A long winter in 2019? With the play-offs starting this week it is a refection on our lives as to how have been dictated to by the commercial life and money. This time next year we will be watching the Tour Championship rather than the first playoff event. The PGA has moved to its new time of the year in May, giving us the Masters in April, the PGA in May, the US open in June and The Open in July, all three majors done and dusted in a three month period, a short season for a game that is trying to grow. The playoffs will then take place through out August and with no Ryder Cup to look forward to….a long winter for the TV golf fan. So why has this happened? We hear all sorts of things, in regards to player welfare, their schedules etc. how it will be a much shorter more exciting season for the top players, all the reasons with the exception of the only reason……Money, and nothing else. I hadn’t really thought about it until the topic was raised in conversation between a few corporate companies and people. The start of the NFL football season at present coincides with the last two playoffs in the FedEx Cup and the desire to keep the sponsors happy at the top end of the game has dictated the complete shift away from the traditional schedule. American sport is built around the play-offs, with post season the biggest attraction to every sports fan. NFL playoffs and superbowl in January February, Stanley Cup and NBA playoffs in April to June, Golf playoffs now in August and Baseball World series from late September through to early November, a year long feast of Play-offs that now do not clash….And we are told it is a worldwide sport, far from it. Golf needs to grow as a world sport and I suppose we need to swallow this at times but the traditions of our game like everything will be swallowed up by corporate America. If we want to survive or get left by the wayside. And don’t forget the Tiger factor although it could be the Brooks factor in a while. But then again Tiger vs Phil in Las Vegas for $ 9m on pay per view...how is that going to grow the game is we cannot see it. The art of persistence
As I've said th FedExCup Playoffs get underway this Thursday at the Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey - although Rory McIlroy has already confirmed he won’t be taking part. The world no. 7 has taken a few weeks off in order to recharge the batteries after a disappointing showing at the PGA Championship earlier this month. Justin Rose, who is currently fourth in the FedExCup standings, leads the British charge and will be aiming to pip Dustin Johnson to the number one spot. That being said, recent PGA Championship and U.S. Open winner Brooks Koepka is in fine form and could be the man to beat in this year's grand finale. Closer to home, there was a feel-good story over the weekend as Paul Waring, on his 200th attempt, finally won on the European Tour. It wasn’t easy, but he managed to hold his nerve in a play-off against South African Thomas Aiken to win the Nordea Masters. It’s a great lesson for all of us in the art of persistence and determination when it comes to golf; if you keep on working on your game, it will eventually pay off. |