Maginnes: Looks are OK, but they go only so far

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I received an interesting e-mail on Friday that has had my brain working overtime for the past couple of days. It was from an agent-type person, or public relations maven, urging me to feature one of her clients in a piece that I write for an airline magazine.

Anna Rawson (Getty Images)

Ordinarily, I would not even consider writing about a rookie on the LPGA here, there or anywhere else. Especially when you consider that the person in question is not even fully exempt and has never made a dime on the LPGA Tour.

That is not to say that Anna Rawson doesn't have a bright professional future ahead of her. But there are certainly no sure things -- no matter how talented someone is man or woman. I know the obstacles that any young person trying to break into professional golf faces. At the very least, the cards are stacked against you in a system that is designed to expose any and all weaknesses.

Before dismissing the idea of talking to Anna, I checked out her website. It turns out that she is stunning. Not just beautiful -- I am talking runway model, drive up a telephone pole, drop dead gorgeous. As a matter of fact, she really was a runway model.

Compared to other members of the LPGA Tour's 2008 rookie class, her playing credentials are unspectacular. She has had some success on the Futures Tour (the LPGA's developmental tour) and the Ladies European Tour, which is the logical progression for a young professional. But before her play has an opportunity to raise her profile her good looks will bring her to the attention of golf fans.

Is this a good thing for her and for the game? Her representatives believe that she can use her logically anticipated popularity to raise the profile of women's golf in this country. There is certainly room for that.

While the PGA TOUR has taken a leadership role in terms of growing the game of golf, there is certainly room for the LPGA Tour to fall in step beside the TOUR and carry the banner for women's golf in this country.

Obviously, if this has been their guise all along, their efforts have fallen short. Is sex appeal the thing they need to push them over the edge? And is it fair for a nearly 40-year-old single white male to ask the question?

While I know little about runway modeling young women, I do know that sex appeal exists on the PGA TOUR. I played with a young Sergio Garcia at THE PLAYERS Championship nearly a decade ago.

At the young age of 27, Adam Scott has consistently maintained a World Golf Ranking in the top 10. (Getty Image)

To many of the young fans, he was a rock star. They screamed his name in a high-pitched shrill as he walked down nearly every fairway. Years later, when I played with him at the Valero Texas Open for two days on the weekend, the gallery was predominantly young women. This is not a new trend on TOUR. Much of Arnie's Army was armed with handbags back in the 1960s and '70s.

The same has been true for Adam Scott and Camilo Villegas the last several years. No one denies that it is true. It just isn't talked about as much as their talent and certainly in Camilo's case, his charisma. The fact of the matter is that if their playing credentials were equal to a guy of similar age and accomplishment who looked like me, they would still make the big endorsement dollars while the poor homely chap would make far less. It is an indisputable truth that no one denies or even complains about.

When it comes to women in sports -- and out of sports, for that matter -- there is certainly a double standard. Perhaps it takes the boldness of someone like Anna to buck that trend and stare that double standard in the face and not accept it. In the traditionally stodgy world of golf that could be difficult.

It has certainly happened in other sports, though. The Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova have shown that women's tennis players can be fashionable and gorgeous while winning Grand Slam events.

Like it or not, the women's game in tennis is far more popular than the men's game -- and you don't have to overturn too many rocks to figure out why. The same is true, at least in this country, of soccer and you can look to Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and company to understand the reasons.

We love our champions in this country no matter what they look like. When our champions take the form of beautiful women or men, the impact is that much greater. Do you really think that David Beckham and Posh Spice have captured the imagination of our country because he played on the English national team?

Young ladies like Anna can look to those who have come before them in all sports and to current LPGA Tour players for guidance. Obviously, Natalie Gulbis and others on the LPGA Tour have put their own unique spin on beauty and fashion when it comes to marketing themselves and the exposure of that Tour has risen.

As the father of a young daughter, I am torn between the way things are and the way that I would like for them to be. The fact of the matter is that we live in a society where some people are given certain advantages because of the way that they look.

If it turns out that she is one of the beautiful few, I can only hope that she has been given the proper foundation to understand that her accomplishments will be remembered long after her looks fade. Furthermore, I can only hope that the role models she so fondly looks up to set the type of example that their parents can be proud of. And if they are, then the game of golf can only benefit and grow.