Golf should be ashamed of huge gender pay gap
LET US start with the good news, and the debunking of the idea there has to be a nasty edge for the Solheim Cup to be wholly engrossing, or the result going down to the wire.
There was barely a cross look between the two teams in Des Moines last week and the outcome was not really in doubt from the moment Europe were whitewashed in Friday’s fourballs. Yet this 15th edition was so much more enjoyable than the last one in Germany — which had both of those things — the two were hardly comparable.
Now for the other kind, for when you see golf and a spectacle of this standard it emphasises the sport’s shame that its female players languish largely in the wilderness while their tennis equivalent enjoy equal status with the men.
Nowhere is this more apparent in Europe, where many of the players have to take on a second job to fuel their passion and where the tour has all but collapsed this year. The 30th-ranked woman has so far made a princely £19,200 compared to the £664,000 made by the same player on the men’s circuit. Anyone involved in golf should feel embarrassed by that large a pay gap.
Is it any wonder that some of the less experienced European players wilted in Des Moines? How are they expected to go from playing seven events in as many months to taking on the Americans? It wasn’t their fault they didn’t cope, it is the responsibility of the powers that be to provide them with a viable, competitive circuit and then the best of them will. There is talk of Keith Pelley, innovative chief executive of the men’s European Tour, extending a helping hand as well as Mike Whan, the leader of the strong women’s circuit in America. That is a good start but if truth be told it is time everyone got involved, starting with the cashrich R&A and working on down.
There needs to be some fresh ideas and clear thinking from the entire golf community to do something about this disgraceful gender inequality. There are tens of millions of pounds being spent on professional golf in Europe and far more needs to be directed at the women’s game.