Final PGA Championship Clippings

It's fascinating to see a change in media assessments of a tournament's entertainment value and the influence of a course setup. It wasn't long ago that a U.S. Open setup would have been widely praised for putting the flatbellies in their place and that players are spoiled brats. But after so many of these extra narrow, over-ripe setups driven by a desire to pump up scores, the review are pretty consistently negative.

Rob Parker in the Detroit News:

First, there was no Tiger Woods, a blow to any event when the best golfer on the planet can't play because of knee surgery.

Then, the rains came and went, and came and went. For sure, it felt like monsoon season, not August in Michigan. For the most part, fans were more occupied trying to dodge rain drops than watching nifty shots.

Those things, plus the weak economy in these parts, also kept the crowds down. No matter what attendance numbers were announced, it just didn't feel like a major. There was more buzz about the mayoral mess in Detroit than the play on the course.

Dick Friedman at golf.com analyzes the Tiger effect on ratings, looks at several anecdotal signs of a rough patch for the game and notes that the PGA was a Nielsen disaster:

Harrington's thrilling victory on Sunday at Oakland Hills, the overnight rating for the PGA Championship was 3.0, down 55% from last year's final round at Southern Hills — an event won by (surely you recall) Woods.

Mark Whicker was another member of the media who was glad it rained to save the setup.

So the '08 PGA lived up to the texture of the ones that preceded it. But the trend of "Tiger-proofing" golf courses has turned into "birdie-proofing," without slowing Woods a bit.

The drill is familiar. Length the courses and keep par at 70. The 18th hole, a 498-yard par-4 with a landing area that could barely accommodate a model airplane, played to a score of nearly 4.8.

But the mania for artificial length hasn't made these tournaments better.

Alan Shipnuck highlights Cameron Morfit's talk with Steve Flesch and hits at this excellent point that came up a few times during the PGA: you think you can grow the game with course setups like this? Think again...

Flesch, a thoughtful member of the PGA Tour's player advisory council, expressed more far-reaching concerns for a pricey leisure sport that during this economic downturn is seeing more courses close than open and the number of participants and rounds played continue to fall nationally. He didn't quite accuse this PGA Championship of killing golf, but he came close. "If we're worried about attracting people to come play, if they see how miserable we are out there, why would they go, 'I want to play that game!'?" Flesch told Golf.com's Cameron Morfit. "It's fun to watch guys make birdies. They smile. The PGA is committed to growing the game; is this how they want golf portrayed?

"The thing that bums me out is I don't know how many of our top 15, 20 guys got chased out of here this weekend. Do you think that's the leaderboard the PGA of America wants up there when they're fighting the Olympics? How are ratings going to be this weekend? People are going to look at Charlie Wi, myself — I'm not saying anybody doesn't deserve to be up there, but people are going to turn around and go, 'Well I've never heard of any of these guys, let's see what's going on with the Olympics.' The PGA has got to be careful. They're getting what they're asking for, is what I'm saying."

And finally, I missed it on the telecast but Tony Pioppi posts Peter Kostis' telecast remark about the narrowness of Oakland Hills. Kostis, on Rees Jones's work there:

"He didn't give you much option in the way you can play the golf course." Then later Kostis said something like, "he's taken away a lot of angles Donald Ross intended."

Comments

[Fluffy Muffinstock]

Gee, I wonder where Kostis got that information?!?!?!

[Ned Jackson]

Is 'growing the game' the purpose of a major championship? I think not (rather, I think the purpose is to identify the best golfer or the golfer who is currently playing the best).

The general public plays golf for fun. If major championships are meant to grow the game then the winner should be the player who has the most fun -- I propose, therefore, that Rocco Mediate be named the winner of the 2008 PGA Championship as he seemed to be having fun while on the range.

[anon]

well said, ned!

I am personally getting tired of all this talk about "growing the game." That's all they have talked about since Tiger came on the scene and it hasn't happened. Sort of golf's version of "branding" that all of the corporate people obsess over. It's very annoying.

The economy is hurting. It costs a TON of money for golf equipment and it takes forever to play in today's era of short attention spans. THAT'S why the game isn't growing, not because of some major tournament that plays real difficult and the pros are whining like spoiled, crybabies.

The Tour, the USGA, R and A need to get off this political correctness shit about growing the game and do their damn job of being the game's stewards and protecting it's integrity and they could get a giant leap on that by doing something about the ball and equipment. It's a CRIME that they haven't done their responsibility in this area.

[ERik]

I think on Thursday or Firday Kostis said something to the effect that Rees Jones redesigns are great if you think a long hard golf course is a good golf course.

[Jim Beckner]

They have grown the game. The wrong way. It is boring because of the long straight ball. Evidence came in Geoff's posting this past week end.

Steve Elling on leader J.B. Holmes's round:

Holmes averaged a jaw-dropping 337 yards in his measured drives on Friday

No. 2, par 5, 529 yards: Holmes vaporized his tee shot, leaving him an easy wedge to the green.

No. 6, par 4, 300 yards: After the PGA moved up the tees to tempt players, Holmes took the bait and drove the green.

No. 12, par 5, 593 yards: Holmes reached the green in two with, get this, an 8-iron from 217 yards. That's right, 217 yards.

No. 14, par 4, 488 yards: As it turned out, the rest was mere prelude. Holmes swatted his drive 401 yards and had 87 steps remaining. He flipped a wedge onto the green to record his third birdie in a row.

The USGA et al has turned the old game of golf into a long drive pitch and putt contest.

Jim

[Scott]

I think that the PGA of America wants to grow interest in their tournament.

What could of they have done differently?

Make No. 18 a par five. Remember all the interesting things that happened at Torrey Pines.

Have players play in two-somes the final day. Yeah, the weather threwout that idea. But it took an hour for the final group to play four holes.

[Sir Real]

Parker's assertions that all is lost without Tiger seem based on flawed analysis of his selective data. Regarding the PGA, the Olympics ARE huge to many viewers, especially the potential, casual viewer that swells the ratings when Tiger is in an event. Notice that the Open Championship was down only 11%...hardly a plummet! As to growing the game, the PGA Tour, USGA, Golf Channel and the industry as a whole need to put their money where it is really needed, supporting affordable golf, the courses that provide it in all it's forms and promoting "the game," not just hyping one superstar as the savior. See those Open Championship attendence figures...MASSIVE...kids are free...those fans come for their GOLF and could give a toss if Tiger is there or not. They are there to watch the game's best that show up compete...period!

[frank D]

i have never known what the connection was between "growing the game" and televised competition, major or not, and IMHO its all marketing and promotional mumbo jumbo.

personally i would like to see the game "weed out" certain dummies who currently populate the courses.



frankD

[frank D]

anyway, what i wanted to ask is - is that the original wanamaker trophy that at one time was lost ?

[Mark Holthoff]

I heard that, too, the moment I tuned into the broadcast. Kostis and Faldo had a brief exchange about it, in fact, both agreeing that Ross' intended playing angles had been largely taken away by the course set up. It was a nice surprise -- as was the entertaining play that some of the pros were able to pull off in spite of the set up.

[Hawkeye]

So you don't see the connection between displaying a major championship to the public and growing the game? If only you knew how many people fell into a lifelong romance with the game after watching The Masters in ´86... Ahh, the memories.

[frankD]

sorry hawkeye, but i got into golf at an early age to get out of the house, before my mother caught me and assigned me chores to do, plus it was always fun caddying for mobsters (leewood) and a true privilage to have all to myself most maintenance mondays an ultra-private course where the pga was first contested (siwanoy).

i watch TV now, but the coverage sucks ( i dont need nance telling me every three minutes when the next episode of csi is on) and there is no comparision to actually being on and around the course grounds during live competitions.

to me the idiot box is for idiots

my kids got exposed to the game because i pulled them away from the TV and took them with me on the course

anyway i dont see "growing the game" through TV as anything other than contrived and marketing driven,personally, i would prefer those so attracted to stay home unless they forget everything they saw on TV and play according proper etiquette and to their appropriate skill level - not as if they themselves were in a tournament, emulating the pros on TV.

as i mentioned prior, healthy "growth" required proper "weeding out"


frankD

[BillV]

Golf telecasts are interesting to golfers, people who actually play golf. We got to watch a variety of golfers rather than endless replays of Tiger's rounds. So the ratings were down? Gee Whiz, golf is not going to grow in this US economy, where did that idea come from? Methinks everyone was out working at his second job.

Good ratings for a tournament are driven by attracting the occasional golfer and "Sports Fan" who drive up the numbers. I thought the tournament was great without Tiger, silly me. Then again, popular media is driven by the lowest common denominator, not exactly represented in the readers of this site.

Slow day at work ....... cn u tll?

[alan]

has anyone reported year to year comparative tv ratings for saturday? curious as to how tiger/may replay did on sat. also curious as to how cbs knew they had time to show entire round as opposed to starting with say, the back nine

[86general]

I know that architecture is one of the principal interests of Geoff and therefore this site, but I think we've gone a bit too far with worrying about the golf course.

Everybody plays the same course. The championships are about the battles between the players. Yeah, they don't battle directly, they battle the course, so the course is a more prominent player than in a baseball or football game (usually), but I just think everybody is worrying too much about the wrong things.