OT: Girl wins boys golf tournament but can't be awarded first place

[Aluminny69]

Girl wins boys golf tournament but can't be awarded first place

Golf is one of those unique sports where strength or size makes little difference. She should be the official winner. 75 and beat the boys. I bet a trophy will not matter because her future looks bright from my seat. Great job Emily.

 

[YellwJcket999]

I am not surprised. I am a huge golfer and golf fan. Do you remember when Anikka Sorenstam and Michelle Wie were to play in the men's tourney?
Both received vicious messages and threats. Both talked about the heavy tension, pressure that they felt leading up to and during their play. Neither felt comfortable and didn't feel as though they could play their game.

Needless to say their lack of results was used as fuel for strict segregation of the tours.

My take is: If you can get the ball in the hole in less strokes than I can - you beat me. At the very elite level there is a significant gap between the sexes. There are some times, however, when that is not the case. During those times let the most skilled player hoist the trophy no matter the gender.

The scorecard does not come with pictures -only circles and squares, pluses, pars and minuses.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Women play shorter yardages that should equalize things.

Annika was fairly close to being able to compete with the men. A major difference was that her short game was very good, but not great. Michelle was beyond unrealistic. She needed to beat the female pros first, before thinking of competing against men. Annika was a dominant player. Michelle hits the ball a long way, but she’s far from dominant.

 

[SVCBeercats]

Girl wins boys golf tournament but can't be awarded first place
Golf is one of those unique sports where strength or size makes little difference. She should be the official winner. 75 and beat the boys. I bet a trophy will not matter because her future looks bright from my seat. Great job Emily.

"Golf is one of those unique sports where strength or size makes little difference."
Actually size and strength does matter otherwise there would be not be ladies' tees. No woman has ever won a men's tournament (a couple have tried) and I guarantee no woman would win a woman's tournament if men were to be allowed to play in them without ladies' tees.

 

[VaConnFan11]

The rules stated in the article are pretty clear to me.

If you don't like the rules then change them. Otherwise abide by them.

 

[JustinesGuy]

I'm pretty dominant at tiger woods golf on the Wii.

 

[Huskee11]

Good sportsmanship by the young man who offered her the trophy.

Although the article wasn't explicit, I assume she played from the same tees.

Suzy Whaley won the Connecticut PGA Section title in 2002 playing from the women's tees. That got her into the 2003 GHO where she shot a respectable 75-78 from the back tees. Rule was changed the next year requiring women to play from same tees as men in PGA events.

 

[Monte]

How many boys have won a Girls' Tournament?

 

[YellwJcket999]

At the time that Wie was offered to play in a men's tourney. She was pretty damn good. The initial part of her career mental issues outside of the ropes plagued her inside of the ropes. While she was playing well she could post a respectable score hitting from the men's tees.

I performed a few stat analysis and there are quite a few out there. What really separates the women's game from the men's game is not so much about length. There are quite a few short course tourneys and short knockers (e.g.C.Pavin, F.Funk) where there is overlap between the long hitters on the women's tour and the short knockers on the men's tour. It is the differences in the short game that really set apart the men from the women at the elite level.
The putting percentages, up/downs, sand saves all show just how really good that even the very bottom ranked PGA tour players are compared to the top level females. All of that is an aside.

(Amateur level) There are women out there who can compete every bit with many/not all amateur men.
If she wants to lace them up and play with me. Let's do it. If she beats me (or you) she is just the better golfer.

Length is not the end all be all. Next time you play move up a tee and see how different your scores are. Good amateur women can play very competitively at ~6000yrds.

 

[MilfordHusky]

At the time that Wie was offered to play in a men's tourney. She was pretty damn good. The initial part of her career mental issues outside of the ropes plagued her inside of the ropes. While she was playing well she could post a respectable score hitting from the men's tees.

I performed a few stat analysis and there are quite a few out there. What really separates the women's game from the men's game is not so much about length. There are quite a few short course tourneys and short knockers (e.g.C.Pavin, F.Funk) where there is overlap between the long hitters on the women's tour and the short knockers on the men's tour. It is the differences in the short game that really set apart the men from the women at the elite level.
The putting percentages, up/downs, sand saves all show just how really good that even the very bottom ranked PGA tour players are compared to the top level females. All of that is an aside.

(Amateur level) There are women out there who can compete every bit with many/not all amateur men.
If she wants to lace them up and play with me. Let's do it. If she beats me (or you) she is just the better golfer.

Length is not the end all be all. Next time you play move up a tee and see how different your scores are. Good amateur women can play very competitively at ~6000yrds.

Wie was very, very good when younger--but she was playing against girls her age and then against all amateurs. She was one of the best female teenage golfers ever. At age 28, Michelle now has 4 LPGA wins. Annika retired at age 38 to start a family. She had 73 LPGA wins and seemed like a sure bet to break the all-time record if she had played a few more years.

