A GENDER BENDER?

In a recent article in Golf Digest, the case was made that female LPGA pros don’t putt as well as male PGA pros.

Here are a few of the more interesting quotes:

"I've seen only a couple of women who were as good as the bottom male tour player," "The skill set just isn't there." short-game teacher Stan Utley.

Dave Stockton a former tour player: "Emotionally, I think the women are smarter and more honest, but they're also more fragile … "Women remember."

Former USGA Technical Director Frank Thomas "You're just looking at two populations with different skill sets, and one is more skilled than the other… The women have to catch up, and I think they will, soon."

"There are a lot more jobs for men.. .Women almost can't afford to put in the same effort, because the industry doesn't afford them the time it takes to try that hard."    Stan Utley

 "The caliber of instruction out on the LPGA isn't as good because it can't be. It's just that the average PGA Tour player can have his choice of teachers and fly him around week to week if he wants."  ----Hank Haney

Pia Nilsson, a female teacher: “If the women tour players were able to putt consistently on the quality of surfaces the men play on, their stats would look very similar".  (Pia -- actually as greens get faster, putting is more difficult) 

One explanation not considered in the article is the scientific research in the field of man/women differences. Professor Doreen Kimura of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario outlined her research as follows:

“A very large advantage for men is found on tasks that require hitting a target with a missile, or intercepting a moving target. This advantage does not appear to depend simply on men’s greater strength, nor on their more active sports history. It appears to depend on the accurate co-ordination of spatial targets with large-amplitude aiming movements.. [Sex Hormones Influence Human Cognitive Pattern Neuroendocrinology Letters 2002.   Doreen Kimura]   

Other sources agree that gender is involved:

 “…a women’s cognitive abilities and motor skills fluctuate in a reciprocal fashion across the menstrual cycle” says the Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences ..., Volume 1by Judith Worell  

The Takeaway:

   

Much of the science suggests that women have higher skills sets then men in other areas but not in hitting targets. It also is very clear that the results describe gender generalizations and can not be used to predict any particular individual’s performance [man or women]. 

In an opinion driven presentation such as the golf article cited above, to leave out the possibility that the differences are gender related does an injustice to the topic. Unless you’re into hype or political correctness, you don’t leave out the research on gravity when you are searching for clues as to why objects fall to earth --- or into a cup.

On a final note:  Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics says that "Men are hard wired to want to win any competition there is."  "Golf is evolutionarily novel, but it tricks men's minds in a deep seated way.  Throughout evolutionary history, women have been attracted to winners of competitions.  A man believes that if he wins, he's going to get laid."

What do you think?