Posted on 02/03/2004 8:12:45 AM PST by SB00
PGA veteran Greg Norman says women should stick to their own events
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) - Greg Norman made it clear Tuesday that he believes women have no place in men's golf events.
The Australian star dismissed women in men's events as a marketing ploy, and said men's tours should consider changing their bylaws to prevent women from receiving sponsor's exemptions. "I think the situation is more of a marketing ploy than anything else," Norman said. "If the girls come out and think they can play against the guys and fail every time, that can't be very positive."
Norman's comments came three weeks after 14-year-old Michelle Wie missed the cut by a stroke in the Sony Open, a stunning effort that prompted seven other PGA Tour events to offer her exemptions.
Last year, Annika Sorenstam became the first woman in 58 years to compete on the PGA Tour, missing the cut by five shots in the Colonial.
"I'm very impressed with her game, very impressed with her attitude and demeanour at such a young age," Norman said about Wie.
"But I think the rightful place is that women play on their tour and we play on ours. It all started with Annika to promote herself and promote women's golf, but at the end of the day, it can be very detrimental."
Norman, preparing for the Heineken Classic, addressed the subject when asked to comment on Laura Davies' appearance next week in the ANZ Championship - the first start by a female player in an event sanctioned by the European and Australasian tours.
"I think everyone is just jumping on it, and it's got to stop," Norman said. "How do we stop it? It's up to our administrators to come up with the wording of our bylaws.
"The players have got to vote it in on a majority vote. We can't go play on their tour because we're not female, that's the wording they have in their bylaws. I think we should do something about it."
Ernie Els, seeking his third straight win in the Heineken Classic, said eventually men will begin complaining if women get too many sponsor's exemptions.
"I think there might be quite a few men who might oppose it," Els said. "I'm not quite sure about the future of that - how many girls are going to be good enough to play. We can't keep on giving them invites if there are guys good enough to get sponsor's exemptions."
But Els admitted that if men's golf has no bylaws preventing women from playing, and if someone such as Wie qualified to play, then they should be allowed on the men's tour.
"If they go through the tour school, they must be good enough to play," Els said. "You've got to give them a chance."
Els said that the tours around the world should come up with a uniform way of dealing with it.
"I think it's becoming a bit of an issue now," Els said. "I think the commissioners will have to start thinking about."
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem addressed the issue Sunday in Scottsdale, Ariz., at the FBR Open.
"Is it an issue if a 14-year-old gets a sponsor exemption? That's really not an issue," Finchem said. "The issue is if a tournament gives sponsor exemptions to a player or an individual who is clearly not competitive, just for publicity purposes, that's something we wouldn't care to see.
"A trend? No. If it happens once in a while, we're not going to get excited. But, you know, Michelle Wie played quite well and, at 14, if she continues to develop, I'm not sure you can make the case that she's not competitive when she misses the cut by a shot."
Norman said sponsors on the women's tours are being shortchanged.
"The other thing that I am very concerned about is in the U.S., there was a major women's sponsor, Corning Ware, sponsoring the tournament opposite the Colonial last year," he said.
"Those people put up millions of dollars to have Annika come there, but that week, they were a nonentity.
"If I were a sponsor, I'd say, 'Where is my value? My value is because I want to have Annika play, or Laura Davies, or Michelle Wie.' I feel sorry for those sponsors because they've been very much a dedicated part of women's golf. I just don't think it's right."
Norman isn't sure what he'd do if a woman was in a tournament he was scheduled to play in.
"That's a good question, it's hard for me to answer that straight off the bat," he said. "It would depend on what the golf tournament would be. I'd certainly think about it."
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