Why You Should Be Watching the LPGA Tour

Quick! Name 10 LPGA Tour players. Come on! Faster!

Could you do it? Let me guess. Among the five or six you were able to recall, you said Michelle Wie, Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer, Lydia Ko, and Annika Sorenstam, right?

Well, Annika is no longer an active player, so you got her wrong.

Now, name 10 PGA TOUR players.

Okay, okay, that’s enough! I said 10!

Here’s the problem: You aren’t watching ladies golf and you should be! And there are a number of reasons why.

They play a game with which you are familiar

The current longest driver on the LPGA Tour is Joanna Klatten. She averages a shade over 281 yards per drive. The average drive on the LPGA Tour is something in the area of 250 yards. On the PGA Tour, the current longest driver of the ball is Jimmy Walker at just under 336 yards.

The simple fact is that the vast majority of players don’t hit the ball anywhere nearly far enough to compare their games with PGA Tour pros. However, you can compare your game to many LPGA Tour players. They hit the ball a distance that is similar to how we hit it.

On top of that, the average length of a PGA Tour golf course is 7100 yards. On the LPGA Tour, however, the length of the average course is 6400 yards. At the course where I play primarily, the length from the white tees is just over 6200 yards. Adding 900 yards to that to play at a length close to what the PGA Tour players play would put enormous strain on my game, on every facet of my game. I would be hitting longer shots into greens. I would have longer putts for birdies and pars, and I would miss a lot more greens, putting pressure on my short game.

Watch the way the ladies play. Because most of them can’t dismantle a course with power, they have to think their way around the course more. They have to plan their path to the hole and to pars in a way the guys usually don’t.

The scores are closer to the way a majority of players play

This is not a knock on the ladies in any way, so please don’t read it as such. And, I’m not saying they score the way we do. I’m saying their scores are closer to ours and therefore, easier to relate to, relatively speaking.

Through the first ten events on the LPGA Tour this season, the average winning score was 16.7 under par. On the PGA Tour, through six events, it was 20.8 under. In other words, on the average (and even with the relatively small sample size), the men are playing more than four strokes under par more than the ladies per four-day tournament, or a stroke a round.

Why is that important and an argument to watch the ladies? Because if you are reading this article, you have very likely not shot 20-under par for a hundred rounds, to say nothing of four. And while the ladies are still kicking our asses at about 4-under per round, that is closer to reality for us weekend warriors.

As with my first point, they are closer to hitting the ball and scoring the way most of us score than the men.

They play interesting and unknown golf courses all over the world

Pebble Beach is stunning, of course. Augusta is a masterpiece of aesthetic and golf beauty. Other courses have charm and looks, but for the most part, they are all in the United States and very familiar.

That’s not to say that is a bad thing, but isn’t variety the spice of life?

The LPGA Tour is truly an international tour. Since the beginning of October, the LPGA Tour has played in China, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Japan, Mexico, and this week they are in Florida.

In the same span, the PGA Tour has played in the United States, Kuala Lumpur, China, The U.S., Mexico, and the U.S.

A quick at the leaderboards this week will also reveal how global the LPGA Tour is.

In the top ten this week through two rounds at the RSM classic, you have one Canadian, Mackenzie Hughes, who is in the lead, a citizen of Chinese Taipei, a South Korean, and a Japanese citizen. Oh, and 12 Americans.

On the LPGA Tour, through two rounds at the CME Group Tour Championship (We really need better names for these golf tournaments on both tours), we find New Zealander Lydia Ko. Behind her are three South Koreans, a Spaniard, a Colombian, and an Englishwoman. And three Americans.

Now, I ask you, which is the more international, global tour?

They are beautiful

Anyone who says the LPGA Tour is about more than just good-looking playing golf well is right. There is real competition out there. The golf is fantastic and fun to watch.

But anyone who says there isn’t a little bit of sex appeal going on is dead wrong. Or blind. Or, you know, not into women.

These ladies are gorgeous and that has to account for something.

I don’t mean to sound lecherous, but I don’t find anything wrong with acknowledging beauty when I see it, and these ladies are beautiful.

In fact, it’s amazing to me that more men don’t watch the LPGA Tour. It combines two things men love: Good golf and beautiful woman.

So, give a watch to a couple ladies tour events this year. You won’t regret it.

Cover Photo via Flickr