Let's get this clear. On Sunday near the shores of Lake Geneva in France, Lydia Ko became the youngest person to win a major golf tournament since Young Tom Morris won the Open Championship when he was 17 in 1856...
She shot a flawless, bogey free -8 63 for a six-stroke victory over Lexi Thompson. Her story is worthy of headlines in any city considering she won her first professional event on New South Wales, Australia when she was just 14, then became the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour after she won the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open as a 15 year old in 2012, and became youngest player of either gender to reach the world #1 ranking earlier this year.
She has 9 professional wins already, and now a major at the age of 18 !
It comes as no surprise to me however to find this remarkable story absolutely buried in the Monday morning dailies.
As a guy who has spent most of the last 25 years, reporting, writing, producing sports, I've passed more time than most prioritizing the day's sports stories.
Today it's the Jays taking 3 of 4 in New York, the NFL scores and stories with the Bills winning their opener, Djokovic beating Federer for the US Open crown, Mayweather hanging up his gloves after his 49th win, the passing of Moses Malone at the age of 60, Mondialiste winning the Woodbine Mile and on and on....
Heck on the Toronto Star on line golf section their last story is Rickie Fowler winning the Deutsche Bank last weekend !
Our job in prioritizing stories for radio, TV and print is always governed by the ratings. Different cities have different priorities. In Toronto it is always the Leafs first and foremost followed by the Blue Jays, Raptors, Argos,TFC and NFL in any particular order depending on the season and who is playing well.
The only golfer who will tempt producers, editors, directors in this town and most others to put golf ahead of the any of the above is Tiger Woods, or if a Canadian won our national championship.
So despite her historic win yesterday, and her remarkable and pleasing story, Lydia Ko is no more than a paragraph on page 5 of today's sports sections.
Not a surprise to me sadly. She would have got more coverage if her name was Michelle Wie and she had won the US Open, but she's not, it's the LPGA who can't get a contract with any of the major TV networks, and she is a south Korean born Kiwi, and it was over in France, in non primetime hours....
Despite all that, how we report sports is slowly changing and when we sense a sport or a personality is driving up the ratings, it will move up the priority list quickly. Fifteen years ago I sat in our program director Nelson Millman's office pleading for more coverage of soccer in our daily reporting and he gave me that pained look, brought out the ratings book and showed me that soccer ranked right down there with 5 pin bowling..
Look how that's changed, as I knew it would, as of today.
Women's golf has now got a brighter future with young women like Lydia Ko, our own Brooke Henderson, Lexi Thompson, Minjee Lee from Australia, Charley Hull from England to name a few and Michelle Wie is still only in her mid 20's.
Watch the Solheim Cup this week from Germany to see the passion that will surely unfold as the USA team tries to win back the cup the Europeans have held twice in a row. You will see some of the games brightest young stars showing off their talent.
I hope they have a chance to move up the priority lists if they keep doing something remarkable, setting new records, becoming international personalities.
Some of my more hard bitten colleagues still adhere to the theory that sex sells, and if they ever want to get on the front pages, they'll need to get onto the center fold of Playboy, or start boinking a few notorious celebrities...
Lydia Ko for one, is thankfully here to prove them wrong.
Bryan Angus
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