Follow Up: "More A Guide Than A Policy"

Regarding the debate about player appearance and the PGA Tour's possible crackdown on the daily Ratso Rizzo tributes that have become commonplace, I'm leaning toward the side of headquarters in wanting to see players clean things up a bit. I know, the possibility of a directive from Ponte Vedra dictating shaving frequency or haircut recommendations is a tad frightening.

If the tour makes their point carefully and shrewdly, they will be doing their players a service. If they break out in jargon and legalese or sound like Sister Shrewd from Our Lady Of Perpetual Misery, then there should be some fun player-only meetings this summer.

The PGA Tour sells itself as displaying the talents of fairly humble, clean, civilized athletes. This has led most of us to find the modern day professional quite boring, while making the players quite rich. Lately, the tour has encouraged and tried desperately to market some of the quirkier personalities like Boo Weekley or Charley Hoffman or anyone else who shows signs of individuality.  As Evan Rothman noted in a recent piece for Golfweek.com, it's a good thing that the PGA Tour has tried to loosen up a bit and embraced the characters or the party scene at Scottsdale, all in the name of livening things up.

But like men's tennis in the 90s and early 21st century, the players have taken this theme a bit far, becoming grittier, cockier and all the way much less multi-dimensional in the way they play, making it very hard to get excited about cheering them on. Throw in lean economic times, lousy ratings and the players need to do their part to keep the old ladies tuning in and the corporate drones happy, like it or not. So yes, that will mean shaving more often or even losing the Bozo the clown look by getting a haircut now and then.

If the tour explains that this is a take it or leave it suggestion for their benefit, I suspect some players will respond. If the tour issues a multi-point memo that reads like it was drafted by an SS grooming expert, this could snowball into a, gulp, messy situation.