I agree about the differences in short games. Annika was very straight off the tee. She chose a PGA tour event that would play to her strengths, but she missed too many greens and couldn't get up and down to save pars a few too many times. I'm not sure who the best women are in terms of short game, but I've not seen anyone close to Tiger, Phil, or Spieth.

 

[meyers7]

Girl wins boys golf tournament but can't be awarded first place

Golf is one of those unique sports where strength or size makes little difference. She should be the official winner. 75 and beat the boys. I bet a trophy will not matter because her future looks bright from my seat. Great job Emily.

It is my understanding that in Mass the boys play in the Fall and the girls play in the Spring. So she can get her trophy in the spring if she wins. I guess they allow the girls to play in the Fall with the boys. Our town has a couple girls playing in the Fall season on the boys team.

 

[Blakeon18]

There is not 'strict segregation' of the golf tours. The PGA allows women to play in their events.
Women can qualify just as men can....and women can receive sponsor invitations. Annika got one...Wiesy quite a few. The LPGA does discriminate against men....no man can play in any LPGA event. Thank heavens for that....it would destroy the tour.

When Annika got her sponsor's invitation there were some unnecessary snide comments from a few men....notably VJ Singh. Annika played respectably....71-74...missed the cut on a course she cherry-picked to suit her game....and as always handled herself beautifully.

Her quotes after the 36 holes...I may be paraphrasing a tad here: She said 'I'm not as tough as I thought I was'...and 'I'm going back to play where I belong'. That last one....yikes!
IMO: Michelle's playing in multiple men's events delayed her progress.

 

[Aluminny69]

It is my understanding that in Mass the boys play in the Fall and the girls play in the Spring. So she can get her trophy in the spring if she wins. I guess they allow the girls to play in the Fall with the boys. Our town has a couple girls playing in the Fall season on the boys team.

Thanks for that info. So, does that mean that girls can play and compete for their H.S. boys team in the Fall, they just can't play in the final Tournament? Or, in this case, girls can play in the final Tournament, they just can't get a trophy? ( IOW take a trophy away from a boy.)

 

[rugbymate]

Interesting topic....I'm one who believes that driving distance makes a huge difference in scores relative to the short game. PGA men in the top 10 average almost 50 yards farther than the top 10 women on the LPGA. There is no man in the top 125 that is outdriven by an LPGA player on average. That becomes a 3-5 club difference per hole and that will add up to a lot of strokes over the course of a round. Its not just the yardage difference it is carries and angles that can make a bigger difference.
At our club we have a tournament from the tips (7600) each year and the average score is about 12 strokes higher than the normal yardage (6450).
If women want to play in men's tourneys using the men's tees then why not? The reverse could also work where men can play in women's tourneys if they used the men's tees. Highly impractical but fair.
Ditto to the other posters who pointed out the sportsmanship of the runner up. Given all the bad news that we hear everyday its nice to have a positive story.

 

[meyers7]

Thanks for that info. So, does that mean that girls can play and compete for their H.S. boys team in the Fall, they just can't play in the final Tournament? Or, in this case, girls can play in the final Tournament, they just can't get a trophy? ( IOW take a trophy away from a boy.)

I'm not sure. Haven't looked that far into it. In our West Regional it looks like the girl for our school came in 2nd, but they don't have her as "Qualifying" for State. Not sure how all this works. Girls Golf looks like it is in the Spring, but it doesn't look like we have a Golf Team in the spring?? Have to look further into MIAA rules and such.

 

[Orangutan]

Michelle was beyond unrealistic. She needed to beat the female pros first, before thinking of competing against men. Annika was a dominant player. Michelle hits the ball a long way, but she’s far from dominant.

She missed the cut by one shot at the 2004 Sony Open when she was only 14. It wasn't *that* unrealistic.

 

[YellwJcket999]

She missed the cut by one shot at the 2004 Sony Open when she was only 14. It wasn't *that* unrealistic.

Great post +1!

 

[MilfordHusky]

She missed the cut by one shot at the 2004 Sony Open when she was only 14. It wasn't *that* unrealistic.

I wasn't aware that she was that close. Plus, I just read that she missed another cut by 2 stokes. Both of those are obviously impressive. But the clear point is that Annika dominated the best women in the world, whereas Michelle dominated only the amateur women and women her age. For Annika, playing in a PGA event seemed like the next step. For Michelle, it seemed as if she was skipping a step. My expectations for Michelle were to be the female version of Tiger. At some point, her improvement slowed substantially.

 

[Paesano]

The problem isn't that she didn't get the trophy. That is clear from the rules. The problem is the rules. Men and women should play in the same tournaments, from the same tees. That will work out well.