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Would the LPGA Tour be better off leaving the Golf Channel?

Scorpion12 said:
When you say average male, are you referring to average men or PGA pros? I'd argue that an LPGA pro will hit the ball just as far as the average male and have a much better short game. But that's my opinion.
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I was talking about PGA pros.
 
JonMA1 said:
I was talking about PGA pros.
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Oh ok, then I think you're right. They'll be using 60* wedges and the LPGA players will mostly be using mid irons.:)
 
JonMA1 said:
But that distance is a huge advantage. When the top women are pulling a mid-iron, the average male is pulling a wedge.
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Again - it's not relevant to compare distance between them. Obviously the men hit it further than the women do, that's why the LPGA Tour doesn't play the same yardages the PGA Tour does. If you want to rely solely on distance as the metric you're going to use for comparison, then I'll just say "you're right" and leave it at that, because there's no sense debating it on those grounds. The fact that the men hit it further doesn't mean they're "playing golf at a higher level" - it means they're hitting the ball further because they're men and you're comparing them against women.


JonMA1 said:
As far as your other points about the short game and putting, how could you possibly know unless they played head-to-head?
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Maybe compare stats between the tours? (2021 stats from pgatour.com and lpga.com):

Scoring Leaders: PGA Jon Rahm 69.300 // LPGA Nelly Korda 68.774

Driving accuracy: PGA Brendan Todd 75.25% // LPGA Mo Martin 87.3%

Putts per Round: PGA Cameron Smith 27.76 // LPGA Inbee Park 28.71

Greens in Regulation: PGA Cameron Percy 72.58% // LPGA Lexi Thompson and Jin Young Ko 78.8%



The one significant difference:

Driving distance: PGA Bryson DeChambeau 323.7 // Anne Van Dam 290.822

PGA Tour had 61 players average over 300 yards in 2021; LPGA had 1 player in the 290s, 1 player in the 280s, and 11 players in the 270s. Anne Van Dam would have ranked 153 in driving distance on the PGA Tour. Because she's a woman and we'd be comparing her against men.
 
Snowman said:
Again - it's not relevant to compare distance between them. Obviously the men hit it further than the women do, that's why the LPGA Tour doesn't play the same yardages the PGA Tour does. If you want to rely solely on distance as the metric you're going to use for comparison, then I'll just say "you're right" and leave it at that, because there's no sense debating it on those grounds. The fact that the men hit it further doesn't mean they're "playing golf at a higher level" - it means they're hitting the ball further because they're men and you're comparing them against women.
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No, I'm not using that metric alone but it's a significant part of the equation.

Again... If you took mid-level PGA tour players and had them play a season in the LPGA - the same LPGA distances, same course setup and pin placement - how would they fare over the course of a season? Distance alone is not going to win. There are plenty of single-digit men hitting much further who wouldn't have a prayer.

Statistically (GIR... driving accuracy... putts per hole...) the women's numbers are at least as good. But as others have said, those stats are rarely coming from the same course conditions. I have no way of knowing how true that is, but it's a common belief.

If the question is, Head-to-head, are they at the same level? I would say they are not. Maybe I'm wrong.

That said, it doesn't matter to me if they are at the same level just as it doesn't matter if women tennis player could compete against the men. I simply prefer watching the women's version of the game more.
 
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