The title character in Something About Mary was simply the filmmaker's concept of the ideal woman. Straying from probability but sticking mighty close to the mass sensibilities of the middle-American male, The Farrelly brother's created, with considerable help from Cameron Diaz, a good-hearted, down-to-earth, quick-to-giggle knockout leggy blond fond of football and beer.

Since the sport in general has been slowly shifting towards a more youthful image it only makes sense that women golfers are getting a mass media makeover.

In recent years we've had Rene Russo swinging with Kevin Costner in Tin Cup and Sharon Stone taking strokes for the paparazzi with her then man-of-the-moment on an LA golf course. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt has announced that he is going to put out his own "irreverent" golf magazine. Even big-time fashion photo shoots have been happening on fairways.

It used to be the only way you would find a fashion model on a golf course was if someone had mistaken her for a pitching wedge. Now she could be playing with her somewhat mellowed rock star boyfriend.

So much for the traditionally less-than-glamorous image of the woman golfer.

Not that male golfers, maybe Sean Connery aside, have exactly been revered through the ages for their sex appeal. As for their taste in clothes: let's just say professional bowlers seem positively hip by comparison. (Have you ever seen tassels on bowling shoes?)

How then can we blame female golfers for emulating certain unappealing sartorial traits of the men? It was clearly guys who set the dress code. And back then they weren't, obviously, thinking about sharing their greens with the ladies. Even today, women golfers still face second class treatment at country clubs (which puts them in the company of many, truth be told). A lot of courses reserve the best tee times for male members, others don't even allow women to join.

The LPGA has had to struggle hard for parity. Finding their place in the traditionally male world of golf meant adopting strict rules of their own. According to an article from The Ottawa Citizen, these "rules state that no women's washrooms, for the pros or for the public, will have urinals." In order to comply, one club's official used 22 baskets of fresh flowers to turn his facility's urinals into flower holders.

I say, how about more flowers out on the course where everyone can enjoy them? But that's not the point. The point is that men should be able to have flowers in some though certainly not all of their urinals as well. Equity has to be a two-way street. Let's make this co-ed thing work. After all, too many men on golf courses are fleeing healthy contact with women. (Remember Marilyn Quayle's famed remark about her husband? Something like, "Anyone who knows Dan Quayle knows he'd rather play golf than have sex any day.") It is probably of some importance then that women get out to where the men are hiding.

And who will argue that the world of golf could benefit from some feminine charm? Probably LPGA pros who want to be viewed as professional athletes and not Madison Avenue sex objects like tennis' Anna Kournikova. Still, top players like Sweden's Annika Sorenstam, LPGA Player of the Year for '98, and Korea's Se Ri Pak, winner of the U.S. Women's Open, come close to assuming the role of tour cover girl.

Until Diaz goes pro, they are the leading representatives of the sport's new, softer, more glamorous image.