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TV Golf Needs Heroes
I don't like to watch golf on television. I can't stand the whispering.
The lovers of TV sports are a restless breed. Many of the original rules, governing a variety of spectator sports, have been changed in order to produce more suspense and excitement. As in nearly everything, money is the motivating force.
Sports are an important, and somewhat stabilizing, factor in our society. When the morning paper arrives, the first thing to do is to check the front page to see if the world is coming to an end, then to the sports page. There are countless call- in sport shows on radio and television. The Monday morning quarterbacks crowd the airways, expressing their solutions to the problems. It is a way for people to vent their emotions and let off steam. Politicians love sports, because without this relief valve offered by it, angers and frustrations would be directed at them, and there would probably be some hanging at the O.K. Corral.
Sports enthusiasts who stay at home and watch TV have the luxury of switching channels until they find a sport that pleases them. Others may attend the big event and sit so far up in the stadium bleachers that they almost need an oxygen mask while watching the game on the stadium's large TV screen. In either case, they both want excitement.
When switching channels on a Saturday afternoon you may witness a 12 car pile up at a NASCAR event, a man falling victim to a K.O., a quarterback being smeared by a defensive lineman, a wrestler clobbering his opponent over the head with a chair, and suddenly, you will see a man agonizing over a 3 foot putt during a golf tournament. He has surveyed this putt from every imaginable angle, and eventually standing over it so long that you feel like building a fire under him. Or another man going through his routine before preparing to hit his next shot. He will go through all sorts of contortions in his preparation. Isn't this exciting? The fact that the three foot putt might have made a great difference to that golfer's future means nothing to the viewer, who wants action.
With the exception of The Masters, and other major tournaments, golf is rated very low in television ratings. Tiger Woods, as was Arnold Palmer in his day, is the mainstay in golf's popularity.
Golf, being an outdoor sport, is subject to weather conditions, and the PGA Tour was plagued with bad weather in 2005. Countless rain delays, and some cancellations, were numerous during the first half of the year. This, along with the nature of the game, has to be a concern to potential sponsors. Although sponsors have insurance to cover these situations, they need to get their products exposed. People are not going to stay tuned in to hear the commentators talk, or watch replays of Tiger's past performances.
In order to get their greatest exposure for their products, sponsors target their audiences. NASCAR, for instance, has a large viewing audience, and you will notice that the drivers and their cars are traveling billboards. Football and basketball commercials will have limitless commercials. Golf commercials, on the other hand, will usually advertise money investments, high priced cars, and/or high tech items. With a relatively small viewing audience, exposure time is essential.
In years past, we have always had several outstanding players in the same period: Sarazen, Hagen, Jones; then Snead, Hogan, and Nelson; and in fairly recent years, Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, and Trevino. Arnold Palmer probability did more to make golf popular than anyone else.
Television has popularized all sports, resulting in overexposure of many. When you have adequate quantity, you have to back it up with quality. The PGA Tour has had Tiger as their salvation, and as much as we wish, he cannot last forever. The golf media had better start promoting some of the young, charismatic golfers. The media can do it. They have the ability to make a hero out of a bum, and bum out of a hero.
Without leading characters, golf can be boring. The LPGA is making strides in that direction. In recent years the LPGA has been dominated by foreign players, but now we have several young American players who are creating more interest in that tour. All sports need heroes, and golf is no different.
In football, some coaches have stated, when you throw a pass, three things can happen. Two of them are bad. In golf, there is no limit.