Of zoom chats during lockdown with female coaches that are trying to make their way in in the coaching environment. And they're saying to me do i need to put a picture like that up you know. And it's like and and now i follow them i can see every now. And again that they're doing it and it's not them i've spoken to them but they feel like they've got to do it if you don't like you'll quit out from eric he said what do you think about paige veronick. And the presence she plays up to is it good. For golf or not why did you think that was a weird question just because i. For me obviously paige brannick has known being a professional golfer and she um post pictures that some people might see are quite revealing now i i don't know how to look at it i don't follow her no no as a from a male's point of view it's like well that's her body she can do what she wants with. And that's what a lot of other women and feminists believe which is completely fine other people think she's gained a career. And a following off the back of how she looks potentially and again that's also fine but it could be viewed as well you've got some you know so many led players who are grinding who want sponsorship who are amazing golfers who haven't got that because they don't post pictures like that potentially. And she has got all that so they might look at her potentially again and say that's not fair yeah i met paige i've met her a couple of times actually i think she's one of the first. And when you're the first the pioneer like you are rick people copy her. So she's been don't think my sexy pictures would do quite yeah. But what you do with you i'll try i've tried a few times the ones you've sent me by the state before aren't bad. So she's tapped into something which no one else had um. And it's become a business so you've got to go well well done for doing that i think there's a lot of people that are jumping on the back of it when she started to get invites to events i think even she felt uncomfortable with that she openly spoke about like crying the night before playing in dubai i think she probably said yes to it without really realizing what it meant. And she knew that she was treading on some toes there when she arrived this girl had never i don't know if she'd even left america. And she turns up in dubai this new country with 130 girls that it's a bit like hang on a minute what what you doing here she would have taken someone's spot presumably kind of when it's an invite you can invite whoever you want. So the field just gets bigger no there's there'll be six invitational spots they could invite six kardashians if they wanted to. So nobody's got any divine right to take those invitations so it's gonna be let's say 130 field there'll be 124 you are definitely in you've earned the right right to be here. And we're going to have six sponsored involvements we'll make the tournament better yeah who we can invite whoever the hell would whatever local page kim kardashian whoever it is the argued argument could be. And probably would be well she's not got any chance of winning should give someone that will have a chance. But then.
The other argument could be about the exposure she will give the event is massive. For golf so that's why we've got it at the minute with ricky fowler and his invite to the pga people have suddenly like forgot that he can actually play golf. And that's saying it's all about media stuff you're always going to get that when you're an invite. So that's that's that less but with paige i'm thankful now that paige is monetarizing what she's doing because i felt at the beginning having known her she was quite in a vulnerable position. And people were taking advantage of her. For that at least now she's earning money from what she's doing and she's owning it and she's sticking up for herself against the trolls and not changing who she is. And i like that more i think at the start she got this fame. And she had no idea what to do with it. And now she does. So she's in a better place for it i think i do have a slight problem i suppose with people that want to be an influencer. And decide to do it through golf that's my only one at the moment i would say notice that trend i've definitely noticed that they've come into golf. And it's like this is going to be what i'm going to leverage i'm gonna be kind of quite unique that i'm a young girl playing golf i'm gonna use this to gain a following yeah yeah um. But then.
There's some really good ones where i i've followed the journey of a girl that i think she was the beginner golfer lady golf. And now she's off 18 so she's like i need to change my hand yeah yeah. But she's got a job of something else it's more of a and i think that's the trouble you start just documenting it. And then.
Realize that people want to give you stuff and also i think companies still don't realize the difference between followers. And interaction engagement yeah. And engagement which i'm sure you guys have found as well when the companies learn that this will stop i do think um. But yeah i think no i want to see a woman that like that's why i enjoy some of the women that i teach um like nagamonchetti right she could earn loads from golf couldn't she like the morning tv over here i played with her at the bmw on bmw i played with her in the ricoh ladies. And gentlemen yeah she's got a radio show. And she she sits on the the morning news and she's on the television yeah i teach now when friends when i go we got friendly through golf she plays like it's her off time with her husband like she loves golf i want that like not necessarily. But that's the world we're living in i suppose as well with instagram it's the problem is is that if you get some young attractive girl. Or whatever it might be who makes instagram account starts playing golf and then.
A brand shoves some free clubs at them why would you not say again i can't blame the brand in some regard because they want any more eyeballs and it costs them buttons i can't blame the the girl or the boy whatever for taking them because it's free golf clubs but it just upsets me that then.
Some young kid who's out there grinding who's off two who's 14 whose parents haven't got much money and they could do. So much those clubs but again how does that problem get first i've sat on a lot of zoom chats during lockdown with um female coaches that are trying to make their way in in the coaching environment. And they're saying to me do i need to put a picture like that up you know. And it's like and and now i follow them i can see every now. And again that they're doing it and it's not them i've spoken to them but they feel like they've got to do it. And but i do think that's the world that we live in um a lot of people post. For a like don't they well you've got to stay true to yourself if you want to do that which is what paige wants to do she she's happy with that she works really hard on her body. And she's got a great body that's what she wants to do. And she owns it then.
Great but don't do it because you want likes. And feel like you should do it i think there's a couple of things that the industry needs to change. And just social media in general like you said before about buying you know if they sponsor these fault uh instagrammers. And stuff like they'll go off the follower number only and not the engagement but what they kind of they're missing out and then.
