Tiger Talk Alert: Golf Channel's State Of The Game II

Last year they convened Dan Hicks, Johnny Miller, Nick Faldo, Brandel Chamblee and Roger Maltbie to talk about the state of the game and it became a roundtable about Tiger. With Maltbie taking a pass this year, they are promising to "discuss golf’s biggest issues in a roundtable format" at 8:30 p.m. ET. Friday night.  How many segments will be devoted to Tiger?

More importantly, will the bocce balls make a return? Will they actually talk about "the game" or just the PGA Tour?

Comments

[rb]

"Will they actually talk about "the game"...?"

Ha, Ha...the game got lost in the shuffle a long time ago...now it's money, tweets, fist pumps, page views, website hits...and more money.

[Ed]

Why did Maltbie get dropped?

[rb]

"Why did Maltbie get dropped? "

Let's hope he didn't get dropped...let's hope he wanted no part of the foolishness.

[Kevin]

Maybe they should discuss how expensive golf has gotten for working stiffs. Just got done reading a Matt Ginella piece in Golf World where he talks about Spyglass being such a bargain compared to Pebble. $495 compared to $360. I don't know why, I've known the prices for a while, but it was like getting hit in the face with a bucket of ice cold water. HOW IN THE HELL DID GOLF EVER GET THIS DAMN EXPENSIVE? I'm a pretty big supporter of supply and demand, and I guess if people are paying then more power to them. I just don't think these guys have any idea how much money that really is for normal people. I know this is getting off the subject, and I like MG's writing, but I have noticed more and more that he is a little out of touch in his articles in regards to cost. I've seen him write about places and talk about affordable when the prices are way above $100 green fee.

[rb]

That's why the Golf Channel is pushing hard for The First Tee...so kids can work their way up to those $495 green fees.

[Kevin]

Why don't they just go ahead and raise them up to $1000, I'm sure they can get it. Shouldn't part of the business model of these courses be to make it somewhat affordable so we can all get to experience their piece of art? I understand the private courses being unaffordable and getting what they can, but shame on the public courses.

[BrianS]

So what if Pebble or Spyglass costs 500 or 1,000. What does that have to do with the golf that 99.99% of the world plays ? Tix to the Super Bowl cost a bundle, that has no impact on youth or HS football. Local clubs, both public and private, have been desparate for golfers - the one I play hasn't raised its prices in the last 10 years. I go to Myrtle Beach every year, and the cost of that trip has actually gone down over the past 12 years, as the real estate bust has taken its toll down there. Trips to exotic / super premium courses like those will always be overprices - no more so than than in the past.

[Goose]

Kevin, they are public (i.e., accessible), but they aren't municipal courses. If they charge, $500 or $1000, I agree with Kevin that it doesn't affect the other 70% of public courses.

[Chuck]

It's a very scary discussion right now, because Johnny Miller is making the most sense.

The vote was apparently 3-0 (Hicks, abstaining) in favor of bifurcation. Brandel Chamblee makes the firmest and least convincing argument in favor of bifurcation. Basically, Chamblee says, stricter rules for "the best" players (Tour? collegiate? top amateurs? top juniors?) and completely relaxed rules for recreational players. Which raises the same old blindingly obvious question is why have any equipment rules at all for those recreational players if they are as bad as described by Chamblee? We're really talking about one set of rules, and a larger group of people -- all recreational players -- playing by whatever game-improvement they can purchase

Johnny Miller favored banning any "anchoring" putters but didn't say how to write the rule. Scariest of all, Miller suggested that the way he holds his long putter allowed the butt end to swing, so maybe he wouldn't be covered by the rule... !?

Faldo mentions a need to deal with technology, catches himself before he starts spouting off about a ball rollback. (I think I might have been able to hear the producers screaming in his earpiece.) Instead he veers off on the size of driver faces and loses the thought.

[Kevin]

Thanks Geoff, I just wasted an hour of my life watching the telecast. Johnny couldn't get a word in edgewise with Faldo recalling all his major victories. At least Brandell spoke out against the Q-school debacle, which should bring a phone call from PGA Tour brass. All of them seemed to support two different set of rules as far as clubs and balls, which was also a positive.

[Kevin]

Brian
Those courses might have been overpriced in the past but not to the extent they are now. If you are saying golf is not overpriced at the majority of courses I just can't agree.

[Ky Laffoon's Ghost]

I have friends who were graduate students in the Bay Area in the 1980s. Several times a year they would save their money and drive to Pebble and play. For $45-50. Which was a lot of money at the time, but nothing like the current price, for psychological reasons if nothing else. Arnie, Clint, and Peter are getting what the market will bear.

[Kevin]

KLG
Pinehurst is similar. In the mid 80's you could stay at the main hotel, play 4 rounds, including #2, for around $290.

[greg c]

i hope they do talk about tiger, he moves the needle (whatever that means)...oh never mind, nobody really gives a shyit

[Sandfly]

Yesterday's Gone.

[rb]

Chad and Jeremy...1963.

[john]

Not only overpriced golf courses, but I find it ironic that in the US, bastion of democracy, you cannot play many of the US Open rota courses without knowing someone on the inside. In the UK, the courses are private too, but they allow non-members to play, without having to know anyone. I'll never get to play Winged Foot, Oakmont, but I have no problems playing St Andrews, Birkdale, etc...

[Abu Dhabi Golfer]

@john - that is the paradox - much of the top-end of American golf and American golf history lies behind golf's version of the Iron Curtain. Golf's Free World resides in the UK. Long live the Free World!

[john]

@Abu Dhabi Golfer

Yes, the US of A's "classless" curtain.

Courses I can play in the UK: St Andrews, Prestwick, Muirfeld, Birkdale, Troon, Carnoustie, Lytham, Liverpool

Courses I CANNOT play in the US: Winged Foot, Oakmont, Baltusrol, Shinnecock, Olympic, Hazeltine, Medinah,

Hey, at least I got to play tennis at Flushing Meadow. I probably won't get to play on the courts of Wimbledon, but a tennis court is pretty much a tennis court.

[Kevin]

But John, you can play PINEHURST, PEBBLE, TORREY PINES, SPYGLASS, TPC PLAYERS,........for about $400......what's wrong with that?

[Dave B]

I would think one of the goals to grow interest in golf is to attract more young people to play the game and follow the PGA Tour on TV.
The Golf Channel doesn't help when we see Erectile Dysfunction ADs every 5 minutes during PGA telecasts. That is saying that golf is for old people. I know it is money for them but they need to be more creative and find some sponsors that young people can relate to.
It is probably depressing even for the people that have this problem - Cmon Golf Channel - change it up and get some sponsors aimed at younger people and older people who are young at heart.