Columnist Ron Kantowski: It shouldn’t take skin to win

Thursday, May 16, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's insider notes column appears Tuesday and his Page One column appears Thursday. He can be reached at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Like many/most red-blooded American males, two of my major interests are sports and sex. Unlike many/most red-blooded American males, I just wish Madison Avenue would stop trying to smoosh them together like the chocolate and peanut butter in a Reese's Cup.

After two months of soul-searching, LPGA golfer Jill McGill this week joined fellow female linkster Carin Koch in declining Playboy magazine's offer to pose without her wood covers. Unlike Koch, who turned down the offer immediately, McGill deliberated as if it were a tricky downhill putt to save par.

"I finally decided it would be too much of a distraction," she said, adding that "some people hear the word 'sex' and get the wrong idea."

"We're not talking about the act of sex. When you say 'sex appeal,' that's an entirely different thing."

Of course, this isn't the first time the LPGA has been exposed (pun intended) to the delicate issue of showing a little leg on the fairway. Back in the early 1980s, when The Man Show's Jimmy Kimmell was still locking himself in the bathroom for lengthy periods of time, attractive players such as Jan Stephenson and Laura Baugh were even encouraged to flaunt their sex appeal by the LPGA front office.

That was still pretty much the case around 1990 when Deborah McHaffie, a lightly regarded player from Las Vegas, began to strut down the fairway in form-fitting spandex.

It wasn't just when the cameras were rolling. I remember interviewing McHaffie once during an exhibition at the Dunes, where I was the only gallery. She was wearing a leopard-skin outfit that was tighter than Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve.

Her ensemble was modest by Club Rio standards, but it used to turn heads whenever the tour made its Bible Belt stops. That's probably the only reason sports writers such as David Climer of the Nashville Tennessean still invoke the name of Debbie -- er, Deborah, as she insisted on being called during those spandex days -- whenever somebody on tour considers raising her hemline.

Climer recalled McHaffie's appearance in the Sara Lee Classic in his hometown several years ago when she fed the gallery mass quantities of cheesecake. And it wasn't the kind the sponsor of the event specializes in.

As Climer wrote, although the Bishop Gorman grad was far back of the lead, her gallery that day outnumbered all but a handful of foursomes.

When McHaffie was asked about her wardrobe, she feigned suprise.

"What? This outfit?" she asked, vamping it up as if the Church Lady was conducting the interview. "This is nothing. You ought to see what I wear when I really want to get attention."

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times believes looks are important to the marketing of any athlete, male or female. "If Tiger Woods weighed 250 pounds, if Woods looked more like Craig Stadler or had the grumpy personality of Colin Montgomerie, would he still be an international icon?" she wrote recently.

The answer is yes. John Daly weighs more than 250 pounds and is -- or at least was -- about as friendly as a bear with a toothache. Yet he's one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour.

Call me old fashioned, but if I were a kid and considering hiding a magazine under my pillow, it would still be my Dad's Playboy, not Golf Digest.

But any LPGA touring pros who disagree or are tired of being repressed can always take up tennis.

I hear Anna Kournikova may be looking for a doubles partner.