Why Americans might want the Ryder Cup to go co-ed
With an especially impressive day of singles play at the Solheim Cup (details here), young female American golfers proved yet again that they have a lot more gumption (and a lot more talent?) than young male American golfers.
Yesterday at the Solheim, Morgan Pressel took down Annika (who is showing her age) in the feature match. Youngers Nicole Castrale, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and Stacy Prammanasudh were also victorious in singles. Throw in Brittany Lincicome, and the Americans have six 20-something female golfers with more moxie and game than any 20-something American male golfers.
As usual, though, an interesting female golf story was overshadowed by the men, even though Tiger (and a too easy course) made the FedEx final rather dull. Ever eager to get the ladies their due, here’s my latest (crazy?) suggestion:
How about making the Presidents Cup a co-ed event?
No offense to Scott Verplank and Woody Austin and Stewart Cink, but wouldn’t it be more exciting to see Creamer and Gulbis and Pressel hanging with Tiger and Phil next week? Similarly, I know I’d be more likely to tune in to see Ai Miyazato and Laurena Ochoa and Karrie Webb than K.J. Choi and Nick O’Hearn and Mike Weir.
Alternatively, perhaps we could and should create another event — the World Cup? — which could be co-ed and could assemble the biggest draws from both tours and all countries. As long as the women played from moved-up tees, I think it would be very fair (and very interesting) to see mixed teams playing best ball and alternate shot competitions.
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