October 2009: Golf Digest Woman: Golf Digest

Print
E-Mail
Feeds

Golf Digest Woman Blog: golfdigest.com

Results for October 2009 Back to Golf Digest Woman Index

25 More Yards

Monday, October 26, 2009

When I started my eight-year run as an editor for the now-defunct Golf For Women magazine in 2000, I quickly learned that the most successful stories we could produce were the ones that helped women gain extra distance, especially off the tee. If we had an article that allowed us to slap a "25 More Yards" cover line on the cover, we were golden. Men are generally more interested in stories that help them fix a slice and keep the ball in the fairway, but for women, distance is king (or queen, depending on how you look at it.) It's pure physics: the average woman's swing speed is roughly 30 percent slower than the average man's, which means they hit it a lot shorter. In fact, women hit the ball shorter than even they realize. We conducted studies at GFW that showed the average woman golfer hits a driver about 145 yards, and she thinks she hits it at least 170.

I'm guilty of this myself. I used to be a decent junior player and still harbor illusions that I average about 200 yards off the tee. The truth is, my average is more like 180 yards these days (I've hit enough balls on a launch monitor to know this for a fact). But last week, at the Golf Digest Hot List summit in Mesquite, Nev., I found myself striping drives that routinely measured 210 to 220 yards day in and day out. I acted cool about it but secretly couldn't believe what I was seeing. I know the air is thin out there in desert, but I've played golf at serious altitude before (my favorite golf destinations in the U.S. are Aspen and Vail, Colo.) and know that at my clubhead speed, it doesn't add that much to the total yardage. This was strictly a result of hitting some of the next-generation drivers that were included in our testing.

I didn't get these numbers from one specific club, but several. And when I thought my mind was playing tricks on me, I'd pull out my own driver -- a 2007 high-end composite model from a major manufacturer, which was considered top-notch technology two years ago -- to compare. Every time, I came up a good 25 yards longer with the new clubs. On the surface, the latest drivers don't look all that different than mine, but under the hood, there are some real improvements that obviously work. They're also lighter and longer than they used to be, which helps increase clubhead speed -- especially if, like most women, you're on the slower end of the scale to begin with.

Any woman golfer who thinks this game is all about the operator and not the equipment is doing herself a huge disservice. You want 25 more yards? Then go buy yourself a new driver. I sure plan to.

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

Morgan Pressel: My Story

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

By Morgan Pressel

Breast cancer has been a part of my life since I was 11 years old. That's when my parents sat the three of us down at the kitchen table--my sister was three years younger than me and my brother five years younger--and Dad told us our mother was sick. They were trying to explain to three little kids that their mother has a life-threatening illness, and we just didn't understand. My mom, Kathy Krickstein Pressel, was 39 that day. Four years later breast cancer took her from us.

As a kid you think those you care about have a magical protection. When bad news comes, you tell yourself everything will be OK, even if you don't believe it. You just keep saying, "She'll be fine, she'll be fine, she'll be fine." The thing about cancer patients is that until they lose their hair they don't really look sick. When you live with someone with cancer, it is easy to lose sight of the fact she is sick. When Mom started to lose a little bit of energy, that was the first thing I noticed.

When Mom lost her hair that was hard for her, and for us to see her with a wig, or a hat. We all had to stay positive for her. She had a mastectomy and then chemotherapy. Then she was in remission for two and a half years and we all thought everything was fine. But it came back as stage IV cancer.

Maybe it was because I was older or because it affected her differently, but I noticed it more this time. She only lived a year and a half after the cancer returned, and it was much different than the first bout. When she watched me play in the 2001 U.S. Women's Open when I was 13, people had no idea she was sick. Two years later at the Doherty Championship, the year she died, she was visibly sick. It was 30 degrees and she was all wrapped up in blankets, but she was still out there to watch me.

Even before I became a professional golfer I knew I wanted to help raise money for research and early detection. Two years ago, I started the Morgan & Friends Fight Cancer Tournament, which will be played Jan. 4-5, 2010 at St. Andrews CC in Boca Raton, Fla. With the help of Polo Ralph Lauren, we have also raised funds selling the Pink Pony "Morgan shirt." These efforts have raised nearly $1 million for the Lynn Cancer Institute's Breast Cancer Center at Boca Raton Community Hospital and the Sylvester Cancer Center at the University of Miami. Recent efforts through Boca Raton Hospital Foundation's Go Pink Challenge resulted in the purchase of the Kathryn Krickstein Pressel MonnoVan which will provide traveling state-of-the-art digital mammography to the residents of Palm Beach County.

Just as important as the money is the need to increase awareness. That's why campaigns like this Golf World Pink Issue are important. We must tell the stories of women such as Missy Farr-Kaye, who you will read about in this issue.

We need to bring the message of early detection to everyone. Medical equipment is better; doctors now have so much experience with the disease, they're getting better at pinpointing and combating it. But when you are diagnosed at stage IV, it doesn't matter who your doctor is because the cancer has probably already spread too far.

