting rights, and ticket sales. The reason male sports leagues and their athletes make more money? Because more people watch them. It really is that simple.

 

The Augusta National Women's Amateur was the most-watched women's golf program in the last 3 years. The rating it got? .96 - roughly double the viewership of SpongeBob Squarepants re-runs Saturdays on Nick. The reason why FOX was able to broadcast the USWO pretty much uninterrupted all weekend thanks to Rolex? Because it didn't cost much. The USWO also had empty bleachers throughout and what looked like on TV as a pretty sparce crowd watching live. These types of facts, when presented in an unbiased way, are then twisted to make whomever presents them as some sort of sexist or someone who supports "non-equality".

 

The LPGA popularity would probably go up a little bit if an American actually became the dominant face of the sport, similar to how the PGA Tour exploded in the Tiger/Phil prime era. The LPGA is already a very small percentage of golf viewership and attendance, and their fields every week are littered with ladies whom most casual fans couldn't pronounce their names. Quite frankly, the fact that they play for the purses they're playing at is quite surprising.

 

EDIT - and as I've said before, once Tiger and Phil are no longer playing on the PGA Tour, the purses on the PGA Tour are going to have to make a major correction as well, because viewership will decline on a consistent basis for that league as well.

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> @I_HATE_SNOW said:

> Its dead, no way to make it exciting that the LPGA dress code would support.

 

Exactly, we're back to being "PC" adversely impacting another industry. Wasn't viewership and related stats improving for a while, then this wacky dress code turned it around for the worse.

Sorry but also agree that having to append one's names with a number just isn't helping.

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> @Edward_Majorwin said:

> I love tuning in to the LPGA final round on a late Sunday afternoon. Every single one of these ladies is better than me and that's all the reason I need to watch (and if Brooke is in the top 10 sure adds to it).

>

> Haney's comments are from an era not long ago when men could make fun of women and openly mock their alleged inferiority. Dudes, those days are over...you may still think it but don't dare say it - you'd think that all the male public figures would have caught on to this by now.

 

So there is no need for a women's only tour?

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I was disappointed by the turnout at the USWO. I mean, I live about 5 hours away so technically, I'm the problem, haha.

 

When I think about why I didn't go, it just wasn't worth it. It would've been a long drive (both ways). Access to the nicer areas cost quite a bit. It was boiling hot. I would've had to go alone (which would've felt weird). And by the weekend it didn't seem like a great leaderboard.

 

Still, I was disappointed more people weren't into it. I thought it was a bad look for the LPGA which usually draws more people. I have to say, that particular event seemed like one of the most ill-attended LPGA events I've seen in the last decade. For that to be the highlight event on Fox was really too bad. Without the normal announcers it was all the weirder.

 

Maybe some of it is geographical? Even the NFL struggles in the south where NCAA football reigns. People here seem oblivious to the LPGA. It seems like some of the tournaments on the west coast are better attended? Certainly the ones in Asia seem to be well-supported by local fans who show up to watch in person.

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> @GSDriver said:

> > @I_HATE_SNOW said:

> > Its dead, no way to make it exciting that the LPGA dress code would support.

>

> Exactly, we're back to being "PC" adversely impacting another industry. Wasn't viewership and related stats improving for a while, then this wacky dress code turned it around for the worse.

> Sorry but also agree that having to append one's names with a number just isn't helping.

 

The LPGA dress code has absolutely no affect whatsoever on TV viewership. Never has never will.

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My [probably sexist] views.

 

I coached softball in college. It is different than baseball. IMO it is watered down version of baseball that has a few different rule tweaks to work around. I find women's sports (as a whole) are mostly watered down versions with the exceptions of volleyball (either beach or indoor) and tennis. I count golf as watered down as well not really from the rules, they are mostly the same, or the outcomes or performance, but how they go about it. The reliance on caddies takes a lot away for me, both men and women. For the longest time the women relied much more heavily on their caddies than the men. The women haven't necessarily gotten better in that regard but the men have caught up.

 

I liked Big Break when it was the women. The stories and the competitions were compelling.

 

If golf is on tv I will watch it, no matter who is playing really. I like the ideas proposed about altering the days the tournaments are played. Maybe the women are too nice? Not enough steely Tiger stares or step on your throat mentality. Can I get a fist pump?

 

Do we have this same conversation of The Champions tour? Their tournaments overlap with the PGA tour most weeks as well. So it has to be product related?

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> @"North Texas" said:

> > @GSDriver said:

> > > @I_HATE_SNOW said:

> > > Its dead, no way to make it exciting that the LPGA dress code would support.

> >

> > Exactly, we're back to being "PC" adversely impacting another industry. Wasn't viewership and related stats improving for a while, then this wacky dress code turned it around for the worse.

> > Sorry but also agree that having to append one's names with a number just isn't helping.

>

> The LPGA dress code has absolutely no affect whatsoever on TV viewership. Never has never will.

 

Lol. Gee, I thought millions of viewers walked away disappointed because Michelle wasn't allowed to wear her racerbacks.

 

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> @smashdn said:

> Do we have this same conversation of The Champions tour? Their tournaments overlap with the PGA tour most weeks as well. So it has to be product related?

 

I don't think anyone is watching the Champions tour, TBH. It's become a place where a few guys who are still serious are getting an opportunity to have the career that they never had during their prime: Jay Haas, Tom Lehman, Kenny Perry, Scott McCarron, Jeff Maggert, etc.

 

If not for Freddie Couples' run a few years back and the sustained dominance of 2-time Masters champion Bernhard Langer in recent years, the Champions Tour would be a complete mystery to virtually everyone. It ranks slightly above the Senior Women's event(s), haha. If it's hard to market golf as a sport, think about _senior golf_...yikes!

 

The Champions tour doesn't even have a sub-forum here, does it? That says something. More power to those guys who are competing, I guess, but when you rank it on the scale of public interest it's way down there.

 

If you ask me why Golf Channel often seems to select the Champions coverage over the LPGA when NBC has the main PGA event, I'd tell you that it's TGC simply catering to their viewers who are likely an older crowd.

 

Who has TV these days? Older folks.

Who's watching Golf Channel? Mostly older folks.

What are their views on women? Well, see Hank Haney.

 

I don't think the fact that Golf Channel continually airs The Legend of Bagger Vance really says anything about peoples' desire to see that movie! ;)

 

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