Golf ace Creamer shows support for mixed golf

According to professional American golfer Paula Creamer, golf should follow examples led by tennis and introduce mixed events. She said that in order to grow the women's game, women and men should be able to participate together in regular events.

Still more to do

Men and women are set to share the stage in the 2016 Rio Olympics, which will feature golf for the first time since 1904. But Creamer, speaking at the HSBC championship in Abu Dhabi, said that golf should still do more to replicate tennis - which features regular mixed double events, including at the Olympics.

Women in golf continues to be one of the fastest growing aspects of the sport, and Creamer believes that event opportunities should reflect this. Whilst speaking as an ambassador at the Abu Dhabi championship, Creamer said: “I do wish we would do mixed events, because with the level of women’s play currently, we can handle that.”

Promoting the sport

Tennis features mixed doubles on a regular basis, not just during the Olympics, but whilst mixed golf teams competed during regular events like the JC Penney Classic (the last time this happened was 1999) opportunities like this are few and far between. Women's golf continues to increase in popularity, and whilst not everyone seems to want to end the gender divide in the sport, Creamer argued that it “promotes us and helps our golf”, and that seeing a team game during the Olympics would be “exciting”.

The USGA men’s and women’s 2014 US Opens at Pinehurst #2 seemed to indicate that, despite happening because of a scheduling mishap, men and women can easily compete on the same course layout. News has also come out recently that mixed-team golf will feature at the 2018 European Sports Championships. This is said to be the first of it’s kind in Europe, and marks progress in the direction to open golf’s doors to equal gender opportunities.

Creamer does not believe that mixed events is the only thing that women’s golf can do to increase its popularity however. Finding a new way of making itself more lively and exciting is something that Paula Creamer believes would help to appeal to audiences, and she says that female golfers shouldn't be afraid to express their personalities.