You can't sit there and think this won't happen to me. Women need to get mammograms and do self-examinations. The men in their lives need to support and encourage them. The earlier you find it, the better off you are, there is no question about that. Think about the women on our tour and how many will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Maybe it will be me. And if that day comes, hopefully I'll have the best care possible and maybe there will even be a cure.

That's what we are all working toward--a cure. We want to end those tearful kitchen-table conversations where Daddy tells three young children that Mommy is sick.

We can do this. We must do this. We will do this.

Keywords:

Much Ado About Nothing

Friday, October 9, 2009

After weeks of drama, intrigue and speculation, the "Body Issue" of ESPN The Magazine, featuring an image of LPGA players Christina Kim, Anna Grzebien and Sandra Gal in nothing but their birthday suits, is finally here. And I can't for the life of me understand what all the pre-publication fuss was about.

(Photo by Matthias Clamer, courtesy of ESPN. For more images from the Body Issue, click here.)

Bloggers, writers and pundits across the nation have debated ad nauseum whether exposure of this kind would be good or bad for the LPGA Tour. What message might it send to young people? Do women golfers really need to take their clothes off to draw attention to themselves? What will the sponsors say?

The truth is, ESPN The Magazine has accomplished something pretty spectacular with this issue. It's chock-full of beautiful, interesting, funny and sometimes disturbing images of world-class athletes of all kinds in various stages of undress, as they either show off battle wounds or perform their individual sports. It's not sensationalism, it's not porn, it's not even remotely uncomfortable -- or, I might add, titillating -- to look at (some of the images, like that of surfer Laird Hamilton's cracked heel, are pure turn-offs). It's a study of the human physical form at work, in different extremes. And contrary to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, which offers nothing but a series of centerfolds thinly veiled as "fashion" stories, this magazine has some real meaning from an athletic perspective.

Golf as a sport should be proud to be included, and the three players pictured thanked for their participation.

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

Why Are Men Better?

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

When sifting through my "Ask Stina" inbox the other day, I came across this e-mail from Sylvie in Canada:

"There's a question that's really puzzling me: Why is the average handicap so much higher for women than for men?

Women: 80% of women who hold a USGA handicap have a handicap of 20 or more. Only 2.7% of women have a handicap of 10 or less.

http://www.usga.org/handicapping/articles_resources/Women-s-USGA-Handicap-Indexes/

Men: 75% of men who hold a USGA handicap have a handicap of 20 or less. 25% of men have a handicap of 10 or less.

http://www.usga.org/handicapping/articles_resources/Men-s-USGA-Handicap-Indexes/"

Sylvie then referred me to her own thoughts on the matter (some borrowed from "Gwladys Nocera's coach"), posted on her blog at stracka.com. Her possible reasons for men's higher handicap averages include the following:

"* Most golf courses are too long for women, which often means that a woman will need to hit a 5-wood to the green when a man hits a 6-iron. It makes a world of difference, because the ball trajectory and the accuracy are obviously not the same. It's true that I often see women hitting hybrids on par 3s when a man will use a short iron or even a wedge.

* Women are not educated in ball sports. They're pushed toward dance or yoga or that kind of things. So they don't develop the same abilities as the boys who play football or hockey or baseball from a very young age.

* Women have been raised to be nice and follow the rules. They end up having a less creative short game than men, which hurts their score.

* Women are more emotional than men and it hurts them on the course.

* This sport has been predominently male for a long time. There are more and more female players, but they're fairly new to the game, so they don't have as much experience as the men.

* Women often take up the sport because their spouse is a golfer and they just want to be with him on the course. They don't care about excelling at it.

* Women are busy raising children, working, taking care of the house and al. and so they don't have time to practice and play.

* They don't have time to train because they're too busy doing photo shoots in skimpy clothes (a personal rant, never mind :P)"

I agree with Sylvie on some points: Golf-course yardages are in many cases patently unfair to women. Women may not grow up playing ball sports to the same extent men do (although no one ever pushed dance or yoga down my throat as a kid -- on the contrary, my ultra-liberal mother took me to hockey lessons when I told her I wanted to try figure skating). And women in general have very busy schedules and can't allow golf to become a priority (probably because their husbands already have dibs on being the golf-obsessed spouse, and the kids would starve if both parents abandoned them on Saturdays and Sundays). I also agree that a lot of women are new to the game and thus still on the steep end of the learning curve.

However, I don't agree with the argument that women "don't care about excelling." That's pure hogwash. We care a lot, and while we may not throw clubs or drop f-bombs every time we miss a shot (okay, present company excluded), we are extremely competitive. Have you ever spent a few hours with the thursday-afternoon ladies' 18-holer group at your local golf club? I defy you to find a more cut-throat group of competitors in the world.

And there are some other simple answers to why the average handicap of women golfers is higher than that of men. For starters, we're more honest. We post every score, even the bad ones. I have yet to meet a woman with a vanity handicap, but I know many guys who prefer to keep their more unfortunate scores to themselves. I'm not calling them cheaters, but I think they're good at "forgetting" to post scores that might cause a blow to their Index. Women also count every stroke, hole out on every hole, and -- yes -- follow the rules. We don't hit a drive O.B., take a mulligan or a drop by the fence where the ball went out, then record a 4.

