Before I start, the poll of the day above this post is "Should Corey Pavin select Tiger to his Ryder Cup team ??" Now go back up and click yes or no thank you ...
Quickly now, who won this past weekend's WGC Bridgestone Invitational ?? Ok, who was second ??
Here's another one. Who won the 3M Championship on the Champions tour and what was remarkable about his final round ? How about, where were Stephen Ames and Graham DeLaet playing on the weekend ??
Unless you watched on the weekend and just relied on highlight packages, radio reports and newspaper articles, you may not know that Hunter Mahan shot 64 on Sunday to edge Ryan Palmer by 2 shots to not only win the Bridgestone but also to secure his spot in the Ryder Cup.
David Frost flirted with 59,settling for 61 to win his first Champions Tour event. You might remember him winning our '93 Canadian Open by a shot over Freddie at the Abbey, and of course Stephen and Graham were in New York State at the Turning Stone Championship.
Any of that ring a bell ?? If you said none of it or oh yeah, now I remember you are helping me make my point, and for those of you who have followed this blog and listen to Weeksy,Scott and I on Fairways you will know what my point is.
The story lines this weekend were..... Tiger's shocking play, then Tiger's shocking play and finally Tiger's shocking play !!!
To the virtual exclusion of my first 3 paragraphs.
Is this good for golf ?? Surely not ..We normally allot around 2-3 minutes to cover the weekends golf on the various Sportsdesk's whether it's Connected or ESPN or TSN etc. Say it was 3 minutes this weekend.
2 and a half were consumed with the Tiger low lights, 15 seconds for Phil's implosion (78) and a shot of Hunter Mahan tapping in on 18 for the title. I kid you not, many of you saw it for yourselves.
Is this good for golf ?? Again unless you watched the live feeds yourself, there is a good chance you don't know what went on with the actual golf tournaments, because the Tiger side show was in full swing.
Have we not just recently learned not to put all our golfing eggs in the Tiger basket ??
What about this week's major, the PGA at Whistling Straights. ? It's a major for cripes sakes, but unless Tiger finds a miracle between now and Thursday, this major will be all about him and his lousy play again.
And what of the Ryder Cup if Pavin picks him ? It becomes the Tiger Cup, from Celtic Manor in Wales !!
The camera's are already set up on the practice range, we wait with baited breath for his press conference, what's he wearing ?, what kind of mood is he in??.. For goodness sake he wasn't a factor at the Open in St Andrews, yet Mike Tirico and Paul Azinger spent 4 days discussing... yes now you remember... he tried out a new putter !!!
This simply sickens me. We have taken the cheap and salacious route to the almighty ratings grab. The worse he gets the more we watch. Are you one of those people who stops your car in the middle of the highway to watch a really bad car crash on the other side ?? That's what we we are doing with Tiger. He's the car crash..
The Tiger side show has taken over golf and it's coverage, at the expense of the game itself...
This Tiger is hurting golf.
BryanAngus
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