ESPN DOES GOLF A SERIOUS DISSERVICE

I'll get back to golf travel again next post, but I have congratulate ESPN again for keeping a perfect record - when it comes to golf, no one is more wrong, more loudly, more often. Robert Thompson from www.goingforthegreen.blogspot.com and I are lamenting the drivel that passed for analysis in today's ESPN.com article that "Fact - Rowdy Crowds are good for the game of golf." Please click on Robert's blog for the entire thread - as usual "Going for the Green" leaves us putting for eagle, but here are the high points. ESPN got their paid shills to again try to "dumb down" golf by encouraging fans to act like lunkheads and football hooligans.

According to two ESPN contributors rowdy, drunk galleries are good for the game of golf."It's not only good for the game, it's great for the game," says one. "The energy that places like the FBR Open -- or the U.S. Open at Bethpage in 2000 -- create transcends the game and thrusts it into mainstream America. And that grows the game in an ancillary fashion. Of course there's a fine line between being rowdy and downright idiotic. But you have to take the bad with the good."

Oh really? Wearing a wifebeater and filthy jeans to church will make people talk too...just not in a complimentary way...

Better yet is this comment: "As long as they quiet down when it comes time for a guy to hit, what's the problem? The game needs a little energy around it. And the only crowd control problem I've seen in recent years at a tournament was at the 1999 Ryder Cup -- and it was created by people inside the ropes. "

Here's Robert's take...in a nutshell:

Oh, OK, so that guy with the gun following Tiger in 2001 wasn't that big an issue?(WITP note...AZ police hadda tackle a Tiger heckler...who by the way was packing a LOADED .357!) Or that guy who threw the orange at Tiger. What about the stupid spectator who heckled Davis Love at last year's match play? Or the ones who heckled Sergio? Or Monty?Apparently those weren't issues either.Growing the game of golf is a noble concept. I just don't think you do the game any benefit by growing it by attracting a crowd more at home tailgating at a Bills game.Golf has a long-standing ettiquete, one some people will never understand, but which is important nonetheless. I just don't see how rowdy crowds add anything to the game.

I added the following:

I was disheartened and disillusioned by the egregious irresponsibility ESPN shows yet again. They just do not GET golf. One of them commented "You dont see people get quiet when Brady takes a snap, then clap politely when he throws a TD pass." Memo to ESPN - Golf is not football. We conduct ourselves with a reasonable modicum of self respect and dignity...it does not necessarily equate to being an elitist snob. In short, go sell crazy somewhere else, we're fully stocked. Maybe instead of dumbing down our noble game, you should elevate yours.

The big problem is that ESPN's imprimatur on rowdy behavior will encourage nonsense and further foster confrontation between the lunkhead fan and the polite fan and the lunkhead fan and the athlete who is minding his own business and trying to make a living. Uninformed, non-free-thinking sports fans routinely parrot the garbage they hear in ESPN just because it's on ESPN.

If you feel the need to further sully yourself, here is the link to the ESPN article: http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=1982529

While we are at it, check out Robert's blog for one more thing...not two days ago in responding to Robert's great article on "John Daly Signature courses" I wrote that Daly's signature meant:

"it will feature a tournament in which he'll shoot 84 in the first round and withdraw....But that's OK...in the American Big Media "race to the bottom" ABC, ESPN, NBC and CBS just claim all his alcohol fueled troubles, gambling problems and five wives are "just Big John being Big John...hey! lunkhead golf fan! look...there's a guy who hits it 400 on the tee! Woo Hoo!"

For those of you scoring at home, Daly shot 81 in today's first round of the FBR (Phoenix Open) and promptly withdrew...anybody need their palm read?