June is the American Express Woman’s Golf Month and PGA.com hosted a panel of the most illustrious and influential women in the golf industry to talk about variety of topics pertaining to the double X chromosome golfers.
PGA.com Women’s Panel:
Carol Mann: LPGA Hall of Fame member. 36 LPGA wins. Former President of the LPGA. 2008 PGA First Lady of Golf. PGA Professional.
Sandy LaBauve: PGA Professional, Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher
Suzy Whaley: PGA Professional. First female in 58 years to qualify to play in a PGA Tour event. Two-time Connecticut PGA Teacher of the Year. National Spokeswoman for American Express Women’s Golf Month.
Dr. Renee Powell: Former LPGA player. PGA Professional. Awarded Honorary Doctorate from famed St. Andrews University in Scotland.
Pam Swensen: CEO of Executive Women’s Golf Association.
The panel discusses a variety of topics including how women benefit from playing golf, why men should want more women to golf, the influence of women in the golf world, the growth of the LPGA, if it’s okay for women to market their appearance in an effort to attract an audience for women’s golf, if the influx of Asian golfers is good or bad for the LPGA and how men can often mess up a woman’s golf game before the first tee is put in the ground.
They’ve broken the panel into four segments, one for every week during the month. Here’s the first two weeks.
Presently, they’ve reported that 23% of golfers are women and they’d like to see 35%.
One of the topics discussed in the first panel was that men should encourage the ol’ ball and chain to take up the sport to alleviate the “guilt” factor that comes from ditching the family on the weekends to go pursue the little white demon. I can definitely see the benefit of this, in fact I’ve often considered bringing her into the fold, but in the end I always come to the same conclusion, golf is “my time” and I don’t want to share it.
When you have a family, your life is truly fulfilled and you now have a purpose and a responsibility to them. You end up becoming a shared entity where you are divided between wife, kids, work, golf blog, etc.. 🙂 and in many cases that leaves little or no time that “me” piece. For me, golf is that piece and I don’t want to share it. Is that selfish? Perhaps, but it’s also necessary.
I often think of golf as my decompression chamber. It’s an amazing feeling to be standing on that 1st tee box at 7am, when the morning is cool, the world is still, the sun is rising, the fog is lingering and the dew is still on the ground. You take that first deep breath and just feel all the tension drain out as you knock that first tee shot straight down the fairway, remembering the metallic tink sound your driver makes, contacting the ball.
Call me selfish, but that’s something I want to keep to myself. 🙂
-Dave
2 comments for “PGA.com Woman’s Golf Panel”