The Pro Tours

This section focuses on the pro tours (PGA, Senior, and LPGA). Articles typically focus on how the professional world of golf affects the recreational golfer.

If The PGA Rules Allow It, Then It’s Not Cheating

February 1, 2010 | By Chris Chirico | 2 Comments

Phil Mickelson (photo by Corn Farmer / CC BY-ND 2.0)

I don’t know how much more clear it can possibly be. The rules say it’s OK….so who’s to say someone is doing wrong? Phil Mickelson used a club that is perfectly legal and within the rules. Can anyone please explain to me how this is cheating? Besides the obvious “within the rules” argument, I have numerous problems with this whole issue.

Problem #1 – Is it true a club that is over 20 years old provides an advantage over the equipment these guys are using today?! With all of the technology, research and development these club manufacturers put into their products these days, I find it incredibly amusing that a club which is practically an antique provides an advantage! If this is the case, then why the hell am I at my local golf shop checking out brand new sets of clubs, about to drop way too much bank, when the clubs I’ve been using for the past ten years may be better?!

Problem #2 – The fact that almost any club is banned from the tour is ridiculous enough. I mean for starters, these guys are using clubs that are custom fit to their exact specifications. And I don’t mean just length and weight. They are engineered around that particular golfer. These are clubs that neither you or I will ever have the opportunity to own. “But that club provides too much spin….waaaahhh…waaaahhh…..waaaahhh.” Shutup. You have a club head the size of a watermelon. The shaft is made of something currently being used on the International Space Station. You’ve worked with the best coaches, pros and trainers your whole life. But you’re worried that someone else’s club spins the ball more? Again….shutup.

Problem #3 – The focus on Lefty. If I read it correctly, Hunter Mahan, Brad Adamonis and John Daly also used these clubs. Did they cheat? Why is Scott McCarron not calling them out? Do they not matter? Is it OK if they cheat? Or is McCarron only mad that the current best player on the tour is “cheating?” Shutup.

Problem #4 – Scott McCarron. I don’t know the first thing about him, but to quote Joe Pesci from My Cousin Vinny…”I’m tru wit dis guy.” Really, Scott McCarron, who are you to call out Lefty for anything? Especially when what he did is within the rules! How can you call him a cheater? I’ll tell you what…when you win more tournaments in your career than Phil wins in one year…then you can accuse. When you get yourself ranked higher than #92 on the money list (compared to Phil’s #3 for 2009)…then you can accuse. When someone actually does something outside of the rules, thus it actually is cheating…then you can accuse. When you actually earn yourself some face-time with your play and not with your mouth…then you can accuse. Until then, shut up.

I’m willing to admit that if a club (or any piece of equipment) provides an unfair advantage, then a review of the rules must be done. But until then, if the club is allowed, then it’s OK with me and should be OK with everyone else also. If it’s legal, then every player has the opportunity to do the same. Whether they take advantage or not is their choice. It’s like a baseball player using a maple bat. It provides an advantage because it’s a harder wood and will obviously drive the ball farther and faster. It’s kind of a crappy advantage, but it’s within the rules. Therefore, it’s not cheating.

So until the rules change and say it is not allowed, let’s give it a rest.

A Real "Grip It and Rip It"

January 11, 2010 | By Chris Chirico | 1 Comment

I’m a huge football fan. By far my favorite sport. The NFL especially. I can give or take college football. Between too many mismatches, way too many meaningless bowl games, no playoff system in FBS, the whole BCS system, the pansy overtime rules…there’s just so much to dislike. But hey, it’s still football, so that makes it OK.

But on Sunday afternoons, I don’t want to know anything from anyone. I want to plant my ass on the couch for the next ten hours and not be disturbed. Don’t call my phone because I won’t answer. Don’t send me an email because I’m not checking it. And for heaven’s sake, between the months of September and early February, if you want me to show up to your birthday parties, kids birthday parties, social gatherings and various other events, plan to have them on Saturdays. If that’s not possible, then you’d better plan on having a TV somewhere in the general vicinity. Otherwise, you’ll get my card and/or gift either in the mail or the next time I see you.

