A tasty summer cocktail of golf, tennis and football
How on earth does one find time to play a round of golf these days with so many absolute blockbuster sporting events taking place every minute of the day? Before the 148th Open Championship tees-off at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland today (Thursday, 18 July), there is just about time to squeeze in a quick reflection of the stupendous Wimbledon tennis finals of last weekend and the surprisingly thrilling Women’s World Cup football in France the week before. The reason is not just to praise the sheer brilliance of these dedicated athletes but also to ponder upon the mind-blowing sums of money that some of our sporting heroes are awarded for their talents. First the brilliance factor.
Football crazy
The Women’s World Cup football gripped the world this summer for the first time on a large scale in its young history. Even a few men admitted to taking more than a slight interest in the well-fought matches. In Holland alone, an estimated 5 million people watched the Dutch team win the hearts of new football fans not only in this tiny country but all around the globe. Alas, they lost to the reigning World Champions, the iconic American team, in the final but what a tremendous show of football talent and athleticism all the teams displayed.
Women’s football was showcased to such a high level in France that surely sponsors will be tripping over each other to back the game in the coming years. Dutch players like Lieke Martens, Vivianne Miedema and Sari van Veenendaal, who incidentally was voted the best goalie of the championship, could well be seeing a few lucrative contracts come their way. And who knows, perhaps there will be a sharp increase in the number of full-time professional women footballers in Europe. There is already a lot of talk about this World Cup kick-starting a whole new generation of young girls to take up the game. A pair of football boots could well be topping a few Christmas present wish-lists this year!
Unforgettable titanic tennis clash
At Wimbledon, the tennis was packed with more passion and brilliance than ever before. Serena Williams was going for a record-equalling 24th grand slam title. The 37-year old American looked unbeatable, until the final. As did the titans of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer who provided us with possibly the most spectacular and unforgettable final of all time – definitely one for the history books! Time for the financial factor.
It always seems rather vulgar to mention money when writing about such historic sporting events as Wimbledon and The Open. The sheer honour of winning these prestigious titles is, of course, paramount. Or at least, it was. Prizemoney is now so colossal that eyes are no longer only focussed on the silverware. So how did Wimbledon Champion Novak Djokovic fare? The 32-year old from Serbia picked up a cheque for a staggering 2.35 million pounds for winning the oldest and most illustrious tennis tournament in the world. While Roger Federer, the 37-year old eight-times Wimbledon Champion from Switzerland, earned 1.175 million pounds as runner-up on the hallowed turf.
How does that compare with the fairer sex? Well, in 2007 Wimbledon announced equal prizemoney for men and women at the All England Tennis Lawn and Croquet Club. After years of discussion, they finally followed the example set by the other grand-slam tournaments.
Equal pay whether two sets or five
Women’s tennis is faster and more furious than ever before. In most part due to the Williams sisters, and Serena in particular. The 37-year old American is arguably the greatest female tennis player of all time. Yet last week’s Wimbledon ladies singles final produced a surprise winner – Simona Halep (pictured above). The 27-year old from Romania, who beat the great Serena Williams in two straight sets, 6-2, 6-2, in just 56 minutes, also picked up a delicious cheque for 2.35 million pounds just like Djokovic. “Such a huge sum for playing just two sets of tennis?”, I hear you faint. Correct. While the men play the best of five sets, the women play the best of three which can mean the difference of being on court for an epic match of nearly five hours or a fast-track victory in just under one hour, as was the case with the Williams v Halep final. Yes, the strive for ‘equality’ can have strange consequences sometimes.
Back to The Open at Royal Portrush
The best golfers in the world are competing for the honourable title of ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ at the Open Championship in Northern Ireland this week. The victor will be presented with the much-coveted Claret Jug and a cheque for 1.935 million US dollars (1.56 million British pounds) out of the 10.75 million dollar prizefund. Now that’s 36,000 dollars more than last year’s Open Champion, Italian Francesco Molinari (pictured below) won.
R&A pledge help for women’s golf
Despite the rise in standard of women’s golf in recent decades, such equality in prizemoney does not exist, much to the chagrin of many. However, the R&A, who organise and promote the Open Championship, have pledged to invest more in the AIG Women’s British Open. The rest is up to the Ladies European Tour.
In 2019, LET golfers have a tournament schedule of 21 events, including the Solheim Cup. A few of these are 54-hole tournaments, but more and more are played over four rounds nowadays, especially the Majors.
Women golfers are hitting the ball farther and farther, scores are getting lower and so you would naturally assume that women’s golf is becoming more attractive for sponsors, but the Tour appears to be struggling. The prize fund for an average tournament is around 300,000 euros with the winner taking home the ‘lion cub’ share of 45,000 euros. Now that won’t be stretching far with rising travel costs to the Ladies European Tour’s latest tournaments in such far-flung places as Australia, South Africa, Dubai, India and Thailand.
Closer to home, alas the Dutch Ladies Open is no more. The last edition was held at The International, Amsterdam in 2015. After a number of successful years backed by ABN AMRO and Deloitte, among others, it has now totally disappeared from the LET calendar. Rather fittingly, Holland’s own rising star, Christel Boeljon, a former European No 1 and Solheim Cup player, won the last Deloitte Ladies Open before vanishing to America. Yes, the Ladies European Tour deserves more financial support to help nurture and keep the golf talent that lies within it.
Time, Ladies and Gentlemen!
The longest-ever Wimbledon tennis final of just three minutes short of 5 hours between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic was so exciting last Sunday that there wasn’t a moment to be missed. There wasn’t even time to rustle up a refreshing jug of Pimms with fresh strawberries and mint! Guess we’ll have to keep our favourite summer cocktail on ice for the final day of The Open Championship at Royal Portrush on Sunday, 21st July instead. On second thoughts, perhaps a Guinness would be more appropriate …
Wendy Hoad
READ MORE about THE OPEN at Royal Portrush on the R&A’s Official Site HERE
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: 2018 and 2019 Wimbledon Champion Novak Djokovic.