Golf: Campbell joins call to keep women out

PORT STEPHENS - New Zealand No 1 Michael Campbell has joined Greg Norman and Ernie Els in calling for a ban on women competing in men's professional golf tournaments.

Campbell expressed his views ahead of England's Laura Davies contesting the co-sanctioned ANZ Championship north of Sydney starting on Thursday.

Davies, who won last year's New South Wales Ladies' Open on the same Horizons course, will become the eighth woman in two years to appear in a leading men's event.

She follows in the footsteps of Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, who created enormous interest last May when she contested the Colonial tournament on the PGA Tour in the United States.

Both Norman and Els were last week critical of the decision by ANZ Championship organisers to continue what they called a "novelty" trend in inviting women to compete against the men.

Davies accepts they "had a fair point" but insists she is not seeking to make a career out of competing against her male counterparts.

"I played with Annika in America last year the week after she played with the men in The Colonial and we talked about it a lot," said Davies, who played against the men last year in the Korean Open.

"She really enjoyed the experience, but we both agreed it was not something we would want to do every week.

"We have our own tour and that's where we want to concentrate on competing.

"It's not a question of having to prove anything against the men as I have nothing to prove," she said.

"The challenge is playing on longer courses. On the ladies' tour we play shortened courses and for someone like me who's a long hitter it means always playing at half-throttle."

Campbell, who finished in a share of fifth at the Heineken Classic in Melbourne, has condemned the gimmicky nature of Davies' appearance in the ANZ Championship.

He said he agreed with Greg Norman that inviting a woman to compete "denies an invitation to a young male player coming up through the ranks who needs a break and she's taking up a spot in the field".

"It's a cheap way of advertising the tournament and I don't agree with it.

"We've seen Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie [in the US] now competing against the men and now this week Laura is playing, but I am not a huge fan of this.

"Watching Annika's efforts was nice but that now has created somewhat of a trend, so I am definitely behind Greg's comments that the male events should be guys-only.

"I think also it is very detrimental to both games.

"Laura mightn't play that well and have no chance of making the cut and what does that do to her confidence and what does it achieve for the women's tour?

"There was enormous pressure on Annika competing against the men but I believe it's done more harm than good for the ladies' tour in the US."

- NZPA