Are Sexy Women Golfers Ruining The LPGA?
American golfer Paige Spiranac and British golfer Bella Angel have been in the news lately as the popular golf girls on Instagram for their revealing outfits, endless selfies and sexy poses. Most dismiss them as mere models as opposed to golfers (something that they quickly will argue) but they are an example of why women’s golf like the LPGA and other similar organizations in the world are doomed to fail.
Doesn’t matter your gender, these women are HOT and the fact that they pose while on a golf course or swinging a club doesn’t hurt anyone… or does it?
The LPGA has its share of good looking golfers that are on the tour and most have their own Instagram accounts. They may not be as overt as Paige Spiranac or Bella Angel but they know that the more followers they get, the more advertisers will throw endorsements at them and they will ultimately make more money doing self-promotion than on the LPGA tour no matter how well they play.
Here’s a collection of the hottest women on the LPGA with the highest number of Instagram Followers:
Muni He
Lexi Thompson
Natalie Gulbis
Jessica Korda
Sydnee Michaels
Paula Creamer
Charley Hull
Brooke Henderson
If you click on their accounts and check them out, there are some that are pretty tame in their pictures and in many cases that is reflected in their followers. The ones with more followers will often have some beach shots posted, skin tight practice gear or glamour pics of them at the ESPY’s or some other gala event. The more followers they get, the more income they can make and the more attention they get.
Does Sex Sell Women’s Golf?
When it comes to sexy golf models like Paige Spiranac, she was a professional golfer on the Cactus Tour and even the LPGA Tour and eventually left to pursue being an Instagram influencer who at the time that this was written had just short of 3 Million followers. Most of her pics are golf related but many can be excused if they miss seeing the golf clubs in the pictures or the scenery in behind the model.
Is any of this bad? Many would say that most people following the ladies of golf couldn’t care less about the sport and definitely have never seen an LPGA event either live or in person and only are looking at the eye candy. And yet, ratings for the LPGA, attendance figures and prize money have been increasing in the last few years. In an ESPN interview a couple of years ago, LPGA player Kim Kaufman (3600 followers) believed that the growth in popularity of the LPGA was due in part to social media.
“Social media has made a strong impact. Not only is the LPGA able to promote [itself], but players are able to connect with fans,” she said.
So is the LPGA on an upswing because of golf models like Paige Spiranac? Probably not, sports themselves have been on an upswing and other women’s sports leagues like the WNBA are doing pretty well. Individual sports have had women shining for a while like Women’s Tennis and the UFC women’s division that have created household names in recent years. Having those athletes on social media have helped them but they don’t have the eye candy models that golf does.
If you Google something like “Sexy Women Golfers” the top names that pop up are:
Paige Spiranac – https://www.instagram.com/_paige.renee/
Bella Angel – https://www.instagram.com/bellaangelgolf
Holly Sanders – https://www.instagram.com/holly.sonders
Lucy Robson – https://www.instagram.com/lucyrobson/
Should LPGA Stars Use Instagram To Sell Their Sport?
Sex sells and if a woman is a great golfer and is good looking and wants to become a brand that is built around sex then so be it. Paige Spiranac never became a full time player on the LPGA and has stated publically that she was shunned because of what she wore on the golf course. Other golfers listed above have made a name for themselves by playing well on the course but have grown their endorsement revenue because of showing a little more skin in social media posts. If the LPGA is fine with it and the women golfers are fine with how they portray themselves, then the Tour could continue to grow much like how Anna Kournikova helped grow the audience for women’s tennis in the late nineties.
