“Fear in Ponte Vedra” ?? Come on. A bit of an overreaction, don’t you think ? What has Southerland done that would make you believe that he can repeat this performance two or three weeks in a row, much less be close enough to the top in Atlanta to win the Cup ? Besides, the guy was 57th on the list – not somewhere outside 120.

And what if he does play his way into the Tour Championship, or even win ? Southerland becomes a Cinderella story and the media will go nuts for him.

Padraig Harrington missed the cut in week one and dropped from #4 to #23 in the standings – but he has two more weeks to hold his spot and even build it back up. That’s also two weeks where Southerland could fall well back.

Yep – Tiger’s still mathematically in the picture for checks at the Tour Championship. Unfortunately, having 29 in the field isn’t unheard of at The Tour Championship. Mickelson and Woods have both skipped the event in the past for various reasons.

Good pieces on the Am and LPGA events !

…but HOW do you make a game that is as slow as golf and make it “exciting” and “fun” ? What is out there that could possibly make golf “fun and exciting” ? Money isn’t the answer – Alex Rodriguez signed for $256 million and immediately became a target. The Cowboys and Yankees are building billion dollar stadiums – but if the teams are losing, nobody will care about the stadium. Money is everywhere and it’s just not a focus for excitement.

The excitement has to come from the players, and it seems that only one guy is capable of facing down the field and the course and make things exciting to watch. Tiger Woods pulls off one or two amazing shots a week, and people start to think that EVERY shot is that way. That’s one or two shots out of 72 holes worth of shots.

Being a pastoral game like baseball, it is by nature a slow paced game. Excitement is the exception, not the rule like in basketball or football. It’s a walk in the sunshine watching great golfers do things the rest of us can’t do.

and “fun” ?? beats me. 25,000-110,000 people on the golf course, who knows how many watching on TV – how do you define “fun” ? I’m in the purist camp, so my idea of “fun” is different than the majority. Modern baseball stadiums with all the games and things for kids to do are distractions from the game to me. Watching the Olympics was very difficult because I wanted to see the competition – I don’t care about all the stories and vignets NBC believes are necessary to bring in women viewers. Bad announcers are a huge distraction to what’s going on on the field. If someone asks me what I like to do at a golf tournament – my favorite thing to do is sit at the range and watch these guys hit balls. yeah – I’m the life of the party ! (lol)

What do you suggest ?

…do YOU pander to the uninitiated masses who have the attention span of a gnat, or do you tell yourself that golf is not and never will be like the NFL and deal honestly with the real golf fans ? Obviously, TV wants to try to pander to the masses in order to ride the Tiger- wave as long as possible – and damn the consequences down the line. But what woul YOU do if you had the magic wand ?

You’ll never get rid of the “rich guy” stereotype – even though the guys making 7 and 8 digits in the NFL and NBA FAR outnumber the PGA Tour guys who make over a million.

And I’ll NEVER understand the hiring practices of these networks. “Are you a former professional athlete ? Do you know how to mispronounce names and act like a jerk from time to time, insulting the guys you used to play with while calling it ‘honesty ?’ Yes ? You’re hired.”

Do you ever wonder if some of these guys would play better if they fired the sports psychologists and just went back to their instincts ?

The World Series of Poker is watched by millions of people who play the game. What is on ESPN is edited and the announcing added in later. Try watching the final table on pay-per-view. No card-cam shots and hardly any real announcing except for Howard Lederer reading the players and guessing at what they will do. (fascinating for a poker player – but excruciating to watch if you don’t know what’s going on) The chips and cards in a tournament are like balls and clubs – they have no value. They are playing FOR money, but what is in front of them is not the money. (you want to watch poker where there IS money in play – check out “High Stakes Poker” on The Game Show Network. They show seasons where the minimum buy-in is $100k – and last season’s buy-in was a minimum $500k. Their money in front of them. Now THAT’S pressure) I guess that’s why people who say the Skins Game is boring wish that they players would put up their own money.

Anyone ?? Beuller ?

Hey WAIT a minute !!!! Do you mean the fans or the players ? :-D

The 16th at the FBR is really amazing – but the Tour had nothing to do with it. It spawned on its own and the Thunderbirds just started adding stands and adding and adding. The most amazing thing to me is that in that maylay of a hole – they get dead quiet as soon as the player puts his ball in the ground. Not an easy thing to do when you’re dealing with 30,000 drunks.