Monday
Feb122018
Negative Campaign Ads Come To Golf: Hurley Attacks Spieth
When you're campaigning to chair the PGA Tour's Player Advisory Council to table slow play discussions started twenty years ago, declare caddie parking in Memphis a crisis and send Jay Monahan's calls to voice mail, you go negative. At least that's the risk Billy Hurley is thinking in his campaign for more chairmanship votes than Jordan Spieth.
No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, concede that Hurley's gone to the best ad makers in the business.
For those of you who don’t know, I am running against @JordanSpieth for Chairman of the @PGATOUR Player Advisory Council. One final push for the voting that ends tomorrow pic.twitter.com/dO2uLiTg3B
— Billy Hurley III (@BillyHurley3) February 12, 2018
Monday, February 12, 2018 at 10:15 PM
Reader Comments (13)
I'm voting for Spieth.
Hurley also graduated from the brutally difficult, competitive Alpha-male U.S. Naval Academy and did a tour on a ship parked in the Persian Gulf. In fact, he taught for awhile at the academy. He was an academic All-American and has an econ degree. Hurley and his wife adopted a black child from Africa.
I'm not sure Spieth, unquestionably a great kid, has ever had a real job.
Years ago, Hurley even poked fun at the military tenure of Arnold Palmer, who was in the Coast Guard, cracking, "But their ships are so small."
Can I be his campaign manager?
But... Like all good jokes, there is a nugget of truth under the surface. Hurley represents the journeyman pro that makes up 90% of Tour membership. Their main mission is more playing opportunities for the rank and file. Bigger fields, more events, the wrap around schedule are all by-products of this mission. On the other hand Spieth might be expected to go along the Tiger/Phil mentality which is - how to maximize the value of the product. Opposite field events, just about all of the fall series events and so forth can be viewed as dilution of the product. Their ultimate goal might be a world tour of 25 or so events, with big paydays and TV audiences. Personally, I see value in both outlooks, and since this is an election, I have no doubt that the "rank and file" camp will prevail.
Classless or in bad taste was not my impression.
Hurley poked almost as much fun at himself as at Jordan.
One might see some actual pertinent messages in the video about age and maturity and economic differences, but overall he seems to be just having fun running for the position. The guy's got a sense of humor, probably an underrated asset for the job he is vying. By the end, I expected, "Let's make the PGA Tour great again!"
I’m surprised Spieth is keen for this role - he has many other, more important things on the agenda surely. Especially at his age.
Loved the Hurley video. The only more humorous potential inclusion would be the announcement of running mates on his ticket - the slow play task force including Na, Day, Holmes and Crane.