Greg Norman yesterday described women playing in men's tournament as a "gimmick" and has called for administrators to halt the practice.

A day before Laura Davies becomes the first female to play in a men's event in Australia, Norman said: "I personally don't think it should happen. It's becoming too much of a gimmick. Everyone is jumping on it and I think it has got to stop.

"How do we stop it? It is up to our administrations to come up with a wording for our by-laws and the players have to vote it in. After all, we can't go and play on their tour because we weren't born female - they have a wording to that effect."

Norman echoes the views of many of his fellow players. He added: "This all started with Annika Sorenstam playing in the Colonial event last year. But that week there was another sponsor sponsoring an event called Corning and they were doing it for the ladies tour. Those people put up millions of dollars in an attempt to get Annika to play their tournament, but instead that week there were non-entities.

"If I was Corning I'd be saying: 'Where is my value?' There is another aspect, too. If the girls think they can play against the guys - and fail every time - that can't be very positive for the women's tour. At the end of the day all this can be very detrimental."

Ernie Els, who is defending the Heineken Classic here at Royal Melbourne, said. "If they are doing it for a publicity stunt I am not for it. If they are trying to prove something to themselves I can see.

"But I don't think it is the natural thing to do. I don't think there is much future for it. How many girls are going to be good enough to play? We can't keep on giving them invites. I think guys are going to start complaining about that and I think there might be quite a few men who will oppose it." ...