Philadelphia, PA – Just the other day, I heard of somebody holding an NCAA bracket pool for the women's tournament and thought that was pretty impressive. The vast majority of people who conduct NCAA Tournament bracket contests do so with the men's tourney, which has historically been the focus of March Madness.
But a contest where people are paying attention to the women's game? That was downright progressive.
Yet, the whole thing turned out to be phony. There was no contest. It was all a big joke, because who could ever want to participate in something as ridiculous as watching women's basketball?
That instance speaks to the tendency for a lot of people to view women's sports as illegitimate, to not even take them as serious competitions.
As I write this, the LPGA Founders Cup is being played in Arizona. The field has endured multiple weather delays, and at the top of the leaderboard sits world No. 1 Yani Tseng, who went on to win after three weather delays. A shot behind are world No. 2 Na Yeon Choi and ninth-ranked Ai Miyazato.
Take a minute to think about what kind of buzz would be generated if Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson were battling for the win in adverse weather conditions. It would likely be splashed across the front of major sports websites, hailed as great competition. But you don't see the same kind of treatment for the LPGA, and I always wonder why that is.
I wonder why Annika Sorenstam earned about $22.5 million over the course of her career, while Luke Donald earned nearly a third of that amount last year alone.
Arguments and justifications as to why women's sports tend to lag behind men's -- in prize money, in revenue, in broadcast spots, in advertising, in attendance, in press coverage -- tend to center around the fact that women aren't as skilled as men, or aren't as exciting to watch.
But that's a faulty argument because it uses the men's game as a reference point. Why do people like to watch and follow professional golf? To see players make shots and take risks, to absorb the suspense of a playoff or tight finish, to see how players deal with the incredible pressure that comes along with a key putt. And guess what? The LPGA has all of that.
Without the men's game as a reference point, people would be forced to judge women's golf tournaments on their own merit.
Of course, it's not as simple as that.
The prominence of women's sports, including golf, depends on many factors. The sport itself, culture, the media and individuals all play a part.
A sport needs to be filled with talent to be entertaining and worthy of following, but that's dependent on culture. Women's sports have had to overcome hurdles like the fact that women were not always accepted as professional athletes. There has not always been a framework for women to be athletes, and that framework is still not widespread.
Take the LPGA. It is more filled with talent than ever, thanks to international players like Tseng and Choi. But just a few decades ago, that wasn't the case. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this weekend, Pat Hurst said that when she joined the LPGA Tour in 1994, "there were maybe 25 who could really play. Now almost everybody can play."
In the coming years and decades, LPGA tournaments will become more and more exciting thanks to the influx of talent. And maybe that will result in increased prize money, media coverage and a larger fanbase.
But it's a circular issue. Sponsors won't throw boatloads of money at a tournament if they don't think it will result in a good return on investment. The media generally won't devote loads of coverage to something if there's not a receptive audience.
And sports fans generally won't pay attention to a sport if coverage isn't easily accessible, or if they have no context for the competition. If they don't know about rivalries or records or player personalities, it's harder to develop a rooting interest.
Women's golf is still growing. It hasn't benefited from decades of primary press coverage and public consumption that has transformed the men's game into a sports world staple.
And there's no reason why women's golf can't be just as prominent as men's. But if it's not supported on equal terms, if it's considered secondary, its growth will be stunted. And that's the big joke.
