Growing up I was different from other kids, I played golf. When I was younger, golf was not nearly as popular as it is today. When I was in elementary school my father helped me build my own set of clubs, they were ‘Dukes.’ In middle school I got a new set, they were perfect for me, later I learned they were women’s clubs… I remember going on many golf outings with my father and two of his co-workers, Buck and George. Buck and George were both older guys, George was as skinny as a beanpole and Buck was was a larger squatty man. I remember once George told Buck that he would give him his pants if Buck hit a longer drive than him. Buck hit his ball way past George and grinned at him saying, “Honestly George, what the hell am I supposed to do with a pair of your pants? Wear them on my right leg?” It was with those three men I learned the rules and etiquette of golf, they taught me to love the game. Leave the rake on the outside edge of the bunker, the furthest person out putts first, the person with the best score on the previous hole tees off first, NEVER step in somebody’s putting line or have your shadow in their way, if you enter a hazard you drop the ball where it entered the hazard, if someone is on the fringe of the green you leave the flagstick in the cup, and lastly, if you accidentally tap your ball off your tee just tee it back up, “nobody saw it.” I only received one formal lesson, but they all gave me pointers and tips that helped tremendously. Keep your head down, bend your knees, keep your left arm straight, keep your wrist stiff, follow through your swing, hit before your ball when you’re in bunkers, and don’t try to kill the ball. The one thing I always struggled with was that they were all much better than me, then my father taught me, “you are only competing against yourself. Not me, not Buck, not George, just yourself. I began to appreciate how difficult it was to be good at golf and how as physical the game was, it was also psychological.

David Duval lines up a putt with his sunglasses nestled tightly on the back of his head.

When we weren’t on the course, we were watching golf, to this day golf is watched religously every Sunday. I learned to emulate great players like Fred Couples, Davis Love III, and David Duval. Duval was my favorite, I emulated his swing, I got sunglasses like his, and I put them on the back of my head when I putted just like him. It was all peachy and then something came along that changed the face of the game forever, hybrid woods. I’m kidding, it was Tiger Woods. When Tiger started on tour golf became almost trendy, more people watched golf, more people played golf and public courses started getting thrashed by ignorant fools who thought golf was just about hitting a little white ball into a white cup with some slanted whacking sticks. To this day, however; there are still the people that say “golf is so boring.” I ask them, “do you play golf.” most of them don’t and if they do they stink. It takes a mediocre golfer to appreciate the great ones that play on Sunday. It takes a good golfer to point out what the great ones do wrong when they mess up. With all the new technology, it makes it easier to learn the game and appreciate the intricacies involved with it. After following golf for over a decade, there is something relatively new that I have never had explained to me properly. It’s not because everyone has their own interpretations, it’s just that nobody knows. I’m not talking about Jesper Parnevik’s weird fashions, I’m talking about the FedEx Cup.

Two years ago the PGA incorporated the FedEx Cup. I believe it’s purpose was two-fold. First, it encouraged golfers to play in more tournaments because points were awarded for every tournament played in. Second, it gave more excitement to the end of the season instead of having the interest of golf fans fade after the PGA Championship, which is the last major tournament. After some research it’s still a little vague, all I gather is that it consists of four tournaments at the end of the year. With each tournament the field shrinks. The top 144 compete in week 1, the top 120 from that tournament in week 2, the top 70 from those two tournaments combined in week 3, and the top 30 from those 3 tournaments get to play in the final event, the BMW Championship. Some team of nerds that can get their fingers out of Chinese finger traps in seconds and do Rubik’s cube in minutes came up with a point system for each finishing spot in each tournament. Did it dawn on any of them that this isn’t fun for the fans because they can’t compute the scores unless they have a calculator or a posh abacus in front of them? Why does it need to be so complex? Why can’t they make it like golf scoring? It would only sense, the higher you finish the fewer points you receive, the lowest score wins! The PGA tour could use a little of my advise: keep it simple, keep it fun, and you will keep the attention of your loyal fans.

Tags: PGA

This entry was posted on Monday, September 1st, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under PGA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.