Year of the woman

DIVOTS

Before this season, no woman had played in a men's tournament for 57 years since Babe Zahararis Didrikson. But this year, the tally has already touched and rising.

First, Suzy Whaley qualified to play at Hartford when she won a PGA club pro tournament late last year while playing from the forward tees.

Annika Sorenstam got to the Colonial on US PGA Tour, and then the 13-year-old Michelle Wie played first the Canadian Tour, then the Nationwide Tour.

Then former poster girl of Ladies PGA, Jan Stephenson played on the Champions Tour (for seniors above 50 years) at Turtle Bay Championship in Hawaii.

The same week at the Korean Open Laura Davies teed up. Next on line is Korea's Se Ri Pak, who will be playing on the SBS Open on the Korean PGA alongside men. But so far, none have made the half-way cut, so let's see Se-Ri can break that jinx.

Spicing up golf

Talking of Se-Ri Pak, currently the second best women's player in the world, if she makes the cut, Jan Stephenson will be mouthing a few more apologies.

Stephenson, an Australian, had recently said, that the Asian girls "" actually Koreans, since there are three of them in the top five "" do not make an effort to glamourise the Ladies PGA Tour.

Stephenson, while asking the Tour to have greater "sex appeal" wanted the Asian girls to interact more with media and sponsors.

She even suggested a cap on number of foreigners, including Asians who should be allowed to play on the US LPGA Tour.

The Asian girls have certainly not taken it kindly, implying a racial bias on Stephenson's part. That forced the latter to issue an apology saying she did not have any racial bias in mind.

Tailpiece

Adding to the woman power this season is Annika Sorenstam, as she joins a host of legends, who will be lending their names to a golf course design.

She will be putting her signature to one of three courses to be added to the Mission Hills Golf Resort in Shenzen, China. The complex already has five courses and the additions will take that number to eight.

Some other names on the signature list include Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo, Vijay Singh and Colin Montgomerie, and David Duval and Jumbo Ozaki of Japan.

- Bogeyman