If Inbee Park this week wins the British open at St. Andrews, she'll four professional majors, the first golfer in a season to have won. But this weekend the PGA Tour wants to focus, women at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, where play Tiger Woods at the Bridgestone Invitational. On July 30, it invited some 200 women in the Club share career tips, health advice, cocktail, and learn more about the PGA Tour. Participants have also a look behind the scenes of the upcoming men's tournament. What you don't get: a golf lesson.
This is because the goal of small women the game when support is received as sponsors and business partners. Akron event is one of the 17 "executive women of day" programs, the in PGA tournaments held this year as part of an effort to increase female support for the men the game. The all-day event - which are sponsored by the US unit of the Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma (4503: JP) and are also used by local companies, which tables to buy promoted - in 35 tournaments will take place until 2015. "We do a good job executive women have done", says Donna Fiedorowicz, who manages the program. "As a result, does not see these tournaments as a great place to do business."
All the more reason, urgently needed to play women. Unlike the NBA, for example, tends to draw viewers to golf tournaments, the the game itself: it is easier to silenced with the drama relate, if you have the personal agony of missing a short putt have experienced. The demographics of the golf fans and supporters reflects the composition of those play: only every fifth American duffers is a woman.
This reflects the diverse factors. Golf is fight for younger players of both sexes, an issue that coincides with the rise of women in decision-making positions; Don't women feel either too welcome made the world's most lucrative golf tour. The most famous event, masters, is approved at a club, the women only in the last year, and the pay disparity is disheartening: while almost 100 players on the PGA Tour the has more than $1-million prize money in the past year only one female per - Inbee Park - has. Oh, and it is still a good four hours a playing round.
But the PGA Tour Fiedorowicz says that women often fear what the sport completely turns off them. "If you put a club in their hands, you she will put off," she says, explaining why days at the marquee courses held the Executive Womens, women don't get to play. "Men take the game and play, even if she not very good," she says. "Women think,' if I'm not, I'm not sure I should be out there."
It hopes to facilitate the program maybe from next year. And what is poising with ripple effects from world's dominant golfer to make history? Inbee Park is great, but it is in a different League. "We want women to feel the excitement of the PGA Tour," she says. There is no need to play golf, men to support.
