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As an offshoot of another thread, I thought this may be a good discussion. The talk on a previous thread was that of a woman playing in a PGA event (Annika) or one full time. The biggest difference between men and women in golf is driving distance, in my opinion. Obviously the PGA courses play longer than the LPGA venues. However, the long driver does not always win. Let's see where how the driving distance leaders of each tour match up.

PGA Top 10
1 Hank Kuehne 314.7
2 Scott Hend 313.8
3 John Daly 306.0
4 Mike Heinen 305.2
5 Geoff Ogilvy 304.6
6 Tiger Woods 303.5
7 Lucas Glover 302.4
7 Chris Smith 302.4
9 J.J. Henry 302.0
10 Davis Love 301.6

LPGA Top 10
1 Sophie Gustafson 286.5
2 Wendy Doolan 283.3
3 Grace Park 280.6
Karen Stupples 280.6
5 Annika Sorenstam 280.2
6 Kelly Robbins 277.5
7 Reilley Rankin 276.1
8 Pat Hurst 276.0
9 Jung Yeon Lee 275.6
10 Lorena Ochoa 275.3

PGA Bottom 11
181 Brad Faxon 275.2
182 Jim Carter 274.8
183 David Frost 273.9
184 Tom Byrum 273.0
184 Nick Price 273.0
186 Mark Brooks 272.9
186 Mark O'Meara 272.9
186 Omar Uresti 272.9
189 Fred Funk 272.5
190 David Morland 272.3
191 Craig Bowden 270.9
192 John Cook 270.6
193 Loren Roberts 269.5
194 Corey Pavin 267.7

Now take the top 10 LPGA driving distance leaders and use their distance to see where they match up with the equal distance leaders of the PGA tour - not all listed but all fall in the top 10 of the LPGA distance leaders. Some of these names are very repectable and win on tour.

Alex Cejka
Mark Hensby
Tripp Isenhour
K.J. Choi
Tom Lehman
Notah Begay III
Billy Mayfair
Duffy Waldorf
Matt Gogel
Stephen Leaney
Lee Janzen
Arron Oberholser
Tom Pernice, Jr.
Todd Hamilton
Justin Leonard
Paul Azinger
Bernhard Langer
Billy Andrade
Ben Curtis
Mike Weir
Jeff Maggert
Brian Gay
Shigeki Maruyama
Steve Stricker
Luke Donald
Steve Flesch
Olin Browne
Scott Hoch
Kevin Na
Jeff Sluman
Scott Verplank
Jose Maria Olazabal
Jerry Kelly
Chris Riley
Bob Tway
Kirk Triplett
Chris DiMarco
Scott Simpson
Robert Damron
Jay Haas
Esteban Toledo
Brad Faxon

After looking at the statistics, I think a woman could play on the PGA tour and make a nice living. After all, the purses are much larger.

I think there are other aspects at which men tend to be better. For example, strength: men play better out of thick rough better than women do.

Would a woman - Annika or anyone - be willing to commit to a four-month series of events if she could get all of the exemptions?

I don't think the women could make it. Mabye a couple of them, but not very many IF ANY.

Yes, the women may drive the ball close to the men, but the women (correct me if I'm wrong) don't play as far back as the men do. So the women when they hit a 270 yard drive on an average par 4 might have a a sand or pitching wedge left. 270 yard drive on the mens tour you're left with 9, 8, even 7 iron or higher in. Like I said, maybe the women do play from the same tee as the men, I could be wrong. I've never seen a womans event. But hitting a wedge, upposed to a 7 iron in to the green you're going going to be as accurate.

Yes the women are still great, I'll give you that, I just dont' think they can play with the boys.

The problem Annika had was NOT her tee shots but her approach shots. The PGA Tour doesn't put the hole locations in the middle of soft greens. The LPGA Tour's course set-up aside from distance is much easier than the PGA Tour. I think it would take a season or two for Annika or another seasoned LPGA Tour player to learn all of the shots it takes to get close to PGA Tour pins but not necessarily required to get close to LPGA Tour pins. I am one of those who thinks that given a season or two, there are several lady professionals that could carve out a decent living on the PGA Tour and maybe from time to time on certain courses challenge for the win. That list is VERY, VERY short however.

Any female player who would take the time and effort tryingto improve her game to the level you mentioned (just to make a "decent living") would make much more money by finishing in the top 2 or 3 on the LPGA Tour every week. That says nothing of the mental and physical grind of just trying to get to that level, and dealing with the media every step of the way. Is there a young woman out there willing to put herself through that for the minuscule monetary gain?

Currently the top 5 players on the LPGA Tour have earned an average of nearly $1.3 million dollars. That average would place them at #44 on the PGA Tour money list. Is anyone on that very very short list capable of being ranked in the top 50 on the men's tour? In playing ablility or dollars earned? I realize the purses are different but the talent is vastly different.

