ABSTRACT
The following piece is a modified version of a chapter from a book I wrote on professional women’s golf (Crosset 1995). I started this research as a graduate student in the late 1980s hoping to discover something about changing gender relations. I took off after the tour in my pickup truck, equipped with a sleeping bag and camping gear, in pursuit of data for my doctoral thesis. Even though I expected to “rough it,” studying the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) actually proved to be a boon to my quality of life. I found that friends generally took me in for the week of each tournament and I rarely ended up sleeping in the truck. At the tournament site I enjoyed the luxury of a press pass. With access to the press room I usually received three free meals a day, frequently prepared by the host country club’s kitchen staff. The press pass, it turned out, was better than most academic grants which a social scientist receives.
