Shame on Golf Digest

By: Nancy Berkley

In the midst of the Kraft Nabisco Championship - the LPGA Tour's first major of the season - the focus is not completely on the putting greens of the Dinah Shore course at Mission Hills in Palm Springs or its second-round leaders Lexi Thompson of the U.S. and Se Re Pak of South Korea.

The buzz there is about the May issue cover of Golf Digest, a Conde Nast publication. The New York Times even reported on it. Why? The cover is a provocative photo of Paulina Gretsky, the daughter of hockey great Wayne Gretsky and fiancée of PGA Tour player, Dustin Johnson.

Ms. Gretsky is not a serious or professional golfer. But sex sells, and she was a good business choice for the cover of a magazine whose focus is 99 percent male and whose distribution continues to struggle in the digital age.

This Golf Digest issue is arguably about "fitness," but Ms. Gretsky in unlikely to walk into a gym wearing the outfit in which she's posing. Her white tights and revealing sports bra are there to sell magazines.

When Sports Illustrated puts out its annual swimsuit issue, it's not diminishing a professional sport or its players. The analogy that this May Golf Digest issue is no different than the swimsuit issue is faulty at its core, and shame on Conde Nast and Golf Digest.

The number of female golfers in the U.S. is declining as are the number of male golfers. Soon to be released is a National Golf Foundation report that compares how women's golf is promoted in Canada, Europe and Asia as compared to the U.S. The U.S. continues to be a male-dominated industry, where they talk the talk but can't walk the talk and put out the welcome mat for more girls and women, representing half of the nation's population.

Instead of banning belly-putters, the USGA should be outraged at Gretsky's bare-bellied cover shot and its affect on the game's culture. And this should be one more wake-up-call for the PGA of America that they have to change from a good-ole-boys club to a 21st century organization. They created a new "director of golf" title at the top of their member pyramid, but perhaps they should have a new entry-level certification that is attractive for good female golfers who don't want to spend seven years and thousands of dollars to become a member of the organization.

Many LPGA players are appalled by Golf Digest's choice of a cover shot. "It's the state of where we've always been. We don't get the respect of being the golfers we are," Stacy Lewis told USA Today. "Obviously, Golf Digest is trying to sell magazines, but at the same time you like to see a little respect for the women's game."

Hall of Fame member and seven-time major champion Juli Inkster added, "I think they should maybe recognize some of the great women golfers that we have. It's like, what do you have to do to get a little respect? I'm guaranteeing you right now, it was not a woman editor who chose that cover."

Also of significance are the comments by LPGA commissioner Mike Whan on www.lpga.com.

"Obviously we're disappointed and frustrated by the editorial direction (and timing) Golf Digest has chosen with the announcement of its most recent magazine cover.

"If a magazine called Golf Digest is interested in showcasing females in the game, yet consistently steers away from the true superstars who've made history over the last few years, something is clearly wrong.

"Inbee Park wins 3-straight major championships in 2013. Stacy Lewis, in 2012, becomes the first American to win Rolex Player of the Year since 1994. Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko set historical benchmarks while blossoming as the Tour's youngest ever champions. And evidently, not one has been 'cover worthy' for Golf Digest. 'Growing the game' means a need for more role models and in these exciting times for women's golf, the LPGA is overflowing with them.

"At this point, I'm done talking about it and I hope the attention of the media and fans will shift in the proper direction. The true stars representing women's golf have a grand stage this weekend at the Kraft Nabisco Championship. I'm confident that the year's first major championship will result in another compelling champion and the traditional Sunday leap into Poppie's Pond will grab the media spotlight it so deserves."

I say "thank you, Mike," for standing up for your players and the entire LPGA organization that works to promote the game of golf. This weekend's Kraft Nabisco is the second-oldest tournament played continuously at the same course. It's second only to the Masters at Augusta National.

When the Kraft Nabisco winner jumps into Poppie's Pond, the splash will occur under the statute of Dinah Shore. This legendary TV television personality from the 1960s and 1970s loved golf and promoted it for the millions of women that watched her shows. If Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres loved the game as much as Dinah, millions more women would be golfers today.

Golf Digest owes all women an apology for its bad taste and judgment in tarnishing the image of professional and recreational women golfers. I'm waiting.

Nancy Berkley, President of Berkley Golf Consulting, is an expert on women's golf and junior-girls golf. She is a frequent contributor to www.cybergolf.com/womensgolf. Her book, "Women Welcome Here! A Guide to Growing Women's Golf," published by the National Golf Foundation, is an industry reference on marketing golf to women and spotting trends within the industry. She offers information and advice about the golf industry on www.berkleygolfconsulting.com and is often quoted in national publications. She was a contributing editor of "Golf for Women" magazine and a founding advisor of "Golfer Girl Magazine." Her interviews with women in the golf industry now appear on www.golfergirlcareers.com. Nancy lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Harvard University and Rutgers Law School. After a business and legal career, she decided to write about the game she learned and loved as a teenager. She describes herself as a good bogey golfer with permanent potential.

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