Quote:
Originally Posted by jbouton
Thats not full fair spirit...you have to answer with the consideration of the scenario where the handicap evens out the advantage. Then you can say 'id be fine with that, but lia thomas is an undeserving narcissist dude.'.
the handicap does not even things out though - it's a half measure even for average skill level amateurs done as a courtesy to make it easier but still doesn't come anywhere close to closing the gap
on average, men can drive the ball 50+ yards further than a woman, the distance in tees is not nearly that distance and that's not the only area of advantage, men are better at women in all facets of golf, not just driving distance
that driver gap becomes even larger once you start isolating to top male and top female golfers ie college and upwards
also, the men in the pga play on significantly more difficult courses than the women play on so it's apples to oranges in comparing their stats - even if they played on the same course, those courses are always made significantly harder whenever the pga shows up - so much that a club member who normally golfs an 85 will golf 100+ after the modifications are made for the week the pga is in town
it's not even close, we've had one single instance where a female golfed with the men in a pga event (last year in vegas) and although she was not competitive, the mere fact that she didn't embarrass herself was considered a huge accomplishment
any guy in the pga or even the lower level korn ferry tour would absolutely steamroll the lpga if they wanted to do that - i doubt we'll get pga members doing that because there's far more money in the pga - but i can definitely see some fringe lower tier tour members like those barely scraping by and living in an rv doing the korn ferry tour playing in the lpga and just crushing