Pro Golf Takes, But Does It Give Enough?

Posted by John

January 25, 2010

Who can question the taking, with record professional purses and at least one golf superstar earning in excess of $100 million a year. To put that in perspective, that’s the amount that the U.S. government has pledged for Haiti relief, a country were it is estimated 200,000 people may have lost their lives in an earthquake and its aftermath.

And what do we, the public who ultimately funds the PGA Tour and professional sports in general, get out of these businesses that throw off fantastic wealth for a few? For one, the privilege to watch professional sports on TV. Is that about it? How about insight into the lives of the golfing heroes we strive to emulate in vain on the course. How about some honesty into who they are, what they really think about the game, their fellow competitors and themselves.

Unfortunately Tiger is the poster child now for a sport that seems bereft of soul. Professional golf is now too often a sport where players with cookie cutter personalities have all gotten the message to keep individual thoughts to themselves. Don’t let the occasional aberration, like John Daly fool you. 99% of today’s tour players are on message all the time.

In Tiger’s case, his pre and post game interviews could have been written by Bill Belichick and reviewed by an IMG attorney. Add them all up and what do you know about Tiger and how he really sees the sport and his role. The unsatisfying answer is – NADA.

If you believe the stories that pop up in local papers these days, then Tiger’s fellow competitors didn’t really know him either. Apparently in pro golf it’s easy to be the reigning star of the decade and have almost no contact with any other competitor except on the course, and we know how much talking goes on there. If players have to learn to keep their emotions in check when they play, is it a surprise that they become disciplined talking robots for the public when they’re in front of reporters?

But let’s not get down on the individuals players, afterall they have been bred for their roles from an early age. The message is just play golf and blend in and you too can live a life that 99.99% of the world can only dream about. If I had the talent to be offered that deal, I doubt I’d turn it down either.

My question is how did it get this way. If you’re like me, you spend too much time seeing what’s wrong with the modern world, trying desperately to convince yourself that it’s your thinking that is out of whack, not the reality of what you see. I still can’t rationalize that a pro golfer can make more in a year than the government of this country is willing to give to a nation that has been virtually destroyed by a natural disaster. I don’t care how good the golfer is, it’s not right just like Wall Street 2009 bonuses aren’t right.

Maybe it’s time for the millions of us who ultimately fund the fiascos we call modern professional sports to start demanding more, demanding that the recipients of our largesse show us who they really are. Maybe the coach of one of the best football teams of the decade owes us more than one sentence answers that are completely devoid of anything insightful or real.

How do we let these people get away with double talk that would have made Satch Mahoney of the Bowery Boys proud. And how is the best golfer in the world able to keep a trunk full of secrets from everyone as his corporation deftly picks our pockets. Maybe it’s time for us – the spectators who supposedly drive the train - to demand some real and in-depth answers from modern sports royalty. Maybe it’s time for us to put some mouth with our money is!