by Robert Bicknell

Well, golf news seems to be a little slow lately. As usual, Tiger Woods sent the usual mainline golf writers into orgasmatic bliss when he posted a video of himself hitting “full shots”.

Naturally, many gushed about the chances of a “Tiger Comeback”.

These people need to go find work in a bowling alley or something because that’s all they write about. Tiger this, Tiger that… Then that makes MY life worse because I have to write about them writing about Tiger Woods. OK, I don’t “have” to write about them writing about Tiger Woods, but it’s low-hanging fruit and I’m too lazy to jump for the riper ones in the high branches.

Tiger isn’t coming back. Get used to it. If he DOES comeback, he’ll be just another name out there, but not the dominating force he once was. Not gonna happen. Best thing Tiger can do is find other ventures. Play golf for fun with his friends (if he actually has any) and enjoy life.

Onwards…

Annika Sorenstam is poised to take on the men again, but this time she believes her pencil is mightier than the 5-iron. Yes, this is about golf, but not about playing golf… not really.

No, Annika wants to see more female GC designers given a chance and, to be honest, I don’t see why not. This has been an almost exclusive all-male dominated area of golf. Why a top female professional cannot design a course is ludicrous.

Many in the business claim that a female designer would make shorter, more friendly courses than a man would. Rubbish. Females have always been more devious, more conniving and treacherous than men. It’s true and you know it is.

Name the last time a man ever won an argument with his wife and lived to tell the story. The correct answer is “never” and it will never happen. Oh sure, you might THINK you won an argument, but if so, why are you sleeping on the sofa and sending flowers? Huh Huh?

Forget it. It a battle with females, men are helpless. Men think linear and Females think in ways that only Machiavelli could appreciate.

Men are dogs, women are cats. This is easy to prove.

Throw a Frizbee near guys and we’re off and running after it automatically. We simply cannot help ourselves. The same result happens with tennis balls and footballs. It’s a guy thing.

Toss a Frizbee or a ball near a woman and, just like a cat, they will look at you as it you’re stupid. Guys, you know that look. It’s the one that implies, “Oh you think so?"

So, with that in mind, why shouldn’t women be able to design golf courses?

Annika Sorenstam already designed an excellent course for Mission Hills in China, but I believe that what she is implying is that a female designer should be the norm rather than the exception, and I agree with that, to a degree.

The problem is that most of the “name” designers are guys who played on the PGA Tour and have won big events. Nicklaus, Norman, Player, Palmer, Els and even Tiger are amongst the big name, and big price tag crowd of designers.

With the exception of Annika Sorenstam, how many other female players carry the same name recognition?

That’s where the problem begins and ends as far as I am concerned. There are no household names on the LPGA Tour, and unless you’re an avid viewer of those events, you wouldn’t know the players if they were in an elevator with you.

The reason why the big names are in demand isn’t because of their design skills. For the most part, they almost never do the work themselves. They have talented teams who do it. All the names really do is look at the design once in a while, make a few small changes and then collect a ridiculous amount of money.

People hire these designers because of name recognition and that makes marketing the club easier in the future. The bigger the name, the easier it is to market.

That doesn’t always mean the design is great, it just means people will give it a benefit of the doubt and try the course. If it’s good, they’ll come back.

So, it’s not about gender or qualifications… it’s about name recognition. — VNS