The Golf Media's Focus, or Lack Thereof

…we could just tell the media to go screw themselves ? All they really want are easy Tiger and Michelle stories where they both just breeze through life winning every tournament and leading the life of royalty. Anything else makes them work and that seems to make them cranky and start writing hit pieces.

Between the big money these guys are earning, and the attack dogs in the media – it’s hard to be surprised at the players pulling back from “the common people”. It’s nearly impossible to find people who, when they come into a lot of money, don’t move into a nice neighborhood – and those neighborhoods usually have gates and guards.

I think of all the stories of Willie Mays walking to the stadium, playing stickball with the kids on the way. Football players working in tire stores during the off season because they didn’t get paid during those months. Many professional golfers had country club jobs to make ends meet because the tournament money wasn’t enough to make it through the whole year. They were a part of the community back then.

You’re right about the Tour not doing much to encourage these guys to be a little more friendly to the folks outside the ropes. It’s sort of the beast they created with the money they have developed to pay these guys. They have to be serious about their work. More of those tangled webs, eh ?

…but my girlfriend would be none too happy if I flirted with her.

All the Lorena will win the rest of the tournaments in 2008 meme go? One Orlando Sentinel writer loudly proclaimed Lorena would get the grand slam before Tiger Woods. As of this moment Tiger has completed the slam 3 times, Lorena only has half of one slam. Why aren’t there any Lorena slump articles?

All the majors for 2008 are done, so writing about Paula Creamer as the best golfer without one is out. This was a popular theme of golf writing this year.

The regular golf media has little imagination, when I told Beth Ann Baldry at the Stanford that no Korean golfer had won in almost 10 months, the Golfweek reporter reacted with surprise. She covers the tour full-time. Hello…………………. The local media at any one golf tournament takes the lead from the full-time golf media.

Reminds me of something else at Stanford. Not a word was reported about the disastrous back to back double bogeys on Sunday by Young Kim but by one reporter there that day. That was me, Kim and Cristie Kerr went out in the next to last group respectively 2 and 3 shots back but I was the only print media covering these two players. Like groupies, the media was all out with Annika, Paula, and Momoko Ueda. Young is hardly ms. excitement, but Kerr was trying to win on the same course she had once won on as a amateur. She had a good chance of doing just that when play began sunday but other than Kerr’s family and a few close friends, few were there to watch.

Tens of thousands of words are being written about this year’s Ryder Cup. Last year, the LPGA had the Solheim Cup. The golf media didn’t write 1/50th of what they’re doing this year on the Ryder. Did anyone speculate about Beth Daniel’s Captain’s Selections or question the American Captain on bypassing Christina Kim for those picks? Hardly a murmur was heard.

There are plenty of stories out there, other than the same old memes that are floating around. Occasionally a member of the media writes something different, Steve Elling’s article on Angela Kim becoming a US citizen days before the US Open, but more often we read the same recycled stuff. I guess because few fans follow the LPGA all year long. Why write something original when few will notice?