End of day one for Annika, finished up one over par.
I don’t know much about golf, but this is tickling me 
Anyone else following and have opinions?
Where does that put her relative to the rest of the field? Personally I’d be thrilled to see her kick a little pompous ass.
According to ESPN, that puts her in 74th, near the back of the pack, but far up enough to possibly make the cut on Friday.
Mebbe those she beats should have to requalify via an LPGA event before they can return to the men’s tour. Now that I’d pay to watch.
Today must have been a very nerve-wracking experience with all the attention on her, she looked fairly shook as she was teeing off. Hopefully that will have worn off a little on the next few days play.
Question: Does she tee off from the women’s tee box or is she back there same as everyone else?
There’s only one tee location for a PGA event, so she’s hitting with the men.
Annika certainly hasn’t embarrassed herself. She put togther a perfectly respectable round. She’s closer to the bottom of the pack than to the top, but she didn’t fall on her face by any means, and any male chauvinist pigs who hoped/expected she would must be sorely disappointed.
That said, all she’s proven is that the BEST female golfer of all time, playing on a hand-picked course that plays to her strengths, under weather conditions that minimize the chances of disaster, has the potential to finish toward the back of the pack in a men’s tournament. Most of us already knew that, just as most of know that Serena Williams probably COULD beat a handful of lower-ranked male pros at Wimbledon.
Oop. she’s down to 76th now.
The hub and I talked about this yesterday. He, being your traditional conservative male, thinks this is unfair to the men at the bottom of the pack since it’s possible strong female players could displace some of them. Also, it’s possible that this could take the strongest women’s competitors out of some of the women’s tournaments in favor of competing with the men, so the other women actually have it easier in their tournaments. There is no mention of allowing men who are displaced by the presence of women in the men’s tournaments to play in LPGA events.
I think that if a woman is good enough to play with the men, she should have a chance to do that, since staying in the women’s tournaments wouldn’t give her a chance to stretch herself and that’s inherently unfair, too. If it ever were to become commonplace for women to make the cut in men’s tournaments, then there probably should be some redress for the men who are displaced, but would the men given the opportunity to do that take it? And how would the women feel about it, since the men would probably come out near or at the top pretty consistently in a women’s event?
I hope she kicks a lot of butt.
I golf. I usually break 100. On a really good day I break 90. I’ve only done that once and I’ve been golfing for around 25 years. Believe me, hitting that damn ball exactly where you want it to go is one of the hardest things to do!
Annika is awesome. Her level of play…her consistency…is simply amazing and soooo admirable!
One thing people don’t seem to understand is that Annika didn’t simply show up and decide to play in that tournament. The sponsors invited her…and she accepted.
She’s a major babe, too. Not as majorly as Christie Kerr, though. (Can anyone supply an url to the photo of Christie kissing the trophy she won last year?)
Mmmmmm…lady golfers.
Hah! That trophy, that pic! Priceless…
http://www.willmcneill.com/Images_and_Graphics/golf_glass_dildo.gif
So funny I had to go get it…
Amusing thing I heard on the local radio(I live in D/FW) from a DJ supposedly quoting Annika.
Sounds like she’s got a nice sense of humor as well. I’ve always been a sucker for innuendo I guess. 
Well played Annika!
Enjoy,
Steven
Exactly. It’s an “invitational” not an “open.” She didn’t just show up looking to start trouble or something.
As far as it being unfair to the men at the bottom of the golfing pack, Boo Fing Hoo*. You should tell hubby that there is nothing in the PGA rulebook preventing a woman from playing alongside the men in a PGA event, although apparently some AssHat PGA official wants to change that.
It is called the Professional Golfers Tour, not the Mens Professional Golfers Tour.
There’s also some pressure on Vijay Singh not to screw up after saying what he did a couple of days back
He actually withdrew from the tournament. He won last week and had played for 3 or 4 weeks in a row - said he’d promised his wife he would take a week off if he won, and the US Open is coming up soon. I’m sure the controversy didn’t help either, but who knows.
Annika did absolutely fine. She can make the cut; hopefully there’ll be a little less pressure tomorrow. But she certainly hasn’t embarrassed herself at all.
Eh… I like her and I think she’s amazing, but I wouldn’t be so quick to say that. Her serve, very hard for the women’s tour, would be average at best against a man, and she’d probably play someone who hits much harder than anyone she’s used to.
I doubt whether Serena Williams would beat any male tour professional. Martina Navratalova at her absolute peak was asked how she would go on the men’s tour. She said from her experiences hitting with men and playing doubles that she thought she could rank about 600 in the world.
THANK YOU! I have had it up to ~here with the whining and moaning. She received 1 of 8 sponsorship invitations. She is playing the men’s tees. She ended 4 strokes behind the leader. The best part is, she looks like she’s a wonderful time!
The gender barrier was broken 58 years ago, the last time a lady played with the boys. In this day and age, Annika’s gender shouldn’t merit a mention.
Now that’s just silly. In any sport where strength is a significant factor, it is going to be newsworthy when a woman can be competitive with at least a fair proportion of the field. It is to her credit that she has the ability to hold her own despite the natural advantages that the men have.
(She’s 7 behind the leader, btw.)
I don’t think strength is the major factor in golf. Club selection and your mental game are much more important. Many a tournament has been won by the short game.