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Carly Booth column: Next week in Morocco we’ll prove we can compete alongside men
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by Ladies European Tour star Carly Booth
As a full-time playing member of the Ladies European Tour I do not get to play a lot of my golf with or against men.
They do figure in the amateur teams when we have a pro-am the day before a tournament – and there is a competitive edge because I always want my team to win.
But the main thing about the pro-am rounds is making sure all the amateurs enjoy their day out playing with a professional and also passing a few swing tips if I am asked for them.
Next week, however, on the eve of our Lala Mereyem Cup tournament at the Rabat Golf Club in Morocco things are going to be very different.
First, because many of Europe’s top men’s pros will also be playing at the Rabat club next week as they compete on another course for the Trophee Hassan 11 title.
But second, because the two tours have got together and organised a very interesting and different style of golf exhibition for Moroccan fans the day before the tournament action gets underway.
The LET have asked myself, Dame Laura Davies, Gwladys Nocera and local pro Maha Haddioui to take part in a seven-hole mixed greensome battle playing in teams alongside men’s Tour members Thomas Levet, Javier Ballesteros, Christian Heavens and Younes El Hassan.
That will certainly be a first in my career as a professional golfer but it could be a foretaste of even bigger things to come in the future as golf tries to shed off its stuffy traditional image and makes itself more popular.
A couple of months back there was one announcement along that route that was really exciting when both the Ladies’ and Men’s Tour gave their backing for golf to be included in the programme of the new multi-sport European Championships when they are held simultaneously in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018.
Apart from the fact that the golf element will be played at Gleneagles, my home course, the set-up of the competitions will be similar to those at tennis events like Wimbledon with titles up for grabs for the men and women playing individually and also together as mixed pairs.
Having played for Europe in two Junior Ryder Cups, I have enjoyed the spirit that team sports tend to foster and have very strong ambitions to play Solheim Cup and Olympic golf in the years ahead.
And I have two very good reasons for having no worries about playing alongside pros from the men’s tour.
As a youngster the person who had the biggest influence on golf was my brother Wallace who, despite being seven years older than me and going on to play in the Walker Cup in 2009, took his little sis under his wing and taught me the game at the 9-hole Comrie Club near Crief.
He helped me produce my first significant trophy win when, at the tender age of 12 and playing off two handicap, I teamed up with Craig Watson, who won the 1997 Amateur Championship and will captain the Great Britain Walker Cup side in 2017, and we won the Scottish (not junior) Foursomes Championship in 2004 at Stirling Golf Club.
So roll on Morocco and Gleneagles but the question must be asked whether the Men’s and Ladies’ Tour will one day work together and find a sponsor to back a full scale professional tournament involving golfers from both sexes.
I have heard nothing in the pipeline yet and it could be a long way off, but if golf wants to popularise its image, having men and women competing head-to-head against each other would surely attract a lot of interest.
I am not suggesting that we should all play off the back tees because my average driving length is only around the 265-yard mark and the vast majority of men out on the tour would always hit the ball a long way past mine. But there again, men are genetically built to be stronger than us women.
But once the golf ball is down the fairway, in a greenside bunker or on closely mown putting surfaces built with tricky borrows, strength does not come into play. Then it is all down to finesse and touch, and we women pros know we can compete in that field.
