WPBA (on ESPN) vs LPGA (on ESPN2)

[theinel]

The WPBA "Carolina Classic" final match was just on ESPN (3:00 - 4:00 PM in South Florida) opposite the first hour of two hours of coverage of the final round of the LPGA "Franklin American Mortgage Championship" on ESPN2.

Is women's pool drawing enough viewers to compete with the LPGA? Does this happen on a regular basis or was this just a rare occurrence? The second hour of that time slot on ESPN was an NFL "Battle of the Gridiron Stars" program so maybe there was a specific reason for targeting women viewers with the earlier hour against the LPGA. I can't imagine that happening with men's pool right now.

I'm sitting here with a pretty bad sunburn right now so maybe my thoughts aren't to clear. Just thought it was interesting.

[JPB]

Women's golf has a lot of problems. I don't know the details of their contract, btu it probably saves ESPN money to have it on 2 so as to pay smaller rights fees. Producing a decent golf telecast costs more and is harder to schedule. But these are just some guesses. ESPN probably just had a schedule gap and canned programming worked in the slot or something.