I like football. But something strange happened just a few recent weeks ago. I was in the midst of my usual Sunday afternoon routine when, for some still unknown reason (maybe I was stuck watching the Jets), I changed the channel and found myself strangely drawn to what I had stumbled upon. At first I tried to resist and return to football, but every time a commercial was on, I went right back to my new found attraction.

What was it you ask? What was it that could possibly pull me away from my beloved NFL? It was an exhibition. An exhibition of accuracy, power and skill. It was the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship and quite simply, I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. They say “Chicks dig the long ball.” Well guess what…so do I. And so do most other golfers and golf fans. Think about when you’re on the course with your buddies. When someone sinks a nice putt or makes a great chip…that’s all that’s said – “Nice putt man” or “great up-and-down” – that’s it. But when a member of your foursome rips into a drive that sails about 320 down the pipe…now there’s a reaction from the other guys in the area! We all know it’s only part of the game, but people love to see it. It’s like the home run in baseball. Sometimes it may be completely meaningless…but people still love to oooh and aaah when it happens.

This gets me thinking; Why is the PGA not capitalizing on the potential popularity of this by creating their own exhibition? Think about it. MLB has the immensely popular Home Run Derby. The NBA has two popular exhibitions with the slam-dunk contest and the three-point shootout. These leagues have figured out this is what fans love to see. So they give it to them! Why not have some of the long drivers on the PGA tour take on some of the guys from the LDA on the Wednesday before one (or more) of the majors? Not only could they possibly gain some TV time, but they could sure make some extra money at the gate with an extra day for the fans to get in!

Wouldn’t you like to see John Daly grab hold of one of those custom 50″ drivers and just tear into one? Wouldn’t it be great to see him go up against five-time long drive champ Jason Zuback who is more than capable of 400+ yard drives on an almost regular basis?! Now that’s a show! Another benefit for the PGA would be to get fans more familiar with some of the golfers most of us have never heard of.

Anyone know who Robert Garrigus is? No? That’s because he was #127 on the money list. But he led the tour in driving distance at 312 yards. How about Charley Hoffman? He was #41 on the money list, certainly off the radar for many fans. But did you know he hit a 467-yard drive at the Valero Open in 2009? That’s right, I just said 4-6-7! Dustin Johnson was 15th on the money list, so he’s more recognizable. But did you know he hit five drives last year over 400 yards? Take any one of these three guys, put a custom long-drive club in their hands, and you have a damn good show!

I feel, especially with the #1 golfer temporarily out of the picture, now is the time to experiment with some things that may help to draw the fans that will undoubtedly be missing from some of the tournaments. Hey if the Home Run Derby can go from a tape-delayed exhibition in the mid-80’s (inspired by a TV series which ran for a few months in 1960) to what it is today, then why can’t the PGA do the same? For crying out loud, take your noses out of the air, stop taking the sport so serious and give the fans something to watch simply because it’s fun. The fans will thank you for it.

For more information on the Long Drivers of America and the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, check out http://www.longdrivers.com/.

Why I Don’t Follow the PGA Tour: A Negative Side of "The Tiger Woods Effect"

December 14, 2009 | By Chris Chirico | 1 Comment

Quick…who is #2 on the PGA money leaders list? Wrong. He’s third. The answer is Steve Stricker. Stricker has played in 23 tournaments, winning four and finishing in the top-10 twelve times while earning over six million dollars in 2009. Sounds like a pretty great season, right? But it would have taken me many guesses before I reached Stricker’s name as an answer to the above question. Why? Well, quite honestly, other than hearing his name, I have almost no idea who this guy is.

Steve Stricker could walk into my living room right now and my reaction would probably be to hit him with the closest blunt object and call 911 to report a break-in. How is it possible that this guy is the #2 golfer on the money list right now and I don’t know who he is? As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the very quiet, and one of the few negative points of the “Tiger Woods effect.”

Don’t get me wrong. Tiger Woods has been great for golf (PGA golfers especially). His presence has brought much more attention to the game, a whole new audience and a much louder buzz over the past twelve years. Not to mention the increase in prize money for which these guys are playing. Ninety-one players have earned over one million dollars this year, and 144 have earned over a half-million. In large part, they owe this to Tiger.

Take a look at the money leaders in 1996, the last year before Tiger hit the scene – only nine players broke the million dollar mark. Tom Lehman’s total of $1.78 million (#1 that year) would currently be ranked 47th. And the number of million-dollar earners has increased almost every year since then, to a high of 104 in 2008! So why don’t I know who most of these guys are?

While the above mentioned numbers may be great for a guy like Kevin Streelman (he missed the cut in 10 of the 29 tournaments he entered and finished in the top-10 only twice, but still managed to clear the million-dollar threshold) it may not be good for the tour as a whole. How could that be? Well, the biggest draw (and the reason these numbers are as inflated as they are) has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the game.

Now what? Outside of the hardcore golf fans, most people have no idea who Nick Watney is. But he’s 12th on the money list with $3.2 million, one win and four top-10’s. But the PGA has done such a crappy job of promoting anyone but Tiger and Phil for the past few years that no one can put a name with a face…that is if they even know the name.

The PGA decided to put all of their eggs in one basket. Now that basket is sitting out for an indefinite period. So what’s going to happen to those huge galleries? What toll will this take on tournament attendance? Where will all the prize money come from if sponsors pull out? What will be the effect on the general interest of the game? While the PGA should have been promoting the other great players on tour to rest of the sports world, they just weren’t. And now, no one knows who these other players are.This is a similar situation to what happened to heavyweight boxing after the decline of Mike Tyson. We really only knew two or three other heavyweights and once they fell off of the radar, many fans lost interest. Obviously, there were more factors involved with boxing (foreign fighters, pay-per-view, Don King), but you get the idea. So who is going to be the PGA’s Evander Holyfield? Is it Phil? Is it Stricker? Or is it going to be someone else we don’t yet know? The problem is, they need more than that. They need many Evander Holyfields’.

Whether or not Tiger comes back sooner rather than later, the PGA needs to do a better job in the promotions department. If I can see commercials on TV featuring any number of NFL players and MY WIFE can name them…the NFL has clearly got it figured out. Now I know the NFL is the most watched sport in the U.S., but I can say the same thing about the NBA and MLB. All three leagues do a great job promoting their players. The NFL doesn’t have all Tom Brady all the time. The NBA doesn’t promote only the games in which Kobe or LeBron are playing. And MLB doesn’t flash Derek Jeter’s picture every time they have the opportunity.The PGA needs to follow suit. It’s bad enough that golf has that snobbish, sport for the rich, stereotype to it. They need to change that image and they need to make their players more recognizable to the average fan. They need to promote the great players who play this great sport. What if Tiger decides he has enough money, he’s played enough golf and he doesn’t need to deal with the headaches any longer? What if he walks away entirely? What then?

And while I’m on the subject; it’s not just the PGA itself. It’s also the sports highlight shows. I know he’s the best, but is anyone else sick of seeing three to four minutes of only Tiger, and at the end of the highlight we see one putt by the guy who actually WON the tournament? No wonder nobody knows these guys? They’re so busy worried about why Tiger lost that they end up paying minimal attention to the guy who won!

Me personally? I don’t care much whether Tiger plays or not. I rarely watch golf on TV and I have only attended two PGA tournaments. I have no vested interest in closely following the tour. What I enjoy is the game itself – heading to the course with my buddies and spending a few hours playing a game we love.

That being said, I might someday follow the tour more closely if the PGA gave me a reason. I’d like to start with knowing who these players are. Maybe if I knew who I was cheering for or why. Give me some background. Create some rivalries other than Tiger vs. Phil or Tiger vs. the flash in the pan or Tiger vs. someone who has never really given Tiger a challenge. Put someone else in a TV commercial or promo. As a matter of fact…put the damn commercials somewhere other than the Golf Channel! Think about it, how often do you see a commercial for a golf product on prime-time TV? There are 50 million golfers in this country! I guarantee some of us are watching prime-time TV!

Until this happens, all I know is Steve Stricker better make sure he has the right house.

Tiger Is Human Afterall

December 7, 2009 | By Chris Chirico | 1 Comment

So he cheated. What can you do? Nothing. Is it a crappy thing to do considering you have a wife and kids at home? Sure. Does it happen everyday, all over the world, to regular people like you and I? Absolutely. Does that make it any better? Of course not. But this is the great Tiger Woods. He doesn’t make mistakes out on the course, so how could this happen?

People, people, people….everyone is always so quick to anoint athletes as the second coming. We always forget they can screw up…just like the rest of us. They can do wrong…just like the rest of us. They’re not perfect…just like the rest of us. As a matter of fact, some of them are just downright horrible people…just like some of the rest of us.

According to a CNN statistic, 80-90% of professional athletes cheat on their wives. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am not at all surprised by this statistic. As a matter of fact, I find it a bit hard to believe that it may be as low as 80%. Considering the lives these guys lead, I think many people fail to realize these superstar athletes are just human beings, albeit with superior athletic skills, but human nonetheless. You take a 2o-something year-old kid, sign him to huge contracts and endorsement deals paying him more money in one year than the average person will see in their lives, and that kid begins living a different lifestyle. They are now millionaires. But they are still kids. What do you think is going to happen? These kids are now rich & famous and therefore….more attractive to the opposite sex. They are young and irresponsible and unfortunately, often times are not properly guided. And they get used to it. But what I don’t understand is where these guys lose sight of the consequences of their actions. Especially knowing they are in the spotlight. Why wouldn’t they make smarter choices?

Look at just some of the names in recent memory. Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Strahan – these guys have all been exposed as cheaters and made to look like scumbags to the general public. Worse in Kobe Bryant’s case which ended up with allegations of rape! Although we all now know the allegations were false, Kobe’s name will always be tied to that incident. But these are only financial losses and a poor public image. I can name an athlete who I’m sure would be willing to switch places if he could with any of these guys….Steve McNair.

Steve McNair had a 20-year old girl on the side. He lost his life to her in a murder-suicide. Obviously, this is an extreme case, but if it happened to one guy, why not anyone else? But as usual, no one thinks about that ahead of time. I’m sure very few athletes walked away from that news thinking “Man, that could happen to me” then decided to change their ways and actions.

On the flip side, how many of these athletes wives know what’s going on? How many let it continue to go on in order to continue to live the glamorous lives which their husbands career allows? I’m going to guess almost all of them. How could it be anything else? Your husband is a rich, famous athlete who is basically a target for groupies who are looking for sex, money and gifts from him. He is on the road, away from you constantly. What do you think is going on? Are these wives foolish for thinking nothing is happening? Or are they foolish for staying and allowing it to continue? If they let it happen, then other than the ring, what’s the difference between them and the groupie?

So all of this media coverage leaves me with a few questions. Why is this news so much bigger with Tiger Woods than any other cheating athlete? Is it because he is the richest athlete in the world? Is it because he is a golfer and we expect better of him than an NBA player? Are we supposed to feel bad for Elin and their kids? Or was she aware of his goings on and therefore why should we? If that’s the case, should we feel the same anger toward her as we do toward Tiger for putting their kids in this situation?

In my own opinion, I say why should we care? These athletes should be role models for the sport they play….nothing further. None of us turns on Sportscenter to see Tiger Woods sit down for dinner with his family. I don’t care if Kobe Bryant is helping his kids with their homework. If these athletes are great family men, that’s fantastic. If not, then I feel sorry for their loved ones. But either way, that’s not why I’m a fan. I want to see Kobe hit a game-winning jumper as time expires. I want to see Tiger hit a 200-yard shot within inches of the cup. What they do outside of the playing field is not my interest or concern. And unless you are a family member or friend….it shouldn’t be yours either.

The more interest we pay to the sports these guys play, and the less attention toward the tabloid side, we will be able to avoid having to listen to all of this any further. Maybe then these people would be able to deal with this in their own home, where it belongs. For goodness sake, if I wanted to hear gossip and learn who’s cheating on who, I would watch some god-awful show on MTV.

Golf’s Proper Place

September 23, 2009 | By Greg D'Andrea | 7 Comments

“I reached a point where I felt that my profession required more of my time and effort, leaving golf in its proper place, a means of obtaining recreation and enjoyment.” – Bobby Jones on his retirement from golf in 1930.

At age 28 Bobby Jones realized, like many of us, what’s really important in life: “My wife and my children came first; then my profession; finally, and never in a life by itself, came golf.”

The average weekend golfer plays 21 rounds a year but we all wish we could play more. Mr. Jones, when competing, played about 80 rounds a year – still far less than what his fellow competitors were churning out annually. Yet his raw talent allowed him to not only excel at the sport, but become immortalized as one of golf’s greatest legends.

Because of his sparse playing schedule, Mr. Jones has been called golf’s greatest part-time golfer. For only three months during the year, Bobby competed in the major tournaments and then retired back to other matters – usually surrounding his education (he held degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech; in English from Harvard College; and in Law from Emory University). And he was also a family-man, with a wife and three children to spend time with.

When Bobby Jones retired in 1930, he was at the peak of his career; still in his twenties; and having just completed what is widely considered the greatest achievement ever in the history of golf – winning golf’s Grand Slam. But Mr. Jones digressed – removing himself from competitive play and relegating himself to the ranks of the weekend golfer. There’s something inherently right with the phrase “quit while you’re ahead” – it seems that those who do, inevitably enshrine themselves as legends of their craft.

As part-time golfers ourselves, we are sometimes discouraged at how infrequently we have the opportunity to play. We blame our high scores on our low number of rounds. And those of us who have not reached the age of retirement, long for the day we can play more often. But even a great player like Bobby Jones knew that golf was just a game – and he recognized that as with any competitive monetary sport, golf’s true benefit can be easily lost:

“There seems to be little appreciation today that golf is an amateur game, developed and supported by those who love to play it.”

It would have been understandable had Mr. Jones made the previous statement at the end of his life, but instead he wrote that in the letter announcing his retirement at age 28. Perhaps more amazingly, Bobby could have easily made a living playing professional golf – yet he never did, instead competing only as an amateur. Bobby Jones never saw golf as something you should bank your next meal on, rather he saw golf for what it was intended to be, “a means of obtaining recreation and enjoyment.”

If you truly want to enjoy this game, you should never forget golf’s proper place.

Since this is the week the Tour Championship makes its annual return to East Lake, the course where Bobby Jones grew up and learned to play golf, several members of the golf blogging community decided to pay tribute to the legend. Ten different blogs are featuring posts devoted to the life and legacy of Bobby Jones, each focusing on an aspect of Jones’ life related to his or her blog; now that you’ve read our post, you’ll find the rest of the list below. So before you watch the tournament, learn a few new things about the man who inspires it…enjoy.

Gayle Moss over at Golfgal has posted My Favorite Bobby Jones Golf Tips. She writes, “His swing was a bit unorthodox, but no one can deny his amazing talent. Here are some of my favorite swing tips from the self-taught legend – Bobby Jones.”

Art Murphy from LifeandGolf gives us …We Play the Ball Where It Lies, a collection of miscellaneous quips and quotes about golf and golfers from Bobby Jones.

Mike Southern at Ruthless Golf wonders Could Bobby Jones Have ‘Cut It’ Against Today’s Pros?, and shows us what science and Jones’s own notes have to say about the debate.

Vince Spence from The One-Eye Golfer writes about An Affair to Remember – Bobby Jones and St. Andrews, as he looks at the affection of the champion golfer for the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland which started in 1921.

Boyer from Me and Old Man Par has chosen Bobby Jones’ Competitors: Many of Them Were Good, One Was Great. “It is often thought that Bobby Jones showed up and crushed his competition on the way to another victory,” Charles says. “The truth is that he had many worthy competitors and one, Walter Hagen, stood above all the others as Jones’ most worthy competitor.”

Michael Green at Aussie Golfer tells about Searching for Bobby Jones, where a search for Bobby Jones in Australia finds remarkable similarities to modern day golf.

Jon Blackburn from The Common Golfer looks at Bobby Jones: Golf’s Original Common Golfer. It’s a celebration of Bobby Jones’ life, and what made him unique amongst his golfing peers.

Apryl DeLancey at Women Like Sports features in her weekly Wild World of Wednesday post about how good friends Alexa Sterling and Bobby Jones continued to play golf during WWI in order to raise money for a good cause.

And Ryan Ballengee from Waggle Room sends us a vlog from East Lake about how Jones’ spirit influences the club and community today.

If The PGA Rules Allow It, Then It’s Not Cheating

A Real "Grip It and Rip It"

Why I Don’t Follow the PGA Tour: A Negative Side of "The Tiger Woods Effect"

Tiger Is Human Afterall

Golf’s Proper Place

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