\tLet\u2019s get the first one on the table straight away. Pace of play! I know that I drone on it about on a regular basis but what does that tell you?<\/p>\n
\tDuring the first two rounds it was, yet again, utterly funereal.<\/p>\n
\tTime and again we hear about the powers-that-be threatening to impose penalties on slow players so why don\u2019t they do it? Earlier this year the LPGA made it clear that they were planning to bite the bullet and penalise the worst offenders. What has happened? Precisely nothing.<\/p>\n
\tThey have the power to impose penalty strokes and what better place to do it than in a major with the eyes of the world on the event? The prevarication simply must stop. Let\u2019s start making examples of the worst offenders. PLEASE!<\/p>\n
\tI devour golf but I could not bring myself to stick with the opening round after Lottie Woad holed her final putt. It was like watching paint dry.<\/p>\n
\tA total of 47,000 fans attended at Royal Pothcawl – I would remind you that this is a major. The Open pulled in 280,000 – and that number could have been multiplied five-fold were it not for ticket restrictions.<\/p>\n
\tOn the eve of the tournament, Charley Hull, who provided a thrilling final-round charge<\/a>, admitted that she watches very little golf – and when she does it is things like Shell\u2019s Wonderful World of Golf that catch her attention.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tShe believes that today\u2019s players do not need to be nearly as creative as those who dominated the sport in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And she is quite correct.<\/p>\n \tBack then, players routinely manipulated the ball – left to right, right to left, low, high.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tBut here\u2019s the thing – the equipment of the day allowed them to do precisely that. Today\u2019s clubs are designed to be hit as hard as possible, especially drivers. It is no coincidence that today\u2019s top players miss more fairways from the tee than those who went before them because they hit the ball so hard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tThe likes of Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Hull herself don\u2019t care if they have to play from the rough because they are all super-fit and can muscle the ball to the green. And today\u2019s rough is a joke.<\/p>\n \tThere is another issue.<\/p>\n \tIf you tuned in to The Open Championship from Royal Portrush you will know that you were able to watch every single shot on all four days, from the opening drive on the first day to the winning putt on the Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tThe Women\u2019s Open?\u00a0<\/p>\n \tCoverage on Sky Sports Golf started at midday. Why?<\/p>\n \tIf you wanted to watch highlights of the final round on BBC2 then you had to stay up until 11.40pm! Talk about treating women\u2019s golfers like second-class citizens.<\/p>\n \tThe irony is that those who were unable to tune in to Sky Sports Golf missed an absolute treat on the final Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tHull looked like she was going to reel in Miyu Yamashita right up until she dropped shots at the 16th and 17th<\/a>. The English golfer is a breath of fresh air. She goes after every drive, attacks every flag and always gives the hole a chance. In other words, she is exactly the sort of golfer the sport needs to attract a new audience. But with such poor TV and media coverage, how on earth can that ever happen?<\/p>\n \t \tI also have to say that I have some concerns about the Ladies European Tour (LET) schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tThere has been no shortage of tournaments in 2025. On the face of it then, all is well. But look a little closer and a couple of things stand out – first, the more lucrative events (excluding the majors) are financed by Saudi businesses and second, the total prize money on offer at 12 tournaments is less than \u00a3350,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tWe are talking about first-place prize money of around \u00a350-70,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tWhen you take into account the costs of travel, caddies and suchlike it does not take a genius to work out just how difficult it is for the rank and file to make ends meet, far less enjoy a lucrative lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \tIf you have ever attended a routine LET event you will not need me to tell you that the galleries are paltry, the atmosphere non-existent.<\/p>\n \tI can\u2019t help but worry about what will happen if the Saudis ever decide that women\u2019s golf is not for them. And it could easily happen. They will not continue to back something if they don\u2019t see it as a good investment and cannot foresee making a return.<\/p>\n \tThere is a decent living to be made for the leading players on the LPGA Tour but Europe is an entirely different kettle of fish.<\/p>\n \tIf the LET is to survive and thrive it needs greater media exposure. Sadly, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.<\/p>\n Be part of the action with a selection of unique golf tournament experiences, from playing in a pro-am with the stars to watching the action at golf\u2019s most illustrious events. Whether it\u2019s the Masters or The Open, The Ryder Cup or WM Phoenix Open, build your own bespoke package with the experts at Golfbreaks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"View From The Fairway by Derek Clements Women’s golf still struggles to gain proper traction. Having reflected upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-60411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Charley](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/unnamed_41_isitjd.jpg\")
<\/p>\n