Normally a reasonably placid bunch, exactly what is it that irritates our panel of Inside Golf writers?
Bunker-to-Bunker
By Michael Davis
Nothing annoys ME on the international golf stage – on course, that is.
But I am heartily sick of all the brouhaha surrounding the pretence that all is well off the course between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.
Late last year, it was happy families all round. Both bodies had kissed and made up with only the detail of a planned merger to be thrashed out.
In all likelihood, we were led to believe, that would happen by the end of the year.
Alas, we waited….and waited and still nothing other than the gobbledegook produced recently about the massive injection of capital by some crazily rich world sporting consortia into the PGA Tour.
SSG Group will invest up to $US3 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises and fork out an initial $US1.5 billion immediately. Players will receive equity in the new company (PGA Tour Enterprises) based on playing achievements, tour status and future participation.
Further, we were assured the cash injection is separate to the Saudi investment in LIV.
Apparently golf’s détente will go ahead as planned between the Tour and LIV.
So some of the owners of the world’s top sporting teams have tipped the big bucks into the PGA Tour just for the fun of it?
The now obligatory statement from LIV CEO, Greg Norman, said nothing will change as far as the future of LIV is concerned.
Really?
By Michael Court
I HAVE so many grievances in the golf world that I don’t know where to start. Unfilled divots, cheats, black socks, long putters, four-putts, unreachable par threes, you name it.
Yet after extensive discussion with the two golfers who matter most in this world, my two sons, I have decided to put ‘cost’ at the top of the list.
Play golf on a public course and you’re left to the elements – most public courses take your money and often don’t bother to tell you the greens have just been cored and the 12th and 16th holes are out of play due to flooding or some other hit from nature.
No, you’re on your own – and usually seething after two hours out there and with 10 holes still left to play.
So, you join a private club and that’s where the cost begins to blow out.
When my sons first became hooked on the game it didn’t cost much to have them as junior members of my private golf club.
Now, with both in their 30s, they have mortgages, one has children and both are faced with climbing interest rates if they wish to continue living in one of the world’s most expensive cities a.k.a. Sydney.
That means they simply cannot afford to be members of just about any private golf club in this city.
So that effectively takes golf out of their reach.
And as I sit here watching world No 1 Scottie Scheffler (who I’m not that fond of either) knock it around one of the world’s greatest golf courses Pebble Beach, and ‘cost’ again rears its ugly head.
The experts tell me it cost upwards of $A1000 to play Pebble Beach, a public course, these days. And then you are also required to stay in an on-site hotel to be assured of booking a game more than 24 hours in advance.
. . . and that’s just another way we’re being priced out of the game.
By Peter Owen
THIS may sound a little petty, but I can’t cop some of the commentators who cover golf tournaments, particularly in America. Former players most of them, they can’t help themselves telling us how they would have played a bunker shot, or read a putt, or aimed a drive.
Granted the situation improved when that self-centred ‘smartie’ Johnny Miller retired, but why can’t commentators simply describe the play and keep themselves out of it?
While we’re on the subject of television coverage, when are American producers going to realise they are screening to a worldwide audience, and not everyone is interested in the performance of just the US players.
And don’t just give us the top eight or 10 on the leaderboard. After five minutes or so, we know who’s leading but some of us might want to also know how the rest of the field is performing.
I’m dismayed at the discrepancy in the earnings of elite golfers. I know they’re great players, but how is it that blokes like Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy and Cameron Smith can earn billions, while golfers of only marginally inferior ability struggle to make ends meet? Surely, we should be finding ways to spread the money more evenly.
I don’t like the arrogance that some players show to their fans, officials, and to some of their fellow players. Again, their number is disproportionately made up of Americans, but there’s also a Pole and a Pom who are shouldering their way into that group.
Nor do I have any time for associations, including the PGA and the DP World Tour, who strive endlessly to uphold their own selfish interests, even if it positively harms the game of golf and ignores the welfare of the golfing public.
Oh, and I don’t like Justin Thomas’s caddie, either. Bones whatever his name is.
By Larry Canning
Goodness, gracious, what annoys a beaten-up old golf pro? And I have to keep it to 250 words??
Sorry readers but I’m still chewing on that old chestnut, the desperate need to unify qualifications for golfs most adorned events. The four majors all have variations in their exemption and qualifying process. For example, there is no Pre-qualifying for either the US PGA Championship or the US Masters. This means if you aren’t playing on the PGA Tour you are screwed! Not only that, the US PGA Championship keeps 20 prized places in their field for US PGA professionals
Coaches, Club Pros, Club Managers or Golf Cart Washers, like me, all compete against each other in an annual event and top 20 all grab a guernsey in a bloody Major! I have an amazing respect for these guys and their passion for our game but who are the 20 world class players from around the world who are left to watch on TV? (Check last year’s leaders board to see how they went). Remember there’s only 156 gigs…. In 2023, 90 Americans and the rest pretty much made up from Internationals in the top 70 from US PGA Tour points.
Then there’s the US Masters! 90 players only! Again, if you win on the US PGA Tour your straight in, and there’s about 40 events each carrying enough FedEx points to qualify. Forty-four Americans and 20-odd internationals who play fulltime in the States, 6 or 7 amateurs and good luck the rest.
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