With the state of women’s professional golf seemingly slipping out of the collective consciousness of sport the debate continues as to how best to promote the sport. The LPGA Tour is the major tour for women’s golf in the world right now. There are other tours throughout Asia and Europe but the LPGA is the most significant tour in the world. The LPGA has the largest purses, attracts the best players and has the most extensive tournament system in women’s golf. So when the LPGA starts to lose tournaments, sponsors and has a problem funding its tournaments it impacts golf throughout the world. The retiring of world number one Annika Sorenstam, the economic downturn and a dysfunctional commissioner have combined to form the perfect storm that has weakened the LPGA to the point of possible extinction.
So, as the tour struggles to find new dollars, many are attacking the way some players are marketing themselves, and in a sense the tour. For years the debate has lingered: is it proper to use sex appeal to promote the tour. Many think that using the attractiveness of its players to attract fans is demeaning to the game. I think the tour would be foolish not to utilize every possible aspect to try and attract fans to the game. Natalie Gulbis is a fit and attractive player on the tour that has been using her looks to get fans for years. Anna Rawson is a rookie on the LPGA Tour this year that is a self described “model/golfer.” She has contracts with modeling agencies that endorses products other than golf related items. The world renown modeling agency, Wilhelmina, saw the potential that attractive athletes have in the marketing world and chose to sign a group of golfers to contracts. They now call them the Wilhelmina 7. The W7 consist of only six golfers at the present, but they were all signed based on their looks and “glam” factor. The agency saw many possibilities for young, attractive females in the endorsement world. Minea Blomqvist, Sandra Gal, Anna Grzebien, Kim Hall, Johanna Head and Mikaela Parmlid were handpicked by the agency and have since taken some criticism for using their sex appeal to sell.
The reality is that sex appeal sells. It sells everything from clothes to cars to food to golf and everything in between. There is nothing wrong or immoral with young, fit, athletes posing for model shots, selling apparel or promoting the tour. The fact remains that most golf fans are men, for both tours male and female alike. Until the women of the world step up and start buying all the tickets to the tour, and really become the driving force in women’s golf, sex appeal is going to remain a huge weapon in the tour’s battle with economic disaster.