Gender blender splendorous in the eyes of many

Adam Scott was hitting balls on the range at Victoria Golf Club when Minjee Lee plonked her bag next to him. Two of the most pleasing swings in the game then operated in perfect symphony.

Minjee Lee follows the flight of her shot. Picture: Getty Images.

Adam Scott was hitting balls on the range at Victoria Golf Club when Minjee Lee plonked her bag next to him. She pulled out a wedge and smoothed a few of her own. They moved back and forth like a couple of human pendulums. The two most pleasing swings in the game were operating in perfect symphony.

I tried to take a video but a big bloke in front of me refused to budge. Still, that side-by-side session of Scott and Lee was the first of three moments when the dual-gender format at the Australian Open could be proved a winner. The second agreeable instance came a couple of hours later, when two nice old blokes in the standard spectator uniform of polo shirt, golf shorts, ankle socks and floppy hats were standing between the first and 10th tees, not far from the statue of Peter Thomson.

Look, said one, there’s Cam Smith! But look, said his mate, there’s Minjee Lee! They couldn’t decide which pro-am group to follow. The British Open champion or the Women’s US Open champion. One of them beamed, “Bloody-well spoilt for choice!”

Which every fan should be at a premium sporting event. Which is why this historic Australian Open feels twice as compelling as previous editions. Which brings to mind the Australian Open of tennis and the taken-for-granted fact that it’s a gathering of the sport’s entire tribe at Melbourne Park. All the best players in the world, male and female, young and old, heavyweights and relative hackers, they all converge on an event that pours glory on every participant – and makes the vast audience bloody-well spoilt for choice.

Golf and tennis are both truly global sports with four majors (five in women’s golf). Tennis has the men and women together, paying and promoting them equally. Golf is divided by the gender line. Where Ash Barty always benefited from sharing the stage with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, Australia’s major-winning golf females, Lee and Hannah Green, get a fraction of the exposure and kudos of Scott and Cameron Smith.

The tennis blokes never shied from talking up the Williams sisters, Barty and company. Before her French Open final this year, Iga Swiatek received a fist-bump and lavish praise from Nadal. These dual-gender tennis majors are the centre of the sport’s universe. Single-sex editions would be half the product.

Adam Scott winces as he plays out of bunker at Kingston Heath. Picture: Getty Images.

Golf lends itself to tribe-gathering even more than tennis. The depth of the competitors is unrivalled. You get tall players, short players, thin players, big-boned players, veterans, younger guns. Exhibit A, sharing the range with Scott and Lee on Wednesday was the legendary English veteran Dame Laura Davies, a long-time supporter of dual-gender tournaments. Near the 59-year-old Davies was Victorian Amelia Harris, the gifted junior who qualified for the Open at just 14 years of age.

Close to Harris was 67-year-old former champion Peter Fowler, tinkering with his swing like it was his first lesson. Golf brings people together and yet the main tours and majors keep them apart. Such a pity.

Davies said: “It’s fun for me to stand on the range next to the likes of Adam and all the other guys and see how they hit it. It’s fun, and for you guys as well, I think it’s a win-win. I hope the guys enjoy it as much as the girls do because I know, speaking to some of the other players, they absolutely love it.”

Scott added: “It’s my first time to play in a mixed field like this. It’s something Laura’s used to. I remember growing up watching her play a lot down here in Australia, winning events, playing with the guys, and she’s championed this kind of thing for a long time. I hope she feels that it’s come a long way and Australia is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible this week. I think it’s a really good thing, really powerful, the mixing of everybody here. The hardest thing (overseas) is the timing of things. We don’t cross paths a lot but if these events can have a big impact, maybe we can find time to do it a little more frequently.”

A dual-gender major featuring Tiger Woods and Lee and Smith and Green would celebrate and promote and showcase golf like never before. For now, the women’s majors receive much less fanfare than the men’s, which is why Lee and Green don’t get the raps given to Scott and Smith – and Barty. There would be the same disparity in tennis if female slams were on their own – and in the pay packets, too.

Dissenters? There’s been one. Australia’s World Tour member Scott Hend skipped the Open because he disagreed with the format, posting on Twitter that “men and women deserve their own weeks”. In reply, Hall-of-Famer Karrie Webb said: “I saw Scott’s comments but when tennis started playing the slams together, that lifted both profiles of the game.

“There’s been times in tennis where the women’s game has lifted the men’s game and vice versa. I do get his point, but I also think that this is something pretty special, to be able to celebrate everyone at the same time. I think it will be a significant moment – it’s a world first. No national Opens have been played concurrently so Australia has really led the way in this format of professional golf. You’ll see it take off in other parts of the world and I’m proud that it started here.”

The third crowning moment for the concept? It could come on Sunday. One grandstand finish in golf is electrifying and nerve-racking enough. It will blow the roof off the joint, make for gripping TV and ensure the format continues in Australia, at least, if the men’s and women’s tournaments become simultaneous thrillers down the stretch. And from there, as Scott suggested after saying there was “no difference” to the pace of play, the rest of the world might like to “pay attention”.