Brandel Chamblee is at it once more. This previous weekend on the U.S. Girls’s Open, he spoke on Stay From with Mel Reid concerning the ladies’s sport. He particularly took umbrage with the dearth of driving greens in two on par-5s.
“It does rob the LPGA tour of a whole lot of its pleasure,” Chamblee mentioned.
Does it?
Driving a inexperienced in two is sort of the achievement. It’s thrilling. However what makes it thrilling is the truth that it’s not frequent.
Chamblee would go on to assert that the LPGA ought to shorten programs for the ladies by roughly 1,100 yards. That’s on high of the tees which are already moved up from males’s tees.
This is identical one that claims they should lengthen programs for the lads to over 8,000 yards. Wouldn’t that do the other although for the lads?
Lengthy-time PGA Tour coach and media character Peter Kostis commented on the tweet from Golf.com’s article on the matter.
That is golf opinions in a nutshell. USGA says the ball ought to be rolled again as a result of males hit it too far! Too many wedges and too few 3 shot par 5’s! However programs on the LPGA are too lengthy as a result of they do not hit sufficient wedges and might’t attain par 5’s in 2! Which is it?
— Peter Kostis (@peterjkostis) July 10, 2023
He hit the nail on the top. Kostis known as out Chamblee for showing to speak out of each side of his mouth.
Initially, it was the U.S. Girls’s Open, a serious championship.
Eagles and birdies are essential to profitable golf tournaments, however it isn’t purported to be a birdie fest. Majors are purported to push gamers to their limits, and the USGA does that.
Fewer birdies at main championships are extra entertaining, and that’s an opinion shared by golf followers all over the place. Simply check out what occurred after day one in all this 12 months’s U.S. Open.
Each Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele shot report 62’s, sending followers right into a tizzy with the low scoring.
Secondly, if the LPGA shortened programs, it will flip right into a wedge present. Positive it will produce extra birdies and eagles, however that might get boring after some time. Seeing the lads destroy the final three tournaments with 20-under-plus scores misplaced its luster shortly.
The viewership rankings again that up.
Past that, seeing skilled golfers battle is what makes golf extra entertaining and notably extra relatable to the common viewer.
Chamblee’s feedback really feel short-sided.
Getting dwelling in two is a ability that few LPGA gamers have. Bailey Tardy made an eagle each occasions she obtained on the inexperienced in two strokes, giving two thrilling moments, however that’s the level of it. She did one thing totally different.
“You simply take into consideration the distinction of the lads’s sport,” Chamblee mentioned on Stay From, “and sometimes they’re driving it down there they usually’re hitting thrilling pictures with mid-irons, lengthy irons, getting on the sixth inexperienced.”
“These par-5s are supposed to be thrilling. They’re meant to have a shot on the 18th inexperienced in two. Not a single participant right now hit the 18th inexperienced in two. … You return to the most important championships which are performed right here, and these are a few of the most enjoyable moments when gamers have an opportunity to go for par-5s in two.”
He’s speaking concerning the males’s sport throughout a girl’s match. Positive it’s thrilling, however it’s as a result of these gamers are in a position to do one thing that not everybody else can.
Shortening ladies’s programs is simply going to permit extra ladies to achieve in two, making it commonplace.
These professionals must be challenged.
This argument additionally seems to point out hints of sexism. It might not be the primary time the Golf Channel analyst would have discovered himself in an argument of that kind.
In March of 2021, Lisa Cornwell filed a grievance with the EEOC, accusing the Golf Channel and Chamblee for perceived sexist feedback made on air.
18 totally different former workers of the NBC Community accused the Golf Channel community of being a hostile office rife with sexism and misogyny.
Chamblee and Reid got here up with a system, however it misses the purpose. Evaluating the longest hitters on the LPGA to Rory McIlroy isn’t good. He’s a special type of animal and that might be like evaluating apples to oranges.
Shortening programs by 1,100 yards is simply blasphemy.
