It is great to see golf clubs starting to pay attention to women. Bravo Pinehurst! But what about network television??? This weekend the Corona Morelia Championship was on and no one was broadcasting it in the US or Canada. Check out http://www.lpga.com/tournament_microsite.aspx?id=5377 and you’ll see – no network picked it up – not even the Golf Channel. We certainly got enough of the Nationwide tour and the Champions Tour this weekend (even got to see the snr men’s round 2 twice since the 3rd day was rained out). But no LPGA.
It’s about time that women’s golf got more TV attention – Hey Golf Channel – why not ask your viewers what they think on the 19th Hole? Vince, Steve and Charles certainly spend enough time talking about the women (have we heard enough about Michelle Wie???), let’s start showing the viewers how great they really are.
By Erin Gartner Associated Press
San Francisco Chronicle
08 Oct 2006
Pinehurst, N.C. ? Ashley Brooker seemed oblivious to the silver-haired men teeing up next to her on this humid North Carolina afternoon. She raised a golf club over her right shoulder, swung and watched the small white ball disappear in the sun. ?You… read more…Tech Tags: San Francisco Chronicle newspaper Golf
October 12, 2006 at 12:03 pm |
Great article and the lack of women’s golf on TV does nobody any good…I support women’s golf…I am one of the few true men who understand that golf is for everyone and whatever I can do to help get the women golfers on equal footing with the men golfers count me in.
The unfortunate thing about TV, and almost all of the advertising media’s, is their unwillingness to take a risk. The pressure on television producers to produce shows that businesses want to sponsor, or spend money to be seen on, does not help women’s golf. The producers get paid by how much a sponsor want to pay and most sponsors only want to pay the high prices for TV commercials if they are going to be exposed to a large number of potential buys…. And most producers are not golfers so they are going to go just for the numbers and the numbers on viewers for women’s golf are not high enough for them to take a chance on producing the coverage of one of their events. It is a catch 22 because until there are more producers who are willing to support women’s golf by producing coverage for their venues the numbers will never get any higher.
But there really is no excuse for the Golf Channel, who jockeyed real hard to get the PGA events and the Champion Events and now the LPGA events on their channel. Hopefully those leaders of GC, which still includes Arnold Palmer, will see that there is an equal need for the coverage of the LPGA events and they realize that there is a very large hidden market of men, women and junior golfers who want to watch the ladies of golf play. I know I do…
The power of the blog is the only thing that can produce numbers that these producers live on so keep up the pressure of blogging on this subject and let me know how I can help.
October 12, 2006 at 4:10 pm |
Thank Scot for your support. I am passionate about the game of golf, although I’ve a relatively new player. My partner and I golf as often as we can and I have found that 99% of the male golfers enjoy watching the LPGA. When Michele Wie enters a PGA tournament, look at the ratings! It’s amazing the crowd she brings with her. I watched the 19th Hole again last night and sure enough, there was Steve, Vince and Charles with a birthday cake honoring Michele’s 17th birthday and of course, they once again spent a lot of time talking about the LPGA players. Was Michele’s year a failure or success? What about the other youngsters in the game like Morgan, Paula, etc? Was their year a disappointment? I swear they talk as much about the women as the men on that show.
And what about the Big Break series? The two so far that have been just women golfers has attracted an enormous amount of attention.
I will continue to blog this subject. I may even start calling the 19th Hole on Wed nights and bug them about this issue.
Thanks again for your support on this. This was my very first blog, but it will most definitely not be my last!
Cheers
golfgal