Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
Founders note
|
||||
 After all, we’re in the business of producing a monthly golf magazine, and women comprise more than one out of five golfers in the United States. But admitting our fondness for women golfers isn’t something we thought we’d be doing while learning the game on Orange County’s public courses in the early 1970s. At that time, golf was a good ol’ boys game. Women took too long to play, we heard our older male counterparts say. They don’t know the rules. They’re out there to socialize with friends, and they don’t respect the game. Maybe that was true then, when women comprised a small part of the golf population. But no longer. From junior golf to the professional ranks, women golfers represent one of the most dynamic, talented and exciting categories of players. And they represent a large part of the future. The junior ranks from South Korea to Long Beach are swelling with girls, and collegiate programs from community colleges to private universities also are growing. They’re also really, really good. Outside of their male counterparts on the professional tours, we doubt more than a handful of amateur golfers could keep up with the games of current LPGA stalwarts like Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis, Lorena Ochoa, Angela Park and the growing number of great women golfers. Many drive the ball an average of 250 yards and, within 100 yards, their pitching, chipping and putting games could give any male golfer a run for his money. (Last year, 17 LPGA Tour players averaged fewer than 28 putts per round, while only one PGA Tour player — Oxnard native Corey Pavin — had an average below 28). But women have impacted the game in more ways than merely elevating the professional tour to major league status. By adopting a game that, for decades, was played by their fathers, husbands or brothers, they have helped revolutionize golf resorts, changed the way courses are designed, and injected a much-needed dose of vitality into golf fashion. Women practice their games, stay atop the latest technological developments, and follow the men’s and women’s professional tours as diligently and regularly as men. They’re everywhere in golf, from television analysts and teaching professionals, to golf course managers and superintendents. But the main reason we love women golfers is the energy they bring to the game. Sure, many are just as competitive as men, living and dying with each shot. Many undoubtedly reek of ego-driven confidence, and are so driven to score well that they can make a casual round uncomfortable. But the majority of women we’ve had the fortune of playing alongside treat the game with respect and reverence, while also enjoying the game a great deal more than our male counterparts. They are gracious to a fault, less prone to throwing their clubs after an errant shot and keep the epithets under control. It strikes us as wonderfully ironic that in a sport that counts itself as the last domain of class and morals, that female golfers are the most gentlemanly of its participants. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
