I have not mentioned a word about Annika Sorenstom (I just had to look her name up to spell it correctly), but reviewing the sports headlines this morning, I about blew a gasket. Check out some of these headlines:
From ESPN: Sorenstam Misses Cut, But Oh What A Run!
From the WaPo: No Bunker Mentality Here: Guys Give Annika Her Due
And leave it to the NY Times to have the drippiest lede:
Sorenstam Fails to Conquer, but Wins Fans on the Way
By JERE LONGMAN
Annika Sorenstam did not make the cut in her first PGA tournament. But if she could not quite stay on the bull, at least she had grabbed it by the horns.
You would think she had won the Grand Slam. Let’s get something excrutiatingly clear- she lost. Bigtime. She was 96th out of 111, and this was a field missing Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, and Tiger Woods, so you might as well say she finished 99th out of 114. That is not some crowning achievement. It is called a failure, in most books, when you are in the bottom 15%. If your academic performance is in the bottom 15% in high school, chances are you ride in a small bus and get excused from school earlier than the other kids.
I was not against Annika Sorenstam playing this week- she was given an exemption and invited, according to the rules, and she had every right to be there. I did not want her there, not because she was a sexist pig, but because I thought it was gimmicky and she didn’t stand a chance in hell. If anything, she has done irreparable damage to the LPGA. Think about it- I watch golf every week it is on, but I have never watched the LPGA. Never, and I will watch bowling if there is no other sports show on. I can recall even watching a jump-rope competition on ESPN one day because there was nothing else on- but the LPGA? NEVER. That was my attitude before the LPGA sent their best player to the PGA to be ritually slaughtered. If the best their best can do is 96th, why watch them at all? If Tiger Woods went to the LPGA, do you think he would finish 96th?
I wish Annika no ill will- there is no doubt she is a phenomenal athlete and she would kill me on the course any day of the week, but I would like it if we keep this ‘achievement’ of hers in perspective. She failed, and what she did was not that amazing- in fact, 95 other people did it better than her. There is nothing wrong with failure, Annika, so dust yourself off, go back to the LPGA, and take your place in history. And a note to sportswriters- please get a grip.
meansobfu
John Cole should join the Women’s Pro Bowling Tour….
M. Scott Eiland
She did all right (IIRC, she beat the Vegas line on what she would score by eight strokes), and the weakest part of her game was putting, which is not something that men have a natural advantage at. She was competitive, and did finish ahead of a number of guys, including the 16th ranked player in the PGA. What Annika did was akin to the middleweight champion of the world deciding to fight a bunch of good heavyweights–the middleweight will win some of the time, but not much, and the champion will clean his clock. This, by the way, is the answer to those who are snidely saying that men should be allowed to play on the LPGA–would you let Mike Tyson fight for the middleweight title because heavyweights kick his ass now? There are sports where the women are literally a century behind the men in terms of performance (sprinting). The gap is quite a bit smaller in golf.
Brandon
You should watch the LPGA for this simple reason. You are stronger than almost all of those women, yet I’ll bet they all hit the ball farther than you do. That’s because they have perfect form. You’ll never learn a damn thing about the golf swing by watching the PGA. Those guys could play one-handed and still beat you. But the best way to see how to improve your game, if you are only a weekend golfer, is to watch the LPGA.