SALLY JONES: In 2023, who thought it was a smart idea to get the Ryder Cup WAGs to pose like simpering Hi-de-Hi Yellowcoats?
So this week the Europeans won the Ryder Cup, golf’s biennial showdown with the Americans. And how did they choose to celebrate? With plenty of howling and champagne-glugging and even weeping, but also with a picture that at first I could barely believe was not some kind of fake.
There, draped over their men like ivy, planting star-struck kisses on their lips and faces, were the golf WAGs — all long, tanned legs, perfect lip-gloss and exquisitely-coiffed hair, wearing identikit miniskirt uniforms and even matchy-matchy handbags. Some were entwined like teenagers and others more sedately kneeling, but all gazed in doe-eyed adoration at their heroes.
Such a picture cannot help but feel like a terribly sexist throwback. I was reminded both of trolley dollies in an old-style airline commercial (‘I’m Tammy. Fly me!) and of the ‘gorgeous, leggy’ Yellowcoats from the 1980’s sitcom Hi-de-Hi!. You almost expected a group shout of ‘Morning Campers!’ as they preened and posed at the photocall.
The whole smug charade seemed designed to rub the Americans’ faces in it by proclaiming, ‘Look at our hot wives and girlfriends’, though in truth, the U.S. WAGs were cut from near-identical cloth to their European counterparts. It seemed only a matter of time before the ‘ladies’ retired to change for the swimsuit round.
Why on earth would these women consent to be pictured like this? After all, behind the bling and the artfully-tousled Farrah Fawcett-style blonde tresses, lurk some very sharp cookies indeed.
Draped over their men like ivy, planting star-struck kisses on their lips and faces, were the golf WAGs — all long, tanned legs, perfect lip-gloss and exquisitely-coiffed hair, wearing identikit miniskirt uniforms and even matchy-matchy handbags. Some were entwined like teenagers and others more sedately kneeling, but all gazed in doe-eyed adoration at their heroes
The WAGs also took a separate photo just with Norwegian star Viktor Hovland, the only single man out of the 12 Team Europe winners
The WAGS are pictured with Viktor Hovland after Team Europe won the Ryder Cup
Most of the Ryder Cup WAGs have forged successful careers in their own right. Several are gifted sportswomen, including a rising British tennis star in Olivia Peet, girlfriend of the Swede Ludvig Aberg.But here they were, little more than arm candy.
At least the posing girls who flank the podium at Formula One races or sashay across the boxing ring before a big fight are being paid for it.
Watching the saccharine, anachronistic scenes at Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, I found it hard to believe that a vast, massively lucrative international sport like men’s golf could have got the optics so wrong.
At a time when other sports, particularly tennis, athletics and cricket, are embracing female participation and gender equality at all levels, the whole mood music around this year’s Ryder Cup felt utterly tone-deaf.
Even men’s football — scarcely renowned for its woke credentials or commitment to feminism — does not demand that its own high-profile WAGs submit to such indignities, nor does it relegate them to the status of over-privileged cheerleaders.
Would Harry Kane’s wife Katie Goodland or, in the old days, Victoria Beckham or even Coleen Rooney, have consented to prance around in matching rig-outs? In your dreams.
The continued existence of these ludicrously retro traditions seems a vivid illustration of the game’s ongoing ‘woman problem’ — the golfing equivalent of an own goal: a shank off into the deep rough, perhaps.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t cut both ways. Last week, Europe’s female golf stars staged a thrilling fightback in Andalusia, Spain, to tie with the strongly-fancied U.S. side and retain the Solheim Cup — the women’s equivalent of the Ryder. There was of course no comparable presence of husbands or partners (of either sex), resplendent in matching blazers and bow ties cheering on their loved ones.
And while many high-profile sports are narrowing or even closing the gender prize money gap, golf’s is as wide as ever.
