How This Erin Andrews Mess Applies to Golf & the LPGA Tour

by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 23, 2009 4:14 PM EDT

If you haven't heard by now, ESPN's Erin Andrews apparently was taped by some Peeping Tom at a hotel a few months ago in nothing but her birthday suit. The blogosphere has been ablaze about the story - whether it is a story, whether they did anything to cause this video to be shot in the first place, etc.

Frankly, I don't really care about blogging's role in this. It seems moot to me - the issue is that Andrews had her privacy violated. The correlation between some weirdo videotaping an attractive journalist and sites like Deadspin is about as real as the correlation between violent video games and violent children. It doesn't exist.

All I have learned from the situation is that Jason Whitlock plays the race card way too often and that FOX Sports may actually be racist based on the graphic that they put on their front page to accompany his piece.

But, there is a takeaway from all of this that actually pertains to golf. More specifically, it applies to the LPGA Tour.

Yes, Erin Andrews is a victim. But her situation just highlights how far some creep will go to chase down a famous woman. This stuff happens on the LPGA Tour all of the time. Paige Mackenzie's career fell into disrepair when she had a stalker follow her around on Tour in 2007.

She told Golfweek's Beth Ann Baldry:

"This was one of the weeks I was looking over my shoulder five times a hole," Mackenzie said. "I had no chance of playing well. I never should’ve teed it up."

Michelle Wie - perhaps unwittingly - experienced the same thing at this year's LPGA Championship. I was following her and Christina Kim during the second round of the championship. A man was following the group nearby that was pretty alarming. He wore a hand-crafted Michelle Wie football jersey. He had numbers on the jersey symbolic to her career - birthdate and the like. it was a problem for me. I cannot imagine how it made Wie feel if she noticed the guy.

Talk to enough LPGA Tour players and they will share with you the bizarre experience of being stalked. While plenty of men attempted to live the experience vicariously thorough Fatal Attraction, most simply cannot comprehend the anxiety and fear of knowing that someone is following you, violating your privacy.

The counter-argument that the whackos might make - if you can call it that - is that a number of LPGA Tour players strut their stuff on and off of the course. Natalie Gulbis has a swimsuit calendar, or did, they'll say. Twitter fans of Christina Kim get a kick out of posting pics of her in a bikini that she snaps from her mobile phone. In other words, it is the tired argument that women want this kind of attention because of very benign behavior.

Paige Mackenzie didn't have a swimsuit calendar. She is a professional golfer trying to make it in a tough job. She didn't ask for what happened to her. No LPGA Tour player has.

By and large, the response from male fans to attractive LPGA Tour players has been respectful. Yeah, they'll admit the attraction to the ladies, but won't go over the line. The male fans respect the talent level of these players and would never do or say anything to the girls that they could not say to their own sister.

There is a bad apple in every bushel, though. There are creepy, demented people out there who engage in behavior that is downright unacceptable. The LPGA Tour does everything in their power to become aware of these intruders - that's what they are - and keep them far away from their players. Given the diffused nature of their schedule and the patrons that come to their events, there is only so much that can be done. In an era where seemingly everyone has a camera or video camera in their pocket, the danger can only be hightened.

Really, the Andrews situation is an example of a fan, a pervert crossing the line. Posting public pictures is one thing. Invading privacy is another thing entirely.

This kind of invasion and disturbence to peace of mind has been a sad reality for a number of the LPGA Tour's best. It is important to keep that in perspective. This is not a situation that calls from paternalism or self-aggrandization. Rather, it calls for respect and vigilence.

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Comments

help me out – you said “whether they did anything to cause this video to be shot in the first place.” Has there been some sort of implication that the person who did the peeping and recording got the idea from somewhere on a blog ? Or were you just taking the logic to an end ?

should be interesting to see what happens with law suits since Deadspin was the tipping point for this video’s public awareness. They didn’t make it, and they weren’t the first ones to show it – but it got almost no attention until Deadspin put it on their site. I’ll bet Deadspin ends up on the suit – which will beg the question “why is it ok for the mainstream media to invade people’s privacy and hide behind the 1st Amendement, even though that isn’t the intent of the amendment – but it’s not ok for alternate media to do the same ?” Personally, the owners of Deadspin should be ashamed of themselves – but shame and conscience went out the door with those guys a LONG time ago.

umm – how is FoxSports.com “racist” for posting a picture of the idiot Jason Whitlock looking through the hole when he is the one who wrote the idiotic piece ?

How would it be “racist” to post it in any case ? Bigotry and Racism are not the same thing, but that is not a random picture.

“Happens on the LPGA Tour ALL THE TIME” ??? Once is “all the time” ?

You make an excellent point with the Christina Kim and Natalie Gulbis paragraph. In this country, we are (supposed to be) individuals and statements like “WOMEN want it because so and so dresses like a tramp”, implying that ALL women are the same. Respect has gone out the window.

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jul 23, 2009 5:07 PM EDT reply actions

Well, the whole Deadspin pseudo-take is that their constant chatter and objectification of her may have caused this guy to be a peeping Tom. I don’t see the connection myself. The curious implication by mainstream media – Whitlock among them – is that Deadspin constantly crosses the line into the private lives of sports figures. Like you, I think they’re no different than what the normal media does.

I thought FOX Sports looked racist for how they portrayed Whitlock in the frontpage graphic. It just seems odd to me. And I don’t think they’d do that for a white writer.

It happens with some regularity on the LPGA Tour – I just provided two examples that have been reported or I have seen firsthand.

I find it kind of sad when I go to LPGA events and even the non-creepy fans are just starring at the girls’ bods. Then again, there are a bunch of women that go to PGA Tour events to do the same to the fellas.

Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.

by Ryan Ballengee on Jul 24, 2009 10:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Ok – I see what you’re saying – that’s kind of where I thought you were going with that. I hadn’t heard anybody coming out with that idea in the mainstream media. Erin Andrews didn’t need Deadspin to be objectified – that happened nationally the day she got on camera as eye candy – but Deadspin doesn’t help these situations. She has improved some – but she is still there for eye candy, not serious sports reporting.

Whitlock wrote the piece – who else’s face would you like them to put on that graphic ? You’ll also notice that you don’t hear Whitlock complaining – and you KNOW he would be screaming if it bothered him. Taking up other people’s offenses is dangerous territory.

You mentioned ONE example – Paige MacKenzie. The other was your opinion of a fan – taking it to the extent you did is about the same as a lot of the “sexual harrassment” suits that get filed – WAY over the top in the conclusion.
Showing up at A tournament with a jersey doesn’t qualify as stalking. You’re making assumptions of criminal activity based on one episode that you cannot support and, if you approached that fan with those accusations, those charges could be considered slanderous. So why stop there ? Why not accuse the waves of fans wearing Wie shirts or holding signs at every tournament of mass stalking ? How about the guys who show up with a letter of her name painted on their chests ? Just following the logic here.

And don’t try to tell us that you don’t get “distracted” when a gorgeous woman walks by. DUDE ! :-D

You are SO right on the lesbian scene. The old Dinah Shore, and now the tournament in Arkansas is being heralded as the next Lesbi-in tournament to attend. (which really baffles me – Arkansas as a lesbian hot spot ?)

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Jul 24, 2009 12:56 PM EDT reply actions