COMMENTARY : This Weekend’s LPGA Coverage on Par With Men’s--for a Change

WASHINGTON —  The best women professional golfers in the world will receive rare national television exposure this weekend as they compete in the final two rounds of the LPGA Championship at Bethesda (Md.) Country Club. Many of them are starting to wonder why they can’t be on television more often.

“I’m a consumer,” said Laura Baugh, a 17-year tour veteran. “I’ve got three kids. I’m a woman. I play golf. There are a lot of women playing golf. Doesn’t it make sense for all these companies who gear their products to women to start sponsoring our tour? The bottom line is, we need companies to get behind us, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t.”

Marlene Floyd, a part-time tour player who will be a course commentator for NBC this weekend, was more specific.

“Look at a company like Cadillac,” said Floyd, the younger sister of PGA regular Raymond Floyd. “They’ll sponsor 12 guys on the Senior Tour, put millions into those events and the PGA, and yet I’ve seen figures that say half the people who buy Cadillacs are women. We ought to be able to face companies like that and say they’re actually discriminating against us. I’d like to go talk to Cadillac myself. They’ve done a terrible disservice to women.”

Golf on television is usually driven by automotive and golf equipment manufacturers, “but they don’t buy into the women the way they do for the men,” said Jonathan D. Miller, vice president for programming planning and development at NBC Sports, which will air the LPGA Championship from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 3 Sunday. “It still hasn’t been proven that women like to watch other women play well. I understand why they’re frustrated, but it just doesn’t deliver yet. We think it has a chance, and we’d love to see it happen.”

Publicly, LPGA officials say they would prefer to take a kinder, gentler approach toward TV, for now. New commissioner Charles Mechem, a longtime television executive himself as CEO of Taft Broadcasting in Cincinnati, says his first priority is filling his schedule with good tournaments, on good courses with good corporate sponsorship. If that happens, he adds, TV will be far more interested.

Privately, however, some LPGA officials and players say it wouldn’t hurt if TV executives also were reminded that it’s not good policy to incur the wrath of America’s female population, even if ratings are low for the LPGA telecasts.

Last year, for example, the LPGA Championship had a dismal 1.6 rating, the year before a 2.2. The PGA and Seniors tours are usually at 3 or higher, one reason that CBS will air 74 individual golf telecasts this season, none of them of the LPGA.

Mechem and his executives have been beating the bushes at the networks and cable companies all year. Said Jim Webb, the LPGA’s executive director: “They’re starting to listen to us. They understand where we’re coming from. What it really comes down to is a matter of dollars a sponsor has to put up to pay for television.”

Added Miller, “It’s not a woman’s issue, it’s a financial issue.”

The price of getting 3 1/2 hours of golf on network television runs from $1.5 million to $1.8 million, and $450,000 to $650,000 on a cable network like ESPN. With all three networks having financial difficulties, the LPGA knows that if it can find sponsors like Mazda, their LPGA Championship benefactor, the networks will be far more receptive. Still, many corporations are also suffering in the current economic climate, though Webb says many of them also are willing to listen to the LPGA’s pitch, and are starting to pay attention to the numbers they see.

For example, the National Golf Foundation says that while men golfers outnumber women three to one, 43 percent of the people who took up the game last year are women, up from 36 percent in 1985. The number of junior women golfers also is showing a dramatic increase. The number of junior women from ages 5 to 19 doubled from 1985 to 1989, a growth rate more than four times that of junior men players.

“One thing that hurts us right now is we don’t really have Nancy Lopez in her prime,” said Floyd. “She’s our Arnold Palmer, but because of her family commitments, she’s only playing a limited schedule. Sponsors and tournament directors are begging her to play all the time. I kidded her and told her, ‘I hope the next child (Lopez is five months pregnant with her third) is a boy so you’ll come back and play and stop having babies.’ ”

And yet, Floyd also points out, a flock of rising young players with star potential keeps coming out on tour, “and the more people see them play and hit it 260, the more they’ll want to watch.”

Her colleague at NBC, golf analyst Johnny Miller, agreed. “These women play some kind of golf,” said Miller. “From 180 yards in, they hit their shots very similar to the men. I love to watch their shot making. When I do their tournaments, I don’t try to patronize these women. They shouldn’t be. They have great players.

“The one area they really excel in is composure. They handle things better, and they seem to enjoy their good shots more than the men do. When a man hits a good shot, he’ll say, ‘It’s about time.’ The women aren’t that sarcastic.

“I can understand how they feel about not being on television that much. Right now it’s tough for everyone to get on. I’m sure there’s some pressure on the networks too. They know if they don’t put the women on, they’re going to open themselves up to some bad press and a lot of complaints. But these women deserve to be seen. They can play.”