Friday, June 06, 2008
Tiger, Phil, Adam
An argument against the "dream threesome"
When the USGA announced that Tiger, Phil, and Adam Scott, the world's top three players, would be matched up for the first two rounds of next week's U.S. Open, it might have seemed like a golf fan's dream. But to anyone who has ever been in the gallery of a major championship, it's a nightmare.
Tiger and Phil routinely draw the biggest Thursday and Friday galleries, and they're almost always spaced out by a few hours so that ambitious fans can walk the course with both of them. But some portion of those people make a choice -- walk with Tiger in the morning, camp out under a tree in the afternoon and see Phil for a hole or two; or vice versa. That means that if you're not 6-foot-3 or you don't carry one of those golf periscope things that Phil's dad has, you still have a fighting chance to see some shots. Come Saturday and Sunday, the galleries get a little deeper, and all bets are off. But for the first two days of a major, every paying customer can see a little bit of Tiger, Phil, or both. With this threesome, it's like a Sunday-Tiger-or-Phil-in-the-last-group gallery every day.
OK, so it's not about the 30,000 people seeing the U.S. Open in person. It's about the millions watching from home. And this is the USGA sticking it to the TV folks, right? Well, I don't buy that either. If you watch on TV, you're going to see every shot Tiger and Phil hit, regardless of what groups they're in. And if you have a job, you're not watching Thursday and Friday live anyway. You're going to watch the replay or the highlights, in which case again, there's no Tiger-Phil shortage.
So what is this good for? Building a false sense of tension or drama. The interpersonal thing -- Do they hate each other or do they actually like each other? Didn't they play ping-pong at the President's Cup? Will they talk? Will Tiger smile? Will he get inside Phil's head? Will their caddies joust with putters for the honor of their bosses? If anything, that's for TV, not for the good of the tournament.
I'd love to see Tiger and Phil together on Sunday. Or Saturday. But Thursday and Friday? It just seems like hype that the world's best tournament doesn't need.
When the USGA announced that Tiger, Phil, and Adam Scott, the world's top three players, would be matched up for the first two rounds of next week's U.S. Open, it might have seemed like a golf fan's dream. But to anyone who has ever been in the gallery of a major championship, it's a nightmare.
Tiger and Phil routinely draw the biggest Thursday and Friday galleries, and they're almost always spaced out by a few hours so that ambitious fans can walk the course with both of them. But some portion of those people make a choice -- walk with Tiger in the morning, camp out under a tree in the afternoon and see Phil for a hole or two; or vice versa. That means that if you're not 6-foot-3 or you don't carry one of those golf periscope things that Phil's dad has, you still have a fighting chance to see some shots. Come Saturday and Sunday, the galleries get a little deeper, and all bets are off. But for the first two days of a major, every paying customer can see a little bit of Tiger, Phil, or both. With this threesome, it's like a Sunday-Tiger-or-Phil-in-the-last-group gallery every day. OK, so it's not about the 30,000 people seeing the U.S. Open in person. It's about the millions watching from home. And this is the USGA sticking it to the TV folks, right? Well, I don't buy that either. If you watch on TV, you're going to see every shot Tiger and Phil hit, regardless of what groups they're in. And if you have a job, you're not watching Thursday and Friday live anyway. You're going to watch the replay or the highlights, in which case again, there's no Tiger-Phil shortage.
So what is this good for? Building a false sense of tension or drama. The interpersonal thing -- Do they hate each other or do they actually like each other? Didn't they play ping-pong at the President's Cup? Will they talk? Will Tiger smile? Will he get inside Phil's head? Will their caddies joust with putters for the honor of their bosses? If anything, that's for TV, not for the good of the tournament.
I'd love to see Tiger and Phil together on Sunday. Or Saturday. But Thursday and Friday? It just seems like hype that the world's best tournament doesn't need.
# posted by Budds @ 9:00 AM 
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My thoughts from having watched 30 minutes of the Open on Day 1:
Sergio really should avoid the lime green shirt and hat. Man, that was the awful.
That's about it. Here's hoping Tiger and Phil throw down in round 2 a la Happy Gilmore and Bob Barker.
Sergio really should avoid the lime green shirt and hat. Man, that was the awful.
That's about it. Here's hoping Tiger and Phil throw down in round 2 a la Happy Gilmore and Bob Barker.
Sergio really should avoid the lime green shirt and hat? Who are you, the fashion police? Where's Jed and Gerald?
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