A Few Thoughts on Covering the LPGA Tour as a Dude (Occasionally)

This whole Ines Sainz/Jets situation has me futilely trying to raise ogling at a woman in revealing clothing to some kind of existential - or at least relatable - level. The closest thing I can think of (and, honestly, it ain't all that close) is covering the LPGA Tour as a man. It's the only situation that I experience professionally in which the subjects I cover are of one gender dissimilar to mine, so let's run with it.

I don't fancy myself a sexy man at all, though I probably have at some point in my life been attractive. (I got married, didn't I?) For the sake of argument, let's say the diet I'm on now works and I get back to the shape I was in freshman year of college. That was pretty good. 

Now, in that kind of shape, I would never show up to work in tight jeans, or pants that show my American bulges. Frankly, I'm a loose jeans kind of guy and, in a professional setting, a loose Izod golf pants kind of guy. But if I did, I would expect the same kind of professional courtesy as an enterprising journalist as I would have if I was a fashion floosy. 

Ines Sainz should expect the same thing. So long as it's ok by her employer TV Azteca, Sainz can come to work wearing what she pleases. If that's pleasing to the eyes of 53 men on a NFL roster, so be it. She shouldn't be heckled or have her job hindered because of it. If she's a lousy reporter, that's one thing. Dressing in tight clothing, though, is not an acceptable reason to treat someone differently.

The original gangster in this issue is Erin Andrews, who was accused of getting too friendly with the athletes she covers. She has proven herself to be both a stunning aesthetic beauty and an intelligent reporter/host - and of having the acumen to separate the two. Short of some well-circulated butt shots on the Interweb, I don't think Erin Andrews has ever been accused of donning the threads as Sainz. The debate ended in Andrews' favor. It should, too, in Sainz's.

It's a wandering thought, but worth asking: for all of this chatter about the Islamic community center a few blocks from Ground Zero (in the same neighborhoods as peep shows), how would a female Muslim reporter who chooses to wear traditional garb be treated in a locker room? 

Over the years of covering the LPGA Tour in a part-time fashion (there's a pun), I've been fortunate enough to get to know several players. I could even count them as friends of mine. Even among those players, I have never felt uncomfortable in looking at their game in an objective way and writing as such. 

Despite making friends with some players, it has never been my intention to do that. If there's a friendly chemistry, then there is one and it can develop on its own. If there's not, the story is all the same. Access may increase, but the same standards - both ways - apply.

I don't believe the ladies of the LPGA Tour feel discomfort in having an overwhelming majority of men scribbling their professional lives. That said, I've never found myself in a women's locker room. Even with that kind of access, everyone can be adults about it. 

Golf has always been viewed as a male-dominated, female-subservient sport. The country club set supposedly wants their wives to play golf only after making them a sandwich first. It's a crap stereotype, though I'm sure someone will point out beverage cart girls, and you can have the point on that one. Then again, only one golf tour stop has anything resembling the Laker Girls - and the Hope is a dying tournament.

The overwhelming number of male participants in the game at all fronts can be argued as a major hindrance to coverage of the LPGA Tour, but honest and earnest views of the world's leading women's tour do not disparage women. A hint of sexism isn't and shouldn't be found. Same should be true from how athletes treat reporters of an opposite sex.

Testosterone seems to lead to more sexual Tourettes than estrogen - my experiences with whiskey-fueled bachelorette parties in Vegas aside. But that doesn't excuse the inability to do whatever it takes to maintain a professional decorum. If it can be done from the male journalist's prospective, it surely can from the male athlete's prospective. Yeah, writers may not have groupies, road beef, and the like, but that doesn't make excuses.

Keep it together, and in your pants.