Annika and Michelle have shown us that, on occasion, a woman can play, and beat, a few men on the PGA Tour. "Occasionally" is a far cry from making a living playing against the best 125 golfers in the world. Don't get the wrong idea. I'm all for a woman trying to earn her way onto the PGA Tour. It would be a great history making story and one most golf fans (including me) would follow closely. As I commented on the other thread...Is a woman earning a PGA Tour card possible? Yes. Probable in the foreseeable future? No way.

On a sidebar, I once went to an LPGA event, and I highly recommend it. Not only are you able to get close up, since there are less people, many of the players even came over and said hello. I think they appreciate the galleries, or at least show it more than the men.

The best part of the learning experience though, was to try to watch and emulate their tempo. It's effortless power... they can't muscle the ball like the PGA Tour pros.

I agree.....
Ladies would not do aswell, the LPGA courses are on a much easier layout and course!
They could make a good living.....if they could drive the ball a long way(because they would have to play off the mens tees), but they would also have to be a great irons, woods, and short game player.

But we can still beat the boys!!!!!

While it notion for the differences between the players of these two Tours is distance, I think it’s more a matter of short game. If you’ll remember at the Colonial, Annika drove it straight and hit a lot of greens. Where she came up short was her putting and her ability to get up and down. Now, some of this might be attributed to not being used to the conditions on the PGA Tour (thicker rough, quicker greens).

My impression from Annika was that she wasn’t so impressed by how long the players hit it. She was most impressed by their short game. I just read an article from Butch Harmon and Natalie Gulbis and he explained how she basically used one type of chip shot. Then at his practice facility one day, there were a couple of PGA Tour pros and they showed her how to do an array of chips with just one club.

It's not how far, but how many. A women has yet to show she can get the ball into the hole (on the PGA Tour) in few enough strokes to earn her playing privileges. Distance is only a facet of the overall challenge women face trying to compete with men at that level.

Well, quite frankly no woman that I know of has ever TRIED to "make it" on the PGA Tour. Two women have each accepted ONE sponsor's exemption (Annika & Michelle) and one other (Suzy Whaley) "qualified" via a dubious loophole (red tees), which I believe has since been closed.

I agree with JC, there is currently a VERY short list (2-4?) of women who MIGHT be able to actually and legitimately gain a PGA Tour card. Their reward would be finishing somewhere on the bottom half of the PGA Money list, intense scrutiny/pressure as well as a considerable boost in their commercial viability.

The loophole has indeed been closed. All of the women that have tried to qualify for the PGA Tour through Q-School (not sure if any) or Monday Qualifying (Wie DEFINITELY has tried) have been unsuccessful. I also defend the right of the sponsor to give the two unrestricted exemptions to whoever they wish provided they meet the criteria for accepting those exemptions (must be below a 2 index for one). The PGA Tour often grumbles about giving exemptions to Class A PGA Members which we do have to qualify for because "it takes spots away from Tour players." What they fail to realize is we all run our rear-ends off when the Tour is in town whether we are hosting the event or not. The two exemptions given to the guys that qualify for them is a way of paying back the hard work PGA Members put in to put on these events for the Tour.

From the latest issue of GOLFWEEK:

Whaley captures another top club pro title

"She's back. Suzy Whaley, the Connecticut club pro who two years ago became the first woman in 58 years to qualify for a spot in a PGA Tour event, has taken another step onto the national stage.

On Sept. 14, Whaley, from Blue Fox Run Golf Club in Avon, became the first woman in the country to win her PGA section's Club Pro Championship. Playing from the forward tees set at 90 percent of the yardage at Shuttle Meadow Country Club in New Britain, Conn. she came from behind with a final round 68 to eke out a one stroke victory.

The finish earned her a spot in the Eastern Regional Club Pro Championship at Turning Stone Casino Sept 30-Oct 3 in Verona N.Y. and a chance to go on from there to the National Club Pro Championship next June. Leading finishers from the nationals move on to the PGA Championship in August, though Whaley will not be eligible for a spot in that major since she opted to play from the forward tees. "

Is there a female Club Pro Championship?

I wonder what the guys she beats thinks about her playing from the forward tees. I know I wouldn't like it. If you're competing for the same prize, you should be competing under the same circumstances.

The PGA of America does not put on a Ladies Club Professional Championship. The ladies entering the PGA Program know that up front and if they don't want to compete in events against men, they will go through the LPGA Program.

However, just like the PGA CPC, the LPGA T&CPC serves as a qualifier for a major championship.

Ecch...considering how disgusting a person Corey Pavin is, he deserves to be the shortest hitter in the PGA. 267 yards...that's a joke. I know bogey golfers who can hit farther than that.