3/22/2013 10:03 AM
Fellas,
After reading through several responses concerning an earlier post on "ball manks" it triggered a pet peeve I've been dealing with for the last year or so.
We all wish that golfer etiquette was better in regards to taking care of the normal damage that occurs during a round of golf- especially the younger generation (juniors, high schoolers, and college kids)..........you know- fixing divots, ball marks, and raking bunkers, etc. The idea that I've got is one that I feel would coincide with our industries "grow the game" logic. Its also the reason that I titled this quip- Golf Channel-PGA-GCSAA.....all three groups would need to work together.
Why can't we work together to improve etiquette? I think one reason that you see such an issue with etiquette is that the younger generation of golfers tends to emulate what they see on television......Tiger hits a 'stinger' off the tee (you see his divot fly out in front) he twirls his club and stalks his way to the green (who replaced that divot? its never seen). Phil performs another magic trick out of a bunker (he might run his foot over the divot in the sand) he tips his hat, waves his hand and trudges up to make another tap in birdie (who raked out that bunker? its never seen). Now when it comes to ball marks the pro's are pretty good at that, but even still what do the kids see? They see that same pro golfer flick there ball to their caddie to wipe off two damned grains of sand!!
My point is that we are televising a sport where the player does nothing but play- someone else (out of view of the camera) does everything else for them, and I believe that it does influence what younger players feel is their responsibility as a golfer. If they don't see Tiger or Rory rake a bunker, why the hell would they?
To this point, what I'd like to see is these three aforementioned affiliations work together to show golf being played like the rest of the golf world has to play ( by the way, I'm not against caddies- and yes, I understand their role too). What if the PGA mandated that on Thursday rounds of tournaments that players had to rake their own bunkers, fill and replace their own divots, and wipe their own balls??? What if the Golf Channel (and any other network covering a Thursday round) was obligated to show 2 minutes of player etiquette, for every hours worth of coverage that day??? What could it hurt? Slower play?- BS I say! I'm not asking for prime time coverage of etiquette, but just maybe, if some teen golfer sees Tiger take a bottle of sand and fill a divot- they will too. They learn from what they see- the Tour acts like its beneath its players to do this kind of thing- guess what, most of the golfers age 30 and under think the same thing!
Thanks for listening, that rant is off my chest now- now I can get back to wishing for it to finally warm up in Northwest Ohio!