ESPN quiet about drunk rowdy crowds at FBR this year

One of the best benefits of ESPN's waning "golf coverage" is that we won't have to hear them beat the drum as much about their "upcoming golf coverage."

This works especially well this week at the FBR Open where last year was a constant indoctrination at their boot camp for social angst that "drunk rowdy crowds are great for golf."

Tell that to Brad Faxon. "That's not a golf tournament" he bristled when asked if the FBR should be considered a "more important tournament."

What's next, ESPN lobbying to make it a major simply because the level of fan interaction was "as intense as a major?"

But that's ESPN who are the worldwide leader at being more wrong, more loudly, more often than any other network full of "experts."

This year? There has been nothing. Since John Eisendrath and his buddy George don't have a golf future for a while, they figure "Why bother? We'll fix them. We'll spend the production money elsewhere. Hit 'em right where they live, the wallet."

Well guess what. The Tour did just fine before ESPN came along, and the Tour will be the Tour long after ESPN decides "hey maybe we're wrong" and comes groveling back. (I give them oh I don't know...the length of the contract before one of the execs there starts the pendulum back towards sanity.) And that's if there's enough money involved to make Tim Finchem (or whoever is in charge then) forget this poorly veiled attempt at a financial chopblock.

But there's a golden lining to this cloud - that same silence.

You can hear birds chirping and crickets humming; drink in the natural sound of golf, because the crazies aren't stirring up the crazies even more. If you don't give a drunk a microphone, you don't hear the depressing sound of society's decay. Maybe you help deter it just a little bit.

You watch. The Tour can finally get a handle on the 16th now without ESPN interference. Watch how long it takes before the scene becomes controllable...not eradicated...but also not the juvenile tailgate party it's been lately. Leave the keggers for the "College Game Day" crew.

Here is a link to last years posting by myself and others on what the 2005 blogsphere thought of ESPN's chicanery: