The Game
I can see how this would upset someone who's not a golfer and typically follows sports like basketball where the rules have been so decimated and abused that no one really knows what they are anymore or how a given official on a given night and for a given player is going to interpret them. We golfers don't have that problem. The rules are the same for you and me as they are for Tiger Woods. They can't be bent, broken or selectively interpreted. And that is what makes Golf the game it is.
My best golf rounds have ALWAYS been when I was paying no attention to score. Once I realize I might be having a season best round it all goes to hell in a handbasket. In some ways that's golf's enduring mystery and charm. A round of golf is not so much something you do as something you watch unfold.
I've played long enough to know that success in the game will always be an up and down affair. I also know that personally I score better when scoring is completely out of my mind.
Last week, Michelle Wie once again ran afoul of the rules at the Kia Classic. There's no sin in that and this time she called herself on the infraction and asked the officials for a ruling. So far so good. Unfortunately her interaction with the officials was televised to the world. Instead of stating her case and taking the officials ruling gracefully, she proceeded to whine about not being understood and not being treated fairly for way too long. She came across more as a 12 year old arguing with a parent over making her bed than as an adult respectful of the game and its officials.
So last weekend I headed out to the
National Golf Expo show in Boston. I will be sharing some of my observations in some upcoming posts but I first wanted to share with you my "Dumbest Golf Game Product of 2010" (who knows, maybe there will be more but, in my opinion, this is a front runner!)
The product is called the Arnold Palmer Indoor Golf Game and obviously it looks like it is somehow endorsed by "The King." Are you kidding me? This was, head and shoulders, the biggest piece of crap I saw at the show. How could Arnold endorse this thing? Maybe he was under the influence ...
You can fall from grace and still do great things. Maybe you have to fall from grace to do the greatest things. Tiger, forget beating Jack and show us all the true nature of golf.
In today's world, everything that smacks of 'greed' is under scrutiny by the rank and file who are looking for someone to blame for their economic plight.
To many, private country clubs are viewed as exclusive hideaways, tour players are grossly overpaid and golf in general is too expensive for anyone who has to 'work' for a living.
It's not surprising then that some of the traditional sponors of tour events are having second thoughts about their association with the game.
Golf is a complex game and it's impact on society in general is complex as well. It has it's dark side with elitist clubs, player scandals, astronomical greens fees and tour players that ...
I happened to run across the video above of Jean Van De Velde talking about his collapse in the 1999 British Open and later another collapse after leading by 1 stroke in the 2005 French Open.
Even listening to this interview I somehow still have the impression that he just doesn't get it - that it *might* have been more prudent to take another club off the 18th tee rather than hit driver. But I'm not sure "the story" he tells himself about that event has done much to help his golf game or his career for that matter.
It's interesting to think about how "the stories" you ...
I was just reading this piece on the Golf Channel site on how Tom Watson expressed his concern about how Tiger's off-the-course behavior is affecting the game:
“It’s bad for our game,” Watson said of the Woods’ sex scandal in an interview with KSHB-TV, a Kansas City NBC affiliate. “It’s something he needs to get control of and a handle on and make some amends and show some humility to the public when he comes back.”
Watson said some of Woods’ questionable behavior on the course can’t be ignored, either.
“His swearing and his club throwing, that should end,” Watson said. “That’s not part of what we want to project as far as ...
How about professional golf, the commissioner and its superstars adopt some project in Haiti to which all of us fans can help fund. This wouldn't replace any of the good works, of which there are lots, that golf and golfers do. This would be in addition to. I think we have it in us. I'd like to see the NBA, NFL, and NHL and other sports organizations around the world do the same thing. I don't believe Alister MacKenzie was a dreamer when he said that golf can change societies for the better.
