Lexi Thompson and Rory McIlroy: Cheesecake or Athleticism?
Apr 3, 2015; Rancho Mirage, CA, USA; Lexi Thompson tees off on the second hole during the second round of the ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills CC – Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Lexi Thompson is the Golf Digest May issue cover girl. The magazine may have learned something last year when they struggled to defend putting Dustin Johnson’s girlfriend, Paulina Gretzky, on the cover of their May 2014 issue. She was qualified to represent women’s golf because? This year the editors turned to professional women golfers to represent professional women golfers, which seems like a no-brainer. But the cover photo again evoked a small fire-storm.
More from Golf News
- Golf Rumors: LIV set to sign Masters Champion in stunning deal
- Brutal return leaves Will Zalatoris looking towards 2024
- Stars You Know at World Champions Cup Starts Thursday at Concession
- 2023 Hero World Challenge Predictions: The Return Of Tiger Woods?
- RSM Classic Brings the controversial 2023 PGA Tour Season to a close
Now the issue seems to be the lack of cover-up in Thompson’s photo. In an interview with FOX News Channel’s FOX & Friends, Thompson, who was a bit incredulous, responded to criticism that she’s posed “nude” for the cover shoot:
"“Well, you know, it’s funny, it’s actually not a towel. It’s a jacket that I’m covering up with. I have more clothes on in that picture than a lot of the [people] that go to the beach. I actually have shoes on, I have shorts on and I have a jacket covering me and it’s pretty funny to hear those comments. You know it is a fitness issue, we shot a lot of different looks, but that’s the one they chose for Golf Digest and, you know, I’m very happy with it.”"
More from Pro Golf Now
- Golf Rumors: LIV set to sign Masters Champion in stunning deal
- Fantasy Golf: Grant Thornton Invitational DFS Player Selections
- Brutal return leaves Will Zalatoris looking towards 2024
- Stars You Know at World Champions Cup Starts Thursday at Concession
- Fantasy Golf: An Early Look at the 2024 Masters Tournament
Thompson’s one of the longest hitters on the LPGA Tour and her golf swing is an amazing demonstration of athletic skill. She didn’t get that swing and the power that drives it sitting in a beach chair working on her tan. She got it by developing her body, strengthening the muscles she needs to swing her golf club at a speed and with a level of control that I can only dream about.
Thompson and the other Tour players who are represented as examples of outstanding athletes in Golf Digest’s May issue — Stacy Lewis, Michelle Wie and Cheyenne Woods — earned their spots in the magazine by working hard to develop bodies that would support and extend their ambitions as professional athletes. It doesn’t make sense to drape those magnificent bodies in sackcloth.
When I reflect on the iconography of Lexi Thompson and Rory McIlroy, who was featured on the cover of Golf Digest’s April edition kilted and posed like a Grecian statue, I’m forced to think beyond the parochial. To be sure, there is a certain commoditization of these two stunning athletes but then Golf Digest is in the business of selling magazines. Beyond that basic economic driver, however, what do these images say about the state of the game? What do they convey about golf’s future?
If Lexi Thompson and Rory McIlroy are representing the face of golf as it again becomes an international olympic sport, and in Golf Digest’s blurbbery as “new models for greatness,” the game that is played by paunchy old men who smoke cigars and replayed in countless smoky 19th holes that are off-limits to the local club’s junior golfers, could be fading into the sunset of the 20th century, replaced by a sport that demands fitness and worships youth.
Is this an updated Greatest Game Ever Played scenario, a remake of young Frances Oulmet’s triumph over the stogie-smoking, whiskey-drinking Harry Vardon? Perhaps.