Below-par omission damaging

Sophia Popov won the Women’s British Open this year. Natalie Gulbis has failed to make a single cut in more than two years. Popov does not possess an Instagram account, but Gulbis does, and her 120,000-plus followers are regularly treated to images of the sometime swimwearmodel on the beach.

Guess who has been invited to play in the season-ending CME Group World Tour Championship thisweek? And guess who has not?

Popov, 28, is rightfully angry that she has been overlooked for one of the two sponsor’s spots in the field in Naples, Florida, that is supposed to feature the top players of the LPGA Tour season.

‘‘It’s a fairness thing as far as playing ability,’’ Popov told Golfweek. ‘‘It’s not like I haven’t earned it. I have earned it points-wise, technically.’’

All things being equal, and if the LPGA Tour was not pedantic over its rules to the point of being pathetic, Popov would be 16th in the standings.

Except, her glory at Troon and all the points she earned on the Ayrshire coast in August did not count because of red tape.

Popov was a member of the LPGA Tour’s feeder league, but not of the Tour itself. So Mike Whan, the Tour’s commissioner, stood firm, earning himself ‘‘Jobsworth of the Year’’ honours by denying the new superstar of the female game entry into the year’s second major, the Ana Inspiration, two weeks after the Women’s Open.

Popov hopedwould be it as far as the disregardwent, vowing to prove that shewould not need the five-year exemption on a Tour card that the major champion normally receives. Yet now comes this kick in the teeth.

It is not just a boot in the flashymolars for one individual, but for everyone who wants the professional female game to be treated with the respect it deserves as a collection of ultratalented competitors in their own right.

Terry Duffy, chief executive of CMEGroup, a globalmarkets company that prides itself on achieving the perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, attempted to justify picking Gulbis because ‘‘I have known her since 2005’’.

At that time, Gulbis had just released a calendar which featured her not only hitting golf balls but, yes, in a bikini. The US Golf Association barred it from going on sale at the US Women’s Open, saying it detracted from the sport that it promotes. Gulbis and her advisers pointed out it was a huge hit.

‘‘Once she startswinning, she’s going to be amegastar,’’ promised Gil Ozir, vice-president of marketing for RaymondWeil, awatchmaker and one of her many sponsors. Gulbis then won, the Evian Masters in France.

But that was it, her one and only title, back in 2007. This year the 37-year-old has played in six events and missed six cuts. Gulbis is ranked outside theworld’s top 1500.

Yet while her standing in golf has inexorably slipped, she has gained more traction on socialmedia, not least because, as a supporter of Donald Trump, she spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and was later appointed as a member of Trump’s council on sports, fitness and nutrition.

And now another friend in a high place has granted her the right to play for Sunday’s US$1.1 million first prize.

An LPGA Tour spokesperson said it is up to the sponsors who they invite and, doubtless, the CMEGroup will get plenty of coverage for its beloved brand on Gulbis’many streams.

But how does this help women’s golf and what does it say about the integrity of the female game?