Maddenation
Annika Sorenstam
i was wondering about the whole “woman playing in a PGA tournament” thing today, and i decided to do some research. here it is, if you’re curious.
annika sorenstam is the first woman to compete in a PGA tournament since babe
didrickson did 58 years ago.
this paragraph is important (from here):
Not content conquering women’s golf, the Hall of Fame player from Stockholm,
Sweden, accepted a sponsor’s exemption to this week’s PGA TOUR event, the Bank
of America Colonial, at storied Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas.
Sorenstam’s entry represents the first by a woman in a men’s event since the
legendary Babe Didrickson Zaharias qualified for three events in 1945.
Winner of 42 titles, including four major championships, Sorenstam will have her
work cut out for her if she is to make the cut at the oldest PGA TOUR venue, the
7,080-yard Colonial layout. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas put her over-under score at
76.5, which Sorenstam dismissed. “I can do better than that.”
On the LPGA, she’s 2nd in money with $554,501.00. Se Ri Pak has $562,900.00. i’m
now wondering why se ri pak hasn’t been invited to compete on the pga. she’s a
24 year old south korean. interesting.
so, annika has 5 starts (i’m assuming that’s events competed in), been in the top
10 5 times, and has 1 victory.
se ri has 8 starts, 5 top tens, and 2 victories.
so i’m assuming that since se ri has had more starts, she’s had more opportunity
for winning, and hence, more prize money.
so, the two look pretty even in skill, and annika is 32 years old.
that doesn’t settle anything.
on the issue of prize money, this is off the LPGA website:
total prize money is more than $41 million, representing an increase of $2.255
million from 2002. The average purse for the official LPGA events is $1.25 million,
representing a 14-percent increase from 2002 and the highest ever in LPGA history.
by contrast, the pga tournament this weekend is a $5M purse. the lpga purse is
$1M (which is a little below average for all 35 lpga tourneys).
she finished 66th yesterday (tied with 13 others, and beat 27). by bad
comparison, the 66th place pga golfer (in terms of total dollars won) is Rod
Pampling, with $471,078. she finished tied with one of her partners, Dean Wilson,
and beat the other, Aaron Barber, by a stroke.
the top 10 pga golfers are as follows (the # after the name is the number of
events played)
1 Davis Love III 11 $3,787,712
2 Mike Weir 10 $3,365,025
3 Tiger Woods 6 $3,067,250
4 Vijay Singh 11 $2,929,642
5 Ernie Els 7 $2,226,925
6 Jim Furyk 12 $2,102,616
7 David Toms 13 $2,098,206
8 Jay Haas 11 $1,561,727
9 Justin Leonard 12 $1,458,550
10 Chad Campbell 14 $1,418,666
top ten LPGA players
1 Se Ri Pak $ 562,900.00
2 Annika Sorenstam $ 554,501.00
3 Grace Park $ 423,350.00
4 Patricia Meunier-Lebouc $ 422,714.00
5 Lorena Ochoa $ 347,544.00
6 Cristie Kerr $ 278,695.00
7 Rosie Jones $ 277,660.00
8 Candie Kung $ 228,331.00
9 Pat Hurst $ 207,268.00
10 Karrie Webb $ 203,766.00
(according to a LPGA.com poll)
What score will Annika shoot in the second round of the Colonial?
70 or better
19%
71-73
7%
74-76
28%
76-78
46%
what do PGA players think? click here.
(make sure you click on the “read more quotes from ________” to get more info.)
finally, a good article from www.golf.about.com written by brent kelley:
My Take
this has become interesting to me. i’m glad i have nothing to do for 3 weeks.
Dan • Suggestions • 05/23/03 • 1 comments
Comments
Patrick • 05/24/03 • 12:13 PM:Not sure what to make of this. Are we thinking about the inequalities between men’s and women’s sports? That’s simply market-driven (whether we like it or not). Maybe that points to one of the fundamental problems with the free market: it assigns dollar values to things (and people) without any place for our long-term goals or ambitions. If we want women to be equal to men, should we inflate the LPGA prize monies, maybe skimming from the PGA? Or should there just be one tour, regardless of gender? Of course, women would fare poorly against men (in general). Should we educate, influence our children to enjoy women’s sports? Should women drink more beer (or whatever product sponsors the LPGA, so that the advertisers would feel it worth more sponsorship money)? Very hairy. One thing is for sure: professional athletes, especially the male variety, make far too much money in the USA.
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