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Tour Problems
In order to excite and entertain their audiences, all sports have made changes in order to do so. Let’s face it, we want excitement along with our entertainment. In recent years golf has had the fortune of having Tiger Woods.
Tiger is undoubtedly one of the greatest golfers of our times. The golf media has seemingly built the majority of their existence around him. Sadly, there is a definite lack of interest, both in attendance and TV ratings, if he is not participating.
All of the players on the tour are excellent golfers or they would not be there. However, they do not all get their fair share of attention. There are many occasions where the cameras will follow Tiger for 18 holes while you may never see his playing partners hit a single shot.
All sponsors direct their product advertising to the largest possible anticipated interested audiences. The golfing audience is largely composed of active golfers. Although golf probably has more people actively associated with the sport, the numbers of spectators (compared to football, baseball and basketball) is limited. This of course limits potential sponsors.
I was raised in the golf business around the likes of Tommy Armour, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen. I later played professionally in the Nelson, Hogan, and Snead era. During this period the advertising was mainly in newspapers and magazines. The emergence of TV associated with golf became popular during the Palmer, Nicklaus and Player era. Palmer, of course , was the “Golden Boy” of the time and probably did more to boost the game of golf’s appeal to potential sponsors.
Being a professional golfer on the PGA Tour is a very difficult way to make a living. Just getting there is only realized by relatively few. Those who are there have to fight to stay there. When you see that young man agonizing over a 3 foot putt, his future may lie on his making it. This, however, tends to make golf as interesting to a non-golfer as watching grass grow.
Some day Tiger, like all of the great golfers before him, will not be able to play at his current level of mastery. The media needs to start a search for potential Trevinos, Sanders or Demerets, who can add a little spice to the game. We have many fine golfers out there, but they walk around like Zombies behind a plow. The LPGA is doing a great job with their ladies golf program by promoting all of their young players. The men should try to follow suit.