[Tournament organizers decided to award one of its sponsor exemptions via a poll conducted on Twitter during the first week of May. They selected the four players for the poll — Nicollet, Blair O’Neal, Carly Booth and Susana Benavides — based on data from MVPindex, a company that tracks sports figures’ and entertainers’ social media followings. Shawn Spieth, the father of the PGA Tour player Jordan Spieth, is a co-founder of MVPindex.]
By Tim Casey
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Sharmila
Nicollet, whose career has been hindered by injuries, will play in the
ShopRite
L.P.G.A. Classic after gaining a sponsor’s exemption through
a
poll. Credit Claude Paris/Associated Press
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Five years ago, shortly before turning 21,
Sharmila Nicollet became the youngest Indian woman to qualify for the Ladies
European Tour. The accomplishment resonated in her native country, which does
not have much of a golfing tradition, particularly for women. Her popularity
soon soared to heights usually reserved for star cricket players.
Since then, Nicollet has had injuries to her
wrist, toes and back that have hindered her professional career. She is not
among the 1,246 women included in the world golf rankings. Still, she has built
a following that few athletes with her credentials can match. Nicollet, 26, has
more than 359,000 followers on Twitter and more than 110,000 on Instagram.
Nicollet’s social media presence helped her
gain entrance into the ShopRite L.P.G.A. Classic, which starts Friday at the
Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club in Galloway, N.J. It will be her first
time competing in a professional tournament in the United States.
Tournament organizers decided to award one of
its sponsor exemptions via a poll conducted on Twitter during the first week of
May. They selected the four players for the poll — Nicollet, Blair O’Neal,
Carly Booth and Susana Benavides — based on data from MVPindex, a company that
tracks sports figures’ and entertainers’ social media followings. Shawn Spieth,
the father of the PGA Tour player Jordan Spieth, is a co-founder of MVPindex.
When Nicollet found out about the contest,
she spread the word to her fans and won with 39 percent of the votes. Although
many praised the poll as a clever and innovative idea, Nicollet received some
feedback questioning whether she deserved a spot in the field considering her
recent lackluster results.
Nicollet has played in only two L.P.G.A. Tour
events, missing the cut at the 2011 and 2012 Evian Masters tournaments in
France. She has competed in 64 Ladies European Tour events, but she has never
finished in the top 10 and has not made a cut since December 2014. Because of
her injuries and her on-course struggles, she participated in only one Ladies
European Tour tournament last year, and in none so far this year.
“Some
people are a bit opinionated about this whole thing that’s going on,” Nicollet
said. “But I feel if they were given the same opportunity, anyone would seize
it. It’s a sponsor exemption. It’s not depriving anybody else of her spot.
There’s always going to be some people here and there who have something to say
about it, but on a whole, I think it’s been a great positive.”
Tim Erensen, the ShopRite L.P.G.A. Classic’s
executive director, said the tour allowed the tournament to give sponsor
exemptions to three players. Officials gave one spot to Natalie Gulbis, a
popular former star. Another went to the veteran Alison Walshe, who won a
qualifier on Sunday.
Erensen said he hoped the Twitter poll for
the third sponsor exemption would attract 5,000 to 10,000 votes and reach 10
million to 15 million Twitter accounts. The contest exceeded those
expectations, generating nearly 28,000 votes, reaching more than 100 million
Twitter accounts and gaining the attention of fans, athletes and celebrities.
When the poll was announced May 1, the actor Dwayne Johnson encouraged his 11.3
million Twitter followers to vote for Booth, who finished third behind Nicollet
and O’Neal.
“There was lots of discussion about was it
the right thing to do? Was it the wrong thing to do?” Erensen said. “Our belief
was it was an overwhelming success just getting people talking about the
women’s game and talking about our sponsor exemptions.”
He added: “We need to grow the game. The game
is stale. We need to find ways to be creative in drawing new interest in the
game. If we can draw a new, younger generation from a social media perspective,
we thought it was a pretty cool way to get some new folks introduced to the
game.”
The poll also helped fans in the United
States learn more about Nicollet, a former competitive swimmer who began
playing golf at 11. Only a few Indians have played professional golf, but it
did not deter Nicollet from deciding to be home-schooled after 10th grade so
she could pursue the sport. When she was 17, she tied for 28th at the Junior
World Golf Championships near San Diego. Duke, Purdue and other universities
showed interest in enrolling her, but she decided to turn professional at 18.
Although Nicollet has never broken through on
the Ladies European Tour or the L.P.G.A. Tour, she has had some success on the
small, India-based Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour. Most tournaments on
that tour have fewer than 20 participants, but she placed in the top 10 of the
money list for seven consecutive years before finishing 12th last year. This
year, she is seventh on the money list.
Nicollet arrived in New Jersey last week to
get accustomed to the weather and the nine-and-a-half-hour time difference from
her hometown, Bangalore. It is her first time in the United States since last
August, when she was recovering from an injury to a right toe and failed to
make it past the first stage of the L.P.G.A. Tour’s qualifying school.
Now healthy, Nicollet is determined to have a
better showing. She has been working on her game at the Zion Hills golf course
in Bangalore, where she lives in a house at the sixth hole. She also recently
started meeting with Irina Singh, a former professional golfer who is now a
sports psychologist based in India.
“I was a little down because of my injuries,
but I’ve tasted winning many times,” Nicollet said. “It’s a proud feeling. I
just hope to kick-start that and get it happening outside India. I’m proud to be
here.”