Peter Williams: Fairer sex stronger if Wie leaves the boys alone

With the British Women's Open this weekend completing the triumvirate of major championships following the Open and Senior Open in the last two weeks, the current debate regards who actually is the emerging star of women's golf.

Michelle Wie has had more column inches than any 15-year-old in the history of sport. Yet she's never won a tournament. On the other hand Paula Creamer, aged 18, has just completed the second victory of her rookie year on the LPGA tour. She whipped the field at the Evian Masters in France, one of the richest tournaments in the women's game, by a massive eight shots.

Creamer's had a memorable year.

She's graduated from high school and won a million dollars. And if you thought much of Wie's appeal was based on her long legs and good looks, Creamer's hardly been lagging in the male admiration stakes either.

During a tournament in Rochester, New York, last month a hopeful suitor with a romantic streak jumped the ropes to present her with a dozen red roses. A short time later another teenage male fan interrupted her round to ask her to his school ball. Apparently she didn't flinch but told him, ever so politely, that she had nothing to wear. Despite the interruptions, Creamer finished second in the tournament.

For now, from a purely playing perspective, Paula Creamer is the hottest young prospect in women's golf. But Wie is by far the better known and more talked about simply because she's regularly playing in men's tournaments, both amateur and professional. This week she's confirmed she'll be back in Britain next year to try and qualify for the Open Championship - that's the one which so far has been played 134 times with only men in the field.

But whether it's Creamer or Wie, or for that matter another American teenage amateur Morgan Pressell, making headlines or featuring on leaderboards, women's golf has gained a new generation of young stars, giving the LPGA tour a much-needed boost in popularity.

The final day of the US Women's Open last month had three times as many television viewers as the men's PGA tour event in New York on the same day. Remember Wie was in contention at the start of that Sunday but faded badly before Pressell made a charge, only for Birdie Kim to snatch a dramatic win on the last hole.

Although it pains many to admit it, the most popular women's sports are those which offer sex appeal. The more pretty faces, exposed flesh and long legs, the better for pulling a TV audience. Why else is beach volleyball in the Olympics, with a thriving international circuit? Isn't women's tennis now enjoying unprecedented popularity through the physical attractions of Sharapova, Dementieva and the Williams sisters?

So it is now for women's golf. The prospect of not only Michelle Wie but an entire group of pretty young things setting out on professional careers is the best news possible to the beleaguered marketing executives struggling to keep women's tournament purses in some sort of proportion to the ever-expanding sums on the men's tours.

There have been strikingly attractive women golfers before and some of them were really good. Australia's Jan Stephenson was the most notorious.

This time, it could be different. These teenagers are already tournament contenders and promise to be so for some time.

The biggest problem could be keeping Wie in the women's game and not having her hive off to prove a point against men.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY