| Duramed Kicks Off Season With 6 Canadian Women Who Want To Kick Butt! |
Page 1 of 2  Don't Get Gayle Started On That Equal Pay For Equal Performance Thing. It Might Not Be Pretty By Gayle Moss The Duramed FUTURES Tour (DFT) kicks off its 2009 season on March 20th, in Winter Haven, Florida at the Florida’s Natural Growers Charity Classic and 6 very talented Canadian women golfers will be in the field. These women and the other 12 Canadian players who have qualified or signed up to play the DFT this year have a potentially promising future ahead of them. But the road won’t be an easy one. Although the development tour for the LPGA has launched the careers of 6 out of the 7 Canadians currently holding LPGA cards (Angela Buzminski, Dawn Coe-Jones, A.J. Eathorne, Lorie Kane, Samantha Richdale, Alena Sharp and Jessica Shepley), the road to success is paved with more potholes than pots of gold. It costs about $35,000 US to play the DFT each year. That includes entry fees and travel to the events. Many of the ladies try to get billeting, often with strangers, or share expenses by bunking up with fellow competitors in discounted hotels. The life is not one of luxury, I can assure you. In order to be the best, these ladies have to make golf their vocation. And that means practice, practice, practice. Finding time and energy to work outside of golf is next to impossible. I’ve read about women living on food stamps trying to scratch together enough money to pay an entry fee into a future event. Sponsors for women golfers are few and far between and even if you excel on the tour and make it into the top 10 on the money list, you can’t live on your earnings. Check out the 2008 DFT top 10 money winners. 2008 DFT top 10 money winners. Rank Player Earnings 1 Vicky Hurst $93,107 2 Mindy Kim $79,270 3 Sarah-Jane Kenyon $48,637 4 M. J. Hur $45,137 5 Jin Young Pak $42,368 6 Song Yi Cho $38,349 7 Jessica Shepley $37,705 8 Leah Wigger $36,719 9 Sophia Sheridan $34,397 10 Kim Welch $33,768 Now check out the top 10 money winners on the development tour for the PGA (Nationwide): Rank Player Earnings 1. Matt Bettencourt $447,863 2. Brendon de Jonge $437,035 3. Jeff Klauk $407,418 4. Jarrod Lyle $382,738 5. Bill Lunde $341,446 6. Colt Knost $329,509 7. Darron Stiles $324,627 8. Greg Chalmers $321,930 9. Scott Piercy $320,187 10. Greg Owen $309,805 I’ve been told that golf is an equalizer. Yeah…right! |
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