Swing Out Sisters

ONCE upon a time, the world of golf was off-limits to the partners of professional players. The women were kept well away from the glare of publicity surrounding their men, and had to peer over heads or look through gaps in wall-to-wall shoulders to get a glimpse of the green. Standing unnoticed under a tree, or swallowed up in the crowds, she would offer quiet, unobtrusive support, and no one would give her a second glance.

Fast-forward a couple of decades and it's a different story. Forget TV's Footballers' Wives; the true ongoing saga of golfers' wives has much more of the intrigue, the affairs, the outbursts - and, of course, the costume drama. At today's tournaments, you'll find the golfer's wife or girlfriend shadowing her other half's every move from behind a pair of designer shades. Throw in high heels, manicured nails and diamond earrings and - well, you get the picture. Whatever their partners may lack in sartorial clout (and let's face it, a polo shirt, V-neck sweater and baseball cap hardly count as high fashion, regardless of Pringle's efforts to revamp the golfing wardrobe), the wives have it in spades.

They're increasingly keen to have their share of the limelight too, and the press, for their part, are happy for them to have it. Now, it's not so much coverage of the closing putt that the television cameras are after as the celebratory reunion of husband and wife (plus small cute children, if possible) on the final green.

And nowhere are the wives more on show than at the Ryder Cup, where their presence is a notorious - and increasingly controversial - part of the tournament. The women, given virtually access-all-areas passes, are permitted to march in the opening ceremonies, attend meals alongside their men and even sit in on strategy sessions in the team room.

Not only that, but the rivalry between the American and European teams is played out to dramatic effect. Fashions at this particular event are often held up to ridicule - the often identical appearance of the US wives has, over the years, had the British press gleefully dub them everything from Stepford wives and Barbies to 'the peroxide army', with one particularly tart comment from London's Evening Standard summing it up: "Many observers would have sworn that every man on the American team had married the same woman."

It's a fair point, and one that has been noted before - Lisa Cink, married to Stewart, is a rare brunette among the ranks of blondes on the American wives' circuit, and only, according to one catty onlooker, "because they met before Stewart got rich".

Rich in golfing terms can mean seriously rich. According to John Huggan, golfing correspondent for Scotland on Sunday, the world's top 15 or 20 golfers earn "silly amounts of money. Tiger Woods, who is now the world's most famous sportsman, is making 80 million a year." Enough to tempt any wife to max out her credit card perhaps, but there's been no word yet of Elin Nordegren, the Swede and former swimsuit model whom Woods married in October last year, hitting the shops in a Coleen McLoughlin-style blowout.

The Americans didn't always buy designer labels, or turn up to the Ryder Cup in identical clothing. Barbara Nicklaus, wife of Jack, inadvertently started that trend in 1987, when she left pink sweatshirts bearing the Muirfield logo in the bedroom of each spouse, never for a minute imagining that they would all wear them to the opening ceremony the following morning. Everyone did, of course, and from then, the standard was set, and the role of the captain's wife was defined.

In 1989, at the Belfry, Maria Floyd, wife of US Ryder Cup team captain Ray Floyd, bought matching blue, red and white sweaters and trousers for the wives of every member of the team. By 1997, Julie Crenshaw, wife of Ben, was ordering lavish outfits for every day, an extravagance that prompted Ashley Sutton to exclaim, "Oh, Julie, you've made my entire fall wardrobe!"

In addition to this were the corporate gifts - bottles of wine with their names etched on the label, a leather desk set, a cigar box and yellow roses. It was little wonder, then, that the wives soon became a force to be reckoned with. One year, they brought mini-American flags to wave at the opening parade; another year, they shouted cheerleader chants at the first tee. Their over-eagerness culminated in one controversial incident at the 1999 Ryder Cup: a stampede, where American players, caddies and spouses all celebrated Justin Leonard's winning putt by trampling over the 17th green, before Jos Maria Olazbal had a chance to play his putt. "It's a sporting contest where spouses pop up in the most inappropriate places," says Huggan.

The European wives, by contrast, are reluctant to show the same exuberance. "Europeans are more relaxed and less visual," says Tony Jacklin's wife, Astrid. "They like to be the strong, silent women behind their men, as opposed to the cheerleaders of the Americans."

Mia Parnevik, Jesper's wife, is in agreement. "We come from so many different mentalities," she says. "You've got the Spaniards, who are very flamboyant and emotional, and you've got the Swedes, who are usually very laid-back. You have so many different personalities mixed together. The Americans are more cheerleaders, maybe. I don't know, it's a different kind of support with that costume thing."

But the Europeans aren't without their own share of glitz and glamour. Eimear Montgomerie, former wife of Colin, has won admiration for her brains as well as her beauty. Suzanne Torrance, wife of Sam, came to golfing from an acting background - in 1978, she starred in Carry On Emmanuelle. As the Ryder Cup captain's wife in 2002, she had the dubious honour of picking their outfits, but her husband has been openly proud of her role. "We discuss everything," he says. "Partnerships, teams, the whole lot. Suzanne has been a stalwart. She has helped me in almost every aspect of the preparations for the Belfry."

Not all the golfers are happy with the level of their wives' involvement. The Ryder Cup in 1999 marked a particularly low point, when Jane, wife of the European captain Mark James, was spat on by one of the spectators. "This wives thing is out of control," Colin Montgomerie was quoted as saying before his divorce from Eimear. "When I am captain, I'll put a stop to it. I see no point in an army of wives being such a feature in a professional man's place of work."

Many were in agreement - Jack Nicklaus was quick to point out that the competition "is between two teams of guys. I don't think wives need to be in the middle." Let alone in the spotlight. When Fred Couples won the Kemper Open in 1983, Deborah, his wife at the time, came racing on to the green wearing a cowboy hat and a blue minidress, leapt into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist, a flamboyant gesture that he made sure wasn't repeated. When he was closing in on his second victory at the 1984 Players' Championship, Fred tracked her down to the gallery where he warned her, "In case I win, don't jump on me again."

Deborah - also down in the record books as dancing on a table in a North Berwick pub during the 1992 Open at Muirfield, the day after Fred had gone home without her - tragically committed suicide in 2001, eight years after their divorce.

But she hasn't been the only wife given to public displays of affection. Mia Parnevik once sent a singing gorilla wearing a pink tutu to her husband Jesper as he was out practising on Valentine's Day. Known as the Mad Hatter of Golf, he probably appreciated the bizarre gesture. Such is the couple's commitment to golf, they named their three children after the sport - Pebble Beach (after the Pebble Beach course), Ida Josefin Peg (after a tee peg) and Penny (after the coin Jesper uses to mark his golf balls).

The Torrances probably get the prize for the biggest golfing romantics, however. Sam proposed to Suzanne on board a Concorde flight, using an elastic band as an engagement ring, on their way to the Ryder Cup in Ohio in 1987. He organised a surprise wedding at Skibo Castle eight years later. "Sam wasn't picked to play on the first day of the Ryder Cup," recalls Huggan. "So he and Suzanne disappeared into their room a lot that day. The next morning at the team meeting, Tony Jacklin, the captain, told him in front of everyone, 'Sam, I'm resting you. You're playing this morning.'"

Their marriage has been one of the most enduring in golf but, unsurprisingly, affairs are rife, and Huggan estimates the divorce rate to be one in three. While some turn a blind eye to any extra-marital goings-on, others are less forgiving of their partner's behaviour. Brenda Cepelak, a feisty, 19-year-old blonde with whom Nick Faldo was having an affair at the time of his marriage to Gill Bennett, battered his brand new Porsche with one of his golf clubs after one tiff, a story which was subsequently splashed across the pages of The Sun. "There were rumours of a payoff after that, because nothing was ever heard of her again," says Huggan. Faldo, whose fortune is worth an estimated 40 million, is currently on his third wife, Valerie, who is 17 years his junior.

The big-hitting US golfer John Daly, meanwhile, met his third wife at the Bob Hope Desert Classic tournament in Palm Springs, California. "They had the usual buxom blonde dolly birds swanning around on the tee," says Huggan, "One had Bob on her T-shirt, one had Hope, one Desert and another Classic. Daly ended up marrying the Classic."

For the wives who stick around longer than most, their devotion to their husbands can be unrivalled. In between looking after their three children, Glendryth Woosnam, the wife of the new Ryder Cup captain Ian, dedicates her life to the sport. "Even when I am not at tournaments, I have it on the TV all the time, just watching and following what he is up to," she says.

Sometimes it's the men who compromise. In order to spend more time on holiday with his family, Nick Price now routinely skips the PGA championships. Phil Mickelson insisted on having his pager with him at the 1999 US Open in the event his wife that Amy went into labour (luckily for him, she didn't). And South Africa's Leizel and Ernie Els decided to make England their home, in order to facilitate his trips between Europe and America (which are, admittedly, on a private jet).

But while debate still rages over how prominent a role the golfer's wife should have, Sam Torrance maintains the women are an important part of the process. "They're the ones the players go back to with their frustrations and the ones who calm us down," he says.

Some of the men are more than happy to show off their spouses, too. In 2003 US golfer David Toms agreed to pose with his wife Sonya for a swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. Surrounded by golf balls, he gazes admiringly at her while she, clad in a white bikini, strikes a pose for the camera. "Wives are very important at the Ryder Cup," says Hal Sutton (who, in 1997, earned the nickname Halimoney because of the stiff payouts to his three previous wives). "We feel pretty lonely out there."

At the Open, which starts in St Andrews this week, the wives usually take a back seat, which is how many enthusiasts believe it should be. "If you were to inject a lot of the players with truth serum, they would probably admit they don't want their wives to parade around like they do," says Huggan. "But publicly, what else are they going to say? For peace, they're going to toe the party line."

Female golfers and their love lives

American golfer Jackie Gallagher Smith, married to golf agent Eddie, had an affair with her former caddie, by whom she has a child. The caddie is currently suing her for having enticed him into having unprotected sex as an "unwitting sperm donor".

Swede Annika Sorenstam, the number one female golfer in the world, is currently divorcing David Esch, her husband of eight years. Until last year, Esch functioned as her de facto agent, answering media questions at tournaments and hustling her through the crowds and walking every hole Sorenstam played.

American golfer Nancy Lopez married her second husband, Ray Knight, a major league baseball player and coach, in 1982. They have three children.

Catrina Matthew, Scotland's best female golfer, married Graeme in 1994. He has caddied for her for years.

America's Dottie Pepper divorced her husband of nine years, and married her caddie.