And it's not again it's not the person from that brand's fault because they have to report to somebody else and it's that person on the on the senior marketing team that goes so how many eyeballs do how many followers did we get with this well we've just signed such about they've got 150 000 followers brilliant great signed off. But like i say it's it's going down that peckins is going well how many like how many comments is she getting how many how many pieces of clothing are we selling from this. Or golf clubs or whatever it may be what's our what's our roi on on this kind of investment really and that kind of gets missed a little bit do you think. And this again do you think it's it's a conscious decision when. And you just spent loads of time around lady tour players do they sometimes feel like they haven't potentially got the look to become super famous. Or super sponsorable if you have any feedback that they they don't fit the mold that they should getting paid more money at the end of the day with professional golf if you're really good at it you get sponsors of course fact of course doesn't matter what you look like if you are the best you will get sponsored. So i would always say to anybody your golf comes first there will always be people that pick up more sponsorship because they look better in the clothes if you're selling clothes you need people to look good in them don't you. So that's almost the bonus if they're really good at golf and then.
They've got that that that's that's the bonus where they can bring out a calendar. Or i don't think you see that as much is that in i think i don't think you see that as much in well golf especially. But in women's sport now i do think they get there's a better value to once upon a time i would open a newspaper. And the only time women's sport would be in it would be towards the front pages and it would be something negative had happened or somebody had you know done some calendar it was never in the back pages no we are it's now on television it's now in the back pages i don't think that. And i don't think because women need to do that i think we need to tell each other that we don't need that. And if somebody wants you to do it question it like why you know i don't know any sponsor would you would you do this why do you want me to do that why don't we do this what can we do don't just say yes to that type of thing i i don't think the calendars are i've not seen a calendar. For a long time have you seen oh because nobody has accounts instagram is a new calendar in terms of remember like golf punk. And stuff yeah yeah. And people that do that go carly boo has got one of the best bodies in golf like we joke best legs on tour yeah yeah. But she worked really hard to get that she's in the gym constantly it she wants to do that. And feel comfortable doing it then.
Do it do you think there's a trend at the moment. Or do you think there will be a trend in the future where the golf. For some some of these girls is not doing the talking i.e they are starting to glamorize themselves more artificially potentially to get sponsored deals. Or to get more endorsements or have you seen it at all yet you have to name names and do you think we might see it in the future i think women in general care far more what they look like coming to get performing in sport you know i'd always make sure i had makeup on when i played golf even if it was a 6 30 t time pretty sure men don't i'd always make sure my outfit was spot on that it was comfortable that i looked we do that in life women have a responsibility to what we think to us. So we spend loads of money on our hair nails all that anyway so that is something which i think is a good thing if you're a sponsor in them you know you're never going to have to worry about that of course that's a given in the women's game i think with the fit it's going to be interesting to see about how far people hit it because i can't see a woman wanting to do what bryson's done to their body i can't see them bulking up to that extreme that's a good point then.
Think about that you know it's not going to happen if you look at them they're quite slight aren't they the women on tour that have gone. For the fitness area to it they're they're slight and fit they're not stacked i suppose what about like a serena williams type physique then.
Where the like she was obviously quite ripped wasn't she yeah yeah. But i think she's quite naturally yeah i don't think she's um yeah i think that's her natural fit fit physique she's not gone right i need she's always been muscular. And whereas a sister is really tall. And lean serena's not so i suppose you wouldn't ever think they'd swap around in that respect i think as a media we need to be careful with how we talk about it because you would never talk about this to a man right in this conversation about the about the muscular side side of it. And also the way we talk about it as in from my point of view when i'm commentating if someone slams a club a woman slams a club she's not aggressive you know oh she's being aggressive there and is muscular seen as a bad thing in women's sport it's that the terminology rather than if a guy slams a club we kind of like laugh at it um we need to be careful with making um i remember when georgia hall in the open oh we should have smiled you joking like does it matter what does it matter she won the british open yeah she smiled at the end. For the next.
How of course many years ago probably still smiling yeah. But that was the funny thing that that people got from that that i tiger never got criticized. For not smiling because he was he was. So in his own when he was when he used to win he was almost perceived as being moody almost yeah. But in the zone really also like a lot of the um asian players get that as well like well we don't see much of their personality no that's because they're ripping it. And winning by a country mile yeah i think as a as a media we need to go. And find that personality and get it out of them because if you follow them on a social media platform they have got the personality but when they step inside the ropes this is work yeah. So it's about it's about us media now trying to tell the story of the players and i think i'm doing the rose ladies series again this year. And that's really important for me it's not just about the winner it's about everybody but it's finding something else about the winner other than guess what they're good at golf yeah i think yeah i think the women do do a really good when they're certainly in social media do a great job of that yeah i i love what like following. So many of them you know because i want to know more about them i want to know what you what what's your working week like how much practice you put in how much this how much that like like i want to follow the men tour players as well i want to see how much grind you do where you going what's this cool behind the scenes thing you're going to be doing like it's all that interesting story that social media allows people to do i suppose when you were kind of going through that it wasn't really present was it that social media i remember the first time i started youtube like players were like taking the mick out of me a bit like i'd turn up in italy. And some guy would have seen me off of the youtube and they'd be like look at you with your youtube and now they're looking at thinking hang on a minute like there's something in there you're the pioneer well i'm not the pioneer but but there is like the carly boos. And stuff they're still so far ahead of everyone else in terms of the social media aspect to it of course um it's definitely a responsibility now of of the players to open up and show more of themselves because they'll gain from it um i think on the course you can stay quite serious. But often it's nice to show a different side of yourself well this is one of the longest podcasts i've ever done sorry i think people are going to write down.