Plus, there are fewer competitive opportunities for good women golfers. A lot of amateur men hone their skills in competitions and leagues where they play against similarly skilled players, while most single-digit-handicap women are not allowed to compete against the guys and have a tough time finding women's tourneys that challenge them.

As for Sylvie's dig about LPGA players posing nude in a national publication, our opinions definitely differ on that point. I say more power to them. But that's a different post.

--Stina Sternberg

There's Nothing Wrong With Lorena Ochoa

Sunday, October 4, 2009

It's safe to say 2009 has been an uphill year for the LPGA Tour. Tournaments have lost sponsors, the tour's commissioner was pushed out mid-season and none of the four majors were won by a household name. So perhaps it's understandable that many people, stuck in glass-half-empty gear, had lost hope for the tour's no. 1 player, 27-year-old Lorena Ochoa.

Lorena Ochoa watches her birdie putt on the 72 hole of the Navistar LPGA Classic last Sunday. (Photo: Dave Martin, Getty Images)

Golf message boards have been asking what's "wrong" with Ochoa for months, and most of her tournament press conferences have focused on her "slump." She set the bar ridiculously high last year, when she won six of her first nine events of the season, and her poor showing in the 2009 majors -- combined with a seemingly relaxed competitive edge -- had the vultures circling. But when you look at the stats, Ochoa's 2009 record is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Before winning her third event of the year Sunday, when she beat Michelle Wie and Brittany Lang by four strokes to defend her title at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala., Ochoa had earned over a million dollars and recorded nine top-10 finishes in 17 starts this season. She never gave up pole position in the Rolex World Rankings, and while she's losing the 2009 Rolex Player of the Year battle, it's not exactly as if she's been pulling a David Duval.

It turns out Ochoa has a life outside of golf (gasp!), and has been a little busy with other things lately. She's getting married in December, to AeroMexico head honcho Andres Conesa, and becoming a stepmother to his three children. She's leaving Guadalajara, where she's lived her whole life, to set up house with her new husband in Mexico City. So let's forgive the girl for being a little distracted. Heaven knows most of us get a tad wrapped up in details when we're planning our wedding.

Ochoa has been busy preparing for her December wedding to Andres Conesa.

(Photo: Archivo Quien)

Maybe the relentless questioning finally got to the Mexican superstar. Maybe she just found her form again. Either way, her decisive victory in Alabama sends a strong message: Let's all just take a chill pill. Ochoa isn't packing it in anytime soon.

--Stina Sternberg

Keywords:

The year of the comeback

Thursday, October 1, 2009

A mother for only a month now, Annika Sorenstam's focus likely isn't much different than that of any parent of a newborn: feedings, diaper changes, writing thank-you notes for baby gifts until the onset of acute carpal tunnel syndrome.

Given all that, if Sorenstam was paying any attention to last month's U.S. tennis Open, it could well have been in the sort of sleep-deprived haze in which you aren't sure who's playing, what the score is, or for that matter, why one of the players is threatening to lodge a tennis ball down the throat of a line judge.

But if Twitter is any indication, Sorenstam was indeed monitoring the action at Flushing Meadows, and she even took note of the heartwarming story of a young mother who enjoyed a triumphant return to competition. Perhaps watching Kim Clijsters win the Open in her first major back as a new mother served as nothing more than entertainment to Sorenstam back home in Orlando. But there's always the chance it was something closer to inspiration.

This sports year has been defined by any number of different stories, but one recurring theme has been that of the comeback. Tiger Woods came back from knee surgery and won six tournaments. The quarterback Brett Favre returned from yet another false retirement and now has his new team, the Minnesota Vikings, 3-0. The most impressive may have been Clijsters, the one-time top-ranked Belgian who stepped away from tennis in May 2007, gave birth to daughter Jada almost a year later, then decided she was ready to give tennis another whirl this summer. Almost on a whim, Clijsters entered the Open, and somehow proceeded through the draw unscathed and emerged with her second Grand Slam title.

Other than an innocuous online congratulations, there is nothing that says Sorenstam took Clijster's victory to heart. But given her own competitive hardwiring, it's not a stretch to think the events may have resonated with her beyond a fleeting "Oh, good for her." The Clijsters win already had enough of an impact on Justine Henin, another former top-ranked Belgian tennis player, that Henin will now resume her own tennis career -- although Henin, who doesn't have children, never went so far to cite Clijsters when announcing her return.

Sorenstam, of course, needs to look no further than her own sport's Juli Inkster for perhaps the most compelling example of a female athlete who has successfully balanced work and family. But what makes Clijsters' win so intriguing is the timing of it all. Here was a legend of her sport just days into motherhood, watching another mother not only wade back into the waters of competition, but return to the height of her profession.

Not even a year since stepping away from the LPGA, with daughter Ava still only sleeping a few hours at a time, a comeback might not be a thought that Sorenstam is yet willing to entertain. But if she does decide to step back inside the ropes, we might be able to point to when the idea first gained traction.

-- Sam Weinman

Keywords: