The Lunatics have taken over the asylum
What on earth is going on in American golf???
There are some very weird things going on in golf at the moment, particularly in terms of American professional golf. The lunatics do seem to have taken over the asylum.
Sport thrives on stories. It thrives on stories of redemption, regeneration and achievement from the depths of despair. It needs the prospect of upset, it needs the plucky underdog, it needs the return from the minor leagues.
The behemoth of American sport understands this all too well, in a way that top end soccer in Europe doesn’t. Continual renewal is vital to maintain competition and interest. Hence the NFL College Draft system; the teams with the worst playing records in the previous season get the first choices from the upcoming potential stars, or at the very least get the opportunity to trade those choices so they can be more targeted in their recruitment.
Over the years this has meant that domination by a single franchise is a rarity. What Belichick and Brady did with the New England Patriots was an aberration. It might be the Reed/Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs could be as dominant but history says not. The all-conquering Chicago Bears of 1984 were all conquering for a season. The Greatest Show on Turf was The Greatest for 3 seasons, just pre-Brady. The Draft means constant renewal, constant change, refreshing the narrative season after season.
Take the Detroit Lions. In 2021 they won 3 of 17 games and finished bottom of their Division. This year they’re currently 9-1, top of their Division and joint top of the AFC, serious Super Bowl contenders. Renewal, a story of change, a narrative driving engagement.
Now we come to American professional golf. All one sees since the players became the driving force within the executive structure is the ladders being pulled up, the drawbridge withdrawn; the entire edifice seems focused entirely on maintaining the status quo, that the privileged retain that privilege and no one shall cross the River Jordan to join them in the Promised Land.
The big one in folk’s minds is likely the US Team probably getting paid to play in the Ryder Cup. I particularly like the Rory McIlroy take on this – “in the 104 weeks between Ryder Cups there’s 103 where you can play for pay” – but the truth here is not the issue itself but what it demonstrates about the paucity of thinking at the top of Pro golf across the pond.
Similarly the planned reduction in the field sizes for PGA Tour events, the reduction in Tour cards given to the Korn Ferry graduates and School qualifiers plus the removal of Monday Qualifying altogether. The excuse being offered is they can’t get 156 golfers around a single golf course in an entire day – if you want a really good laugh about why this as an issue do look up Billy Horschel’s comments; I love Billy, but, brother, what an arse in this case!
This vast amount of talk about the pace of play, we can’t get golfers around (perhaps if the ball went 10% less far and thus took 20 minutes walking off that might help) and again I like Charley Hull’s approach – 2-stroke penalty for 2 bad times, loss of tour card for 3, bloody excellent if you ask me – but again the truth is something else.
Golf at the top has lost sight of what the NFL knows only too well. Being a cozy little clique of “athletes” is not what stimulates engagement. What brings the fan in is the competition, the chance for someone they’ve never heard of to challenge the established order. We all love to watch the best in the world, of course we do, but we also want to see something new. We want to see the order challenged by upstarts. Ask anyone who isn’t a convinced petrol head why Formula 1 suddenly got interesting again this year – because there came Lando and Maclaren threatening the Red Bull hegemony. Competition, narrative, interest.
Football across Europe is a different thing, in some ways. The continual domination of every nation’s leagues by a tiny number of big clubs doesn’t seem to ever impact popularity. It is the biggest sport across the Continent, perhaps even the world in terms of support. It is certainly the most heavily advertised, televised and pundited on. But I can’t help feeling the real passion is a bit further down the pyramid, outside of the top leagues. Looking in from the outside, as someone who follows results but can’t watch it (so tedious), each season now seems to follow the same pattern in England. At outset some new thrusting side, or long-time underachiever (I see you, Spurs) threatens to upset the order, to get in amongst the big boys. But as much as I’d like to think Forest, Brighton or Villa might be in there come the end it never seems to last, and by the time Easter comes it’s a question of which of three clubs will win. The same three. Every year. Boring. But at least there’s some kind of a narrative for at least some of the season.
Scotland is even worse. It’s 40 years since someone who isn’t Celtic or Rangers won the title. At least it’s only 10 years since someone not Barca or Real won La Liga.
Golf has a great example just in the last week. Rafael Campos. Now there’s a story. Flew into Bermuda late from the birth of a child, missed so many cuts in a row, struggling to keep his card then goes out and wins the tournament. His reactions are priceless if you haven’t seen them, sheer joy. A joy the plans of the PGA Tour could ensure never happens again.
It is what happens when the poachers turn gamekeepers. The monied, successful elite now run the professional game. Their only interest is, pretty obviously, self-interest. Fans (and most dangerously sponsors) are turning away in their droves, yet the very things that drive that exodus – the tedious, samey venues, the repetitive formats, the narrowing of opportunity and accessibility, poor treatment of sponsors, the undermining of tradition and quite possibly the $750 tickets for a Bethpage Ryder Cup – are not just ignored but it seems doubled-down on.
I have said before that pro golf is in an awful place. The LIV business doesn’t help, not because of the split but because it has made the PGA Tour scared to fart, given players with no business knowledge excessive power and concentrates any observer’s mind on just how bloody greedy some of these guys are. Continually shooting themselves in the foot – Cantlay and the hat, Xander Schauffle’s father whittering about his son’s intellectual property rights – for goodness sake you’re not resolving world hunger, you’re good at golf!
Golf at the top end desperately needs to remember it is an entertainment business. If there are no new stories to ignite the passion and the engagement of the ordinary golfer the ordinary golfer will continue to do what they’ve been doing for some time now.
Stop watching and go do something else.