Paulina Gretzky Golf Digest cover has upset the LPGA
Golf Digest, being in the business of selling magazines and all, decided to have a provocative cover for their latest issue featuring Paulina Gretzky, the Twitter-iffic daughter of The Great One and fiancée of golfer Dustin Johnson.
Yoga pants? Check. Sports bra? Check. Ironically titled article to accompany provocative cover (“6 MOVES TO LOWER SCORES”)? Check.
Outrage from members of the LPGA over this member of hockey’s royal family appearing on the cover of Golf Digest? Check.
Stacy Lewis has two majors to her credit and was No. 1 in the world for a bit last year, but has yet to appear on the cover. She expressed her dismay over the choice to the New York Times’ Karen Crouse:
“It’s frustrating for female golfers. It’s kind of the state of where we’ve always been. We don’t get respect for being the golfers that we are. Obviously, Golf Digest is trying to sell magazines. But at the same time you’d like to see a little respect for the women’s game.”
Juli Inkster, World Golf Hall of Famer, said:
“It’s frustrating because it’s Golf Digest; it’s not Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue,” Inkster said, adding: “I think they should maybe recognize some of the great women golfers that we have. It’s like, What do you have to do to get a little respect? I’m guaranteeing you right now, it was not a woman editor who chose that cover.”
(She’s right: The editor in chief is Jerry Tarde.)
Inkster is one of only 11 women since 1969 to appear on the cover of Golf Digest, according to the Times, so you can understand the frustration. Imagine if The Hockey News ran a photo of Elisha Cuthbert in a sports bra gripping a stick instead of a women’s hockey player?
(Speaking of which, when was the last time The Hockey News put women’s hockey on the cover? Because we don’t think it happened in either of the past two Olympics.)
Then again, there is LPGA coverage inside Golf Digest. And having Paulina Gretzky on the cover would increase the likelihood that someone that doesn’t pick up Golf Digest on the regular might do so. Which means good things for golf’s exposure, one assumes.
Or this cover means the Internet will do what the Internet does best, which is leer at Wayne Gretzky’s daughter, without ever cracking the actual publication.
Hey, at least we’ve known she’s a golfer before she ever posted a single Instagram.
