14 APRIL 2018|golf australia
THEY CALL THIS GROWING THE GAME
HUGGAN’S
ALLEY BY JOHN HUGGAN | GOLF AUSTRALIA COLUMNIST AT LARGEPHOTO:GETTY IMAGESIT ALL started with the emergence of
Tiger Woods at the back end of the last
century. Never before had the most famous
sportsman on the planet been a golfer, a turn
of events that brought with it at least one
unintended consequence.
Suddenly, golf was perceived as “cool.”
Or, at least, that was the widely-held view
of the game’s most high-profi le practitioner.
Tiger was the “new black” in a sport that had
previously been the exclusive preserve of
middle-class white guys and gals.
Since then, golf has made strenuous efforts
to build on its “hip” new image. Appealing to
a wider and more diverse demographic was
seen as the obvious route to that much over-
used phrase, “growing the game.” Not much
has worked, of course, if the current decline in
worldwide participation is our guide.
But still golf misguidedly tries to make
itself more attractive to almost every strand
of society. I give you the notorious 16th
hole at what used to be called the Phoenix
Open but is now saddled with an instantly
forgettable corporate title I refuse to look
up. What began as a pretty good notion,
allowing the previously stoic spectators to
play a more active and fun role in the lead-up
to tee-shots, has turned into something else
entirely. And not in a good way. It is, in fact, a
great idea gone mad.
Instead of the paying customers engaging
in some good-natured banter with players,
the guys with their names on their bags are
now routinely subjected to a barrage of
foul-mouthed abuse from what is nothing
more than a drunken rabble. Seemingly
unaware of what tends to happen whencollege students – the vast majority of
whom have no previous knowledge of golf
or golfers – start consuming alcohol around
9am and continue to do so throughout the
day, the PGA Tour has created a monster.
What doesn’t help is that this inebriated
mess is portrayed as harmless fun by those
paid to “commentate” on television. As so
often in golf, the truth of any situation is
the fi rst victim when pots of gold are
involved. Heaven forbid that someone like
Ian Baker-Finch or Nick Faldo should tell
the truth and blurt out their horror at what
is taking place in front of their eyes. The
aforementioned sponsor – still can’t quite
remember its name – would not be pleased.
Nor would the faceless suits who run the
PGA Tour. All that matters to them is the
bottom line. To hang with the game.
Speaking of which – and given all of the
above – it is perhaps no surprise that the
head suit at the PGA Tour, commissioner Jay
Monahan, is willing to sanction the 16th at
the Phoenix Open while at the same time
expressing no outrage at the turgid pace
of play during every event on his
highly-lucrative circuit.
Even when JB Holmes notoriously took
more than four minutes to lay-up short of
a pond on the fi nal hole of what used to be
called the Andy Williams San Diego Open,
Monahan was completely unconcerned at
what damage such nonsense might be doing
to the “image” and “brand” he holds so
dear. Unbelievably, he defended the almost
immobile performance – the round took close
to six hours to complete – and post-matchcomments of Holmes.
“JB was in the heat of the moment,”
Monahan said. “It’s really hard to win out
here. You’re trying to think through how you
can get on the green in two, with that amount
of wind. I think he thought it would subside
quickly, and it just would subside and pick
back up. And I think he said what he needed
to say on that front.”
Perhaps even more surprising was the
reaction of Justin Thomas.
“It was a great tournament for JB,” the
USPGA champion said. “I have a hard time
saying I wouldn’t do anything differently than
he did.”
Really? No condemnation? No outrage? No
promise to punish this point-missing dope?
Not in our lifetimes. That just does not
happen. Not on the PGA Tour. Highlighting
any sort of shortcoming would be a
concession of guilt, an admission that
something is actually awry in the apparently
perfect tour world presented to the sorts
of multi-national sponsors I can never
remember, one where corporate double-
speak long ago replaced straight talking.
Anyway, it goes without saying that
none of the above is “cool.” Nor is it
likely to appeal to a generation of young
people whose attention spans have never
been shorter. Slow play is a cancer that is
severely undermining all of the good work
being done elsewhere in the “growing the
game” department. And not even drinking
heavily is going to make that unpalatable
fact go away.