The Europeans won the Ryder Cup , golf’s biennial showdown with the Americans. And how did they choose to celebrate? With plenty of howling and champagne-glugging and even weeping, but also with a picture that at first I could barely believe was not some kind of fake. Pictured: Rory McIlroy celebrates an iconic Ryder Cup victory by pouring champagne over his face on the 18th green
Justin Rose, Jon Rahm and teammates of Team Europe celebrate winning the Ryder Cup during the Sunday singles matches
The whole smug charade seemed designed to rub the Americans’ faces in it by proclaiming, ‘Look at our hot wives and girlfriends’, though in truth, the U.S. WAGs were cut from near-identical cloth to their European counterparts. It seemed only a matter of time before the ‘ladies’ retired to change for the swimsuit round. Pictured: WAGs cheer on Team Europe on Saturday
Why on earth would these women consent to be pictured like this? After all, behind the bling and the artfully-tousled Farrah Fawcett-style blonde tresses, lurk some very sharp cookies indeed. Pictured: Paige Straka, Shannon Hartley and Kate Rose cheering up a storm in Rome
Posing for a photo with the iconic gold trophy, Team Europe captain Luke Donald was surrounded by his victorious team who shared a special moment with their other halves at the end of a memorable weekend in Rome
This year the total prize money available on the men’s PGA tour is an eye-watering £380 million, but on the women’s equivalent, the LPGA, it’s less than a quarter of that, at £83 million. Still a vast sum, but not an equal one.
In truth, there still exists a ‘grass ceiling’ in golf. Indeed, the game has long been synonymous with a baked-in sexism in society — and this is especially true in business.
Research in the U.S. shows that company chief executives who play golf are less likely to have women on their executive teams, for example. And when the CEO is a golfer, there’s a higher pay gap between men and women on management teams.
When business deals are cut on the links, out-of-office bonds are formed or gossip exchanged, it’s rarely with women present.
Why don’t more women play golf, you might ask. Well, show me the woman who has time for it. With each round easily taking four or five hours to complete, golf is a sport for those with large amounts of leisure time at the weekend or after work. Working women, especially those with families, simply do not have that time for themselves.
It’s why golf clubs are still full of chaps who regard it as the place to go to escape their wives on Saturdays. These are the men who believe the nearest the ‘little women’ should come to participation is cutting the cucumber sandwiches for the high tea.
And that, surely, was the impression given by the Ryder Cup picture, in which women were cast merely as the adoring support.
As a golfing wife myself, albeit one who regards a round, at all but the most picturesque courses, as ‘a good walk spoiled’, I can vouch that among the more old-school clubs, this attitude is alive and well.
When one committee member at an ultra-traditional club rashly suggested a break with tradition to allow ‘the ladies’ to play on Mondays, a day which had previously been an all-male preserve, a purple-faced septuagenarian rounded on him furiously. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, man! They couldn’t play on Mondays — they’ll be too busy doing the washing.’
Team Europe’s Rory McIlroy celebrates with his wife Erica after Europe regained the Ryder Cup
Luke Donald, Captain of Team Europe celebrates with Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick and teammates of Team Europe after winning the Ryder Cup
Team Europe’s Tommy Fleetwood celebrates with Team Europe captain Luke Donald after winning the Ryder Cup
Several clubs which formerly banned their female members from playing at popular times during weekends have come up with a clever wheeze to get round that pesky equal opportunity legislation that now outlaws this sort of discrimination. They simply convert their ‘Ladies Section’ into an entirely separate club, playing on the same course but governed by wholly different rules.
Hey presto! Discrimination? What discrimination? Move along now. Nothing to see here.
So, memo to the 2025 Ryder Cup organisers: given the prevailing sexism within the game, it’s time to step into the 21st century and give those long-suffering partners a break.
For the next fixture, amid swirling stars and stripes at the ritzy venue of Bethpage Park in Long Island, why not release them from the tyranny of cheerleader-style uniforms and standing by their man like a platoon of Tammy Wynettes. You’ll be doing them — and golf as a whole — a long-overdue favour.
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