The Women Behind Star Athletes Often Steal the Show

LONDON, Sept. 22, 2006— -- For those who love the game, golf is addictive. For those who don't, it's pretty boring. And it seems a lot of people fall into the latter category.

Twenty-four of the world's top golfers are on display in Ireland this weekend, battling for the Ryder Cup -- raw emotion as Tiger Woods and the Americans take on Europe's finest.

But in the buildup to the Ryder Cup, the players have been given short shrift in the press. Most of the headlines have been about their wives.

They are known as WAGs -- that's wives and girlfriends. Or WABs -- that's wives and birdies. Get it? Yes, it's pretty bad.

Even the stuffy Daily Telegraph of London ran a double-page spread that put the wives in the spotlight, while their diligent husbands toiled on the practice ground.

"I tell you exactly what it says about us," spat Daily Telegraph columnist writer Rachel Johnson. "This is a society obsessed by personality rather than content."

And the smutty British tabloids have not been as kind as the good old Daily Telegraph. Elin Nordegren, wife of Tiger Woods, has suffered the indignity of fake naked shots splashed across tabloid covers. An irate Tiger fumed at a press conference when he should really have been talking about his game. "It's just that sometimes they just don't let the facts get in the way of a good story," he mused philosophically when the steam stopped pouring out of his ears.

The so-called American WAGS have made quite an impression in Ireland, with their match designer costumes, coiffed hair and dazzling gems. Remember, two of them have modeled before and another tried her hand as a pop singer.

"They are what we call in England 'fit looking birds' and they've made the most of it," Rachel Johnson concedes, once the steam stopped coming out of her ears.

But where does this misogynistic WAG label -- which defines a woman solely by what her husband does -- come from? It started in earnest during last summer's soccer World Cup. While England's players floundered on the field, their wives took center stage as they shopped and partied. The press took more interest in the wives than the players.