Marketing Women's Golf - "These Girls Get It"

The girls in question are Australians Nikki Garret and Kristie Newton, pictured here with Jan Stephenson, winner of three majors, and one of Australia's greatest greatest golfers ever.

Despite her wins and her extraordinary golf skills Jan is best known for her 1980's golf ball bubble bath photo...and that's the whole point.

Instead of lamenting that fact as demeaning, Ms. Stephenson acknowledges the current reality (70% of golf's audience are men, and men are ... "visual") and encourages Australia's up-and-coming young golf stars, like Nikki and Kristie, to play up their looks and personalities for the good of women's golf.

Jan's message clearly resonates in the current environment because, as reported last week in Waggle Room, Women's golf in Australia has been having a rough go of it, with sponsorship issues and tournament cancellations.

Ultimately, in her own inimitable way, what Jan Stephenson is pushing for is more support from women for women's golf, because that's what it's going to take to move away from the overriding emphasis on sex appeal; more women buying tickets, more women in the galleries.

Apparently, women are less "visual".

DWTS Update - Aussie Golfers Vote for Jan Stephenson

In a Twitter dispatch from down under, I learned that golfer Jan Stephenson had fared quite well in her Dancing With the Stars debut, receiving "scores of 6 ,7 & 4 for a total of 17". 

For the uninitiated... myself included... this may not mean much, but suffice to say that it's taken Jan to round 2, which will air in Australia next Sunday.
  
Here in the US we have our own dancing stars, and the Australian episodes don't appear to be accessible, however those who can make it to coastal New Hampshire next week will be able to watch Ms. Stephenson... and a number of other Ledgends Tour ladies... perform live on another kind of dance floor at the Handa Cup.  The US vs International showdown will take place at Wentworth-by-the-Sea May 19 - 22, and tickets are available online.

In the meantime, Aussie golfers... and golf fans...  can call in and vote for Jan.  She won 16 LPGA tour events including three majors, and you can help her add another trophy to her case.



Thanks go to @IMI57DANCER for the Aussie updates !

A Professional Golfer Will Dance With the Stars

A while back Natalie Gulbis revealed that she'd love to be on  Dancing With the Stars.  

Well that hasn't happened yet, but Jan Stephenson, another "bubbly" blonde golfer, will be joining the line-up for Series 11 of Australia's DWTS.  

Jan Stephenson won three majors and 16 events in her extraordinary LPGA career but is often referenced as "the golfer who posed naked in a bath tub of golf balls".  

So be it. The awesome Aussie was never one let such things bother her, in fact she was always quite pragmatic about promoting sex appeal to encourage interest in women's golf. 

Jan will be partnered with Mark Hodge in the new season of the international hit TV show. The cast will also include a cheeky celebrity chef a couple of high profile celebrity models, a cricket superstar and a world champion surfer.

Jan now plays on The Legends Tour and holds the top spot in Legends Tour career money.  She's been named for the sixth time to the Handa Cup World Team to be played May 19 – 22, 2011 in Rye, NH.  I'm looking forward to heading up to the historical Wentworth-by-the-Sea golf course to attend the event and meet Jan... before she trades her golf shoes for dancing shoes.

Sweet Young Things and a Sexy Campaign to Sell Golf

It was Australian golfer Jan Stephenson who first popularized the idea that LPGA stars should openly embrace a "sex-sells" approach to marketing their game.

A couple of decades later, even though she won many international titles and attained the rank of number one in the world, she is still best known for bringing glamour... and a bathtub full of golf balls... to the ladies game.

Now, the shoe is on the other foot... so to speak... and the normally straight laced PGA of Australia has unveiled photos displaying young male pro golfers wearing... um... precious little in the way of golf apparel. (Those who lament the NASCAR effect will have nothing to complain about here).

International Showdown by the Sea - The Handa Cup

It's an international match play tournament:  the US vs the rest of the world.

Team rosters... listed below... have been announced by captains Kathy Whitworth (USA) and Pia Nilsson (World). Among the players, you'll notice, are a number of veritable golf legends... which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise; this is the Handa Cup we're talking about... an LPGA Legends Tour event.

The venue is quite spectacular as well,  Wentworth-by-the-Sea, in Rye, NH.  The state's only seaside links style course, it was originally designed in 1897 by George Wright who some call the "father of New England golf".  Donald Ross improved the original 9 holes in 1921 and 1964 saw an expansion to 18 under the direction of Geoffrey Cornish. The 6,306 yards par 70 layout is considered a classic shot makers course where wind and/or weather will almost always be a factor. -- MORE --->

A Legendary Golfer Will Dance With the Stars, Presumably in Purple

Dancing Golf Shoes          © Golf Girl Media          

He's the most successful European Ryder Cup captain of all time; an English golf icon with a passion for the game and a predilection for purple.

Tony Jacklin took the golf world by storm in the late 60s and held the British and US Open titles simultaneously in 1970. That remarkable achievement... along with his stellar Ryder Cup record... was an inspiration to a generation of European golfers and was instrumental in the growth of European golf.

These days the "Lion of Lytham" keeps busy designing courses.  He also actively promotes the game as a global ambassador, golf media personality and public speaker. And soon... it seems... the sprightly 69 year old will be demonstrating his hitherto unknown sense of rhythm in the popular British TV show Strictly Come Dancing, the original Dancing With The Stars.  

It may seem like a stretch to go from golf to ballroom dance but it's been done before.  Jan Stephenson did it on the Australian version of DWTS... she even used a golf club as a prop in one of her routines... but to no avail.  She was eliminated in the third round.   Tony Jacklin is certainly hoping for a longer run, and if his tenacity on the golf course is any indication he'll probably get it.  And it's a good bet he'll be wearing some purple.

Spanish Golf Blogger Finds ProAm Partner in Bathtub

Ladies Tenerife Match Play - June 10-12

On a sunny Spanish island several hundred miles off the coast of North Africa the stage is set for Tenerife Ladies Matchplay.

A new format for the Ladies European Tour, the event will be played at the Golf Las Américas course in Tenerife and it'll allow players get some matchplay practice in before the upcoming Solheim Cup. The competition will take place Friday through Sunday and I expect we'll getting some great coverage online, as several of Spain's best golf bloggers will in attendance... as will various social media standouts from the business side of golf.