In Response to George

Hello. George White at thegolfchannel.com is one of my favourite columnists. He always seems to have a different angle on things, and he responds to emails.
In his latest column, he comments on Greg Norman inviting Annika Sorenstam to play in the Shark Shootout in November. George says this is a bit strnage coming from Norman, who is apparently in favour of women playing on the PGA Tour as long as they qualify rather than getting a sponsor's exemption. George then recommends Annika play from forward tees during the event to get "a fair chance".
Here is my reply:

Hello George. I'm all for Annika or any other woman playing in a PGA Tour event. I was thrilled when Suzy Whaley got the ball rolling, because now I can tell my daughter when she grows up that women can do anything.
I also believe that if you're against women being given sponsors exemptions, then you're against sponsors exemptions period. Ask Mr Norman if that's his position. If it isn't then ask him what the difference is between Annika Sorenstam, Michelle Wie and Mark Rypien. The main difference is Wie and Sorenstam were competitive, and Rypien wasn't (Rypien, who is Canadian and won a Super Bowl quarterbacking Washington, is apparently a pretty good golfer. However, when given an exemption to play in the Kemper Open in the Washington area, did not break 80 on either day, and was last by a mile). If people think Sorenstam and Wie haven't been competitive because they missed the cut, compare them to Rypien, who ballooned. Needless to say, Sorenstam and Wie were under much more pressure than Rypien was, or any other sponsor exemption player ever is. Annika was arguably under more pressure at Colonial than any athlete ever has been.
The bigger question is, why are short hitters no longer competitive? Annika can hit it 263, which is respectable in my books (I'm a scratch, and I don't hit it that far). If there is interest in making all players competitive, the PGA tournaments may want to look at the Players
Championship. The TPC is relatively short, and has produced long and short hitting champions. Then again, the tournaments probably want champs named Woods, Mickelson, Els and Singh instead of Funk, Weir and Janzen.
In summary, I think this issue is gender neutral. If you want Annika or other short hitters to be competitive, do something else besides letting them hit from forward tees. Narrow the fairways, grow the rough, plant more trees, make "going for it" have more risk, shrink the greens, speed up the greens, put in more strategic hazards, etc. That way, if the short hitters do win, there will be no asterisk. Just my opinion.

Regards,
Steve