Business of Sport/Daire Whelan: There were reported rumours this week that Des Kelly was to be part of a consortium interested in buying English third division club, Darlington. One question: why would anyone be interested in getting involved in a club that lies second from bottom in the lowest division with debts of £20 million?
One can understand the lure and attraction of buying a Premiership club, but Darlington? And what is the attraction for Irish businessmen investing in lower league English clubs?
Carlisle, under the chairmanship of JC Courtenay, only came out of administration last October after debts of £1.4 million were paid off and on Christmas Eve last year, Darlington were placed in administration, despite being owners of a new 27,000-capacity stadium.
Debts of £20 million were run up by former chairman, George Reynolds, in the pursuit of a stadium which could be home to Conference games next season. Despite a 14,000 turn out for a fund raiser involving Paul Gascoigne, Kenny Dalglish and Lee Sharpe, this still only brought in £130,000.
It's not quite Man United and it's not exactly Magnier and McManus but you'd think after Courtenay's tough time at Carlisle other Irish businessmen would be looking to steer well clear of English football clubs.
On Thursday, Laura Davies, the former women's number one, become the first woman to tee off in a PGA tour event in Australasia or Europe in the ANZ Championship.
On a sponsor's invite, Davies joined 155 other players for the Aus$1.75 million tournament. However, with Michelle Wie playing in the Sony Open at Hawaii in January and now South Africa's Ashleigh Simon (14), invited to play in The Tour Championship at Leopard Creek Golf Club next week, some male golfers are fearing their domain is about to become a mixed one.
Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, Wie and Korean Se Ri Pak have all played in men's pro tournaments, while Davies played last year at the Korean Open. With a storm brewing - Greg Norman dismissed Davies's invitation as a gimmick - it seems women's invites are just a sponsorship and marketing ploy.
The poor form of Tiger Woods last year saw TV ratings for golf fall. PGA Tour Commissioner Tom Finchem has said he thought 2003 was a great year. "Having Ben Curtis and Shaun Micheel and lower ratings is a short-term issue. The bigger issue is the positive where you begin to establish younger players, like Chad Campbell. That's where the future growth comes from with the players breaking through."
But the reality is sponsors are looking to put a spin on their own tournaments and using women in that battle has become an accepted means of so doing.
While the Sony Open at Hawaii was hardly a back-lane tournament, Wie's appearance in January caused unprecedented interest in the event. Sony has been the title sponsor of the official PGA Tour event since 1999, which recently was extended to 2006 with prize money increasing incrementally from $4.5 million to $5.5 million in two years time. But the real figure by tournament's end? ESPN's broadcast ratings for the first two days when Wie was taking part were up 30 per cent from 2003. And yet, everyone, it seems, is okay with the fact women golfers are being used to generate publicity for sponsors.
"Anything that creates more interest in the sport is beneficial," says Winchem. "I would be surprised if it becomes a trend. I don't see that as a particular problem. I'd like to focus on the positive side."
Most male players have been supportive of women appearing on their tour, but Norman said: "I think the rightful place is that women play on their tour and we play on ours. It all started with Annika, to promote herself and promote women's golf, but at the end of the day it can be very detrimental."
Is women's golf benefiting or are women players merely pawns in the sponsor's market?
Sorenstam's invitation to the Bank of America Colonial event in May 2003 was widely seen as a marketing tool for the tournament and now on the back of the commercial and ratings success of the Sony Open, Wie has been invited to play in another PGA Tour event, the Booz Allen Classic.
Whether Wie takes part is still to be decided, although her father, BJ Wie, says his daughter wants to defend the US Amateur Public Links in Williamsburg, Virginia which is held the same week.
So, in the end, does the thorny issue of women golfers playing in men's events come down to females wanting to prove they're as good as their male counterparts? Or are they conveniently ignoring their place in the bigger business of sports sponsorship and commercial success of the male dominated companies involved in the golf world? ... bizofsport@eircom.net
£265
Manchester Utd's share price (January 14th price: £254).
50 cent: new mileage rate for GAA players.
116 cent: mileage rate for civil servants.
'If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, then why do they keep score?'
