NY Times Recovers: Beta Blocker Ban And Anxiety

After a severely overplayed A1 story and a ludicrous examination of average golfers suffering extreme heartburn, The New York Times finally gets around to doing what it does best: taking a story like Charlie Beljan's panic attack and talking to experts about the efficacy of anxiety treatments and PGA Tour drug use rules that ban such treatments (with medical exemptions).

Bill Pennington saves the day reports:

The permissibility of beta blockers in golf’s top level has come into focus anew this week. Charlie Beljan won a PGA Tour event Sunday, two days after being hospitalized with a panic attack. Beljan, who said that this week he was going to consult doctors near his home in Arizona, might be treated with medication to prevent future panic attacks.

For those of you following this epic saga, Beljan got a clean bill of health Tuesday from Jim Rome, Diane Sawyer and Inside Edition. There is no mention in the linked story of the Mayo Clinic that he was supposed to visit on Tuesday (reported here, here and here.)

Anyway, back to beta blockers and their ability to help...some:

“Some level of anxiety is good for performance,” said Richard Ginsburg, a sports psychologist at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. “It keeps you on your game. A beta blocker can take away some edge, mellow you too much.”

Danforth, who twice played in the United States Women’s Open, agreed, though she added that beta blockers, purely from a golf perspective, had been likened to the stabilizing advantage some find using a long putter.

There are medical concerns for those who acquire beta blockers without a prescription, perhaps through the plethora of Web sites selling the drugs. Singh said there was a serious risk for people using beta blockers without a genuine, long-term medical need for them.

“They are a very powerful class of drugs that have enormous impact on essential bodily functions,” he said. “They are not without adverse effects.”

You can read the banned drug list here (PDF).

Pulitzer Committee Alert: NY Times Follows Up On Beljan Front Pager With Harrowing Stories Of Severe Acid Reflux

Some poor lad named Nate Schweber got the call from a golf savvy NY Times editor: justify our superfluous A1 story on Charlie Beljan's "panic attack" by finding more golfers suffering from an untold epidemic that has been quietly dooming the game.

So Schweber headed to Van Cortlandt Park where, of course, no one had read the story in spite of its A1 placement.

Mateo’s tale of an anxiety attack on the golf course was one of several that were heard during a random stop at the course in Van Cortlandt Park. None of the golfers interviewed had read about the PGA Tour player Charlie Beljan, who had had a panic attack last week, only to forge ahead to his first career victory.

But the golfers in the Bronx did not need much prompting. Told the details of Beljan’s harrowing experience, they shook their heads in recognition.

What the NY Times actually uncovered were stories of folks needing my drug of choice, Prilosec.

William Larkin, 44, the general manager of the golf course in Van Cortlandt Park, said he had an anxiety attack trying to qualify for a golf tournament in Westchester County about 15 years ago and had to be taken to a hospital.

“I was getting winded going up small hills, my mouth was dry, my left arm got stiff,” he said. “I started thinking I was having a heart attack, which made everything worse.”

He said he spent two days in the hospital having tests. His symptoms had been found to be psychosomatic except for one. His worry had caused his stomach to produce higher-than-normal quantities of acids, which rose up and caused his left arm to stiffen.

“I’ll never forget that day,” he said.

Flashback By Unpopular Demand: Charlie Beljan's Brief Life On Twitter

I really didn't want to bring up Charlie Beljan's brief time on Twitter, considering the poor lad was breaking down Friday and suffered the indignity of a carting off the Disney property by government health care workers, but Twitterers have been passing the link around.

So here goes, Children's Miracle Network Classic winner Beljan's infamous comments about the President and even worse in my view, vitriol directed toward an innocent PGA Tour fan of his who works in Penn State athletics.

Eventually--well in about two hours time--Ponte Vedra SWAT (or more likely his agent) moved in to convince Beljan to delete his Twitter account.

Flashback: HSBC Dude Was For Appearance Fees Before He Was Against Them

What's funny about HSBC's Giles Morgan lamenting Tiger and Rory's absence from his WGC event this week in China?

That Rory and Tiger committed (extremely) early to HSBC's January event in Abu Dhabi where they are undoubtedly receiving huge appearance fees? No.

That the Morgan has 13 of the top 20 in the world at the HSBC, and is unhappy, even though a field like that will make it one of the strongest fields of the year?

No, downright LOL funny: speaking on behalf of sponsors who are concerned about star players not teeing up every single week, Morgan apparently forgot that back in January he praised the very thing that is undermining his event this week.

Speaking to Bob Harig in his look at the role of appearance fees, Morgan was defensive about the notion of appearance fees "commercial arrangements" with some players:

"The commercial arrangements we have with some of the players is long seated,'' said Giles Morgan, group head of sponsorship for HSBC, which is in the second year of a five-year contract to sponsor this tournament. It also sponsors the WGC-HSBC Champions in China, as well as several other tournaments.

"Golf is a product and golf is a product particularly in new markets. And you have to ensure that the players are able to showcase what the sport is to the broader public. We are trying to take this sport to a new audience, which means that commercial arrangements are much more likely.''

Of course, such "commercial arrangements" are not allowed at a PGA Tour sanctioned event like the HSBC Champions.

HSBC Suit Slams Tiger And Rory For No-Show, Claims To Speak On Behalf Of "The Industry"

James Corrigan with a nice unleashing of misery by Giles Morgan, "group head of sponsorship" at HSBC, who sponsors the soulless $7 million WGC event this week in China.

“On one hand we are delighted to have 13 of the world’s top 20 here, but of course we’re disappointed not to have the two top players in the world,” said Morgan. “Both have sent me apologies but this is an event which should be regarded by all players as it is by the tours and the media as one of the top events in the world.

Well that was thoughtful of them!

This next part was interesting. Especially if you set it to some particularly depressing Schubert's Ave Maria.

“Therefore I feel strongly that the top players should be here. I believe that golfers have a responsibility to their sponsors. Without the sponsors there isn’t professional golf. I speak on behalf of the industry.”

Speaking of thoughtful...

Morgan has been contacted by other sponsors who share his concerns that they will not be able to justify the huge outlays without the top names. “I feel very strongly, as I know a number of sponsors do particularly, in a downturn, particularly when there are financial difficulties around the world, that golf cannot be immune either,” he said.

I hate to break it to the sponsors, but with Commissioner Growth Is My Mantra's "calendar year" schedule, no downtime, and plenty of folks willing to pay appearance fees, the stars will not play more less and will gear their schedule around who pays. I think they call this market forces, no?

Golf Channel Pausing Big Break Greenbrier Reruns To Re-Air The Best Of Tommy Gainey On Big Break IV & VII

Not to worry, the infomercials for Tommie Copper (hosted by Montel Williams!) and Total Gym Challenge (with Chuck and Christie!) will air in their traditional Tuesday time slots. Your DVR season passes or well-planned afternoon siestas remain intact.

However, Big Break Greenbrier reruns will be tabled to bring back PGA Tour winner Tommy Gainey's appearances on the fourth and seventh editions.

I know you've all seen these, but just in case you forgot, the recap:

Tuesday
4-5 p.m. ET – Big Break IV: USA vs. Europe (Episode six)– The fourth installment of Golf Channel’s reality competition series pitted teams of six golfers representing the United States and Europe.  In this episode, the contestants take a surprise field trip to the home of golf – St. Andrews – with challenges including hitting out of the infamous “Road Hole Bunker” on the 17th hole and putting out of the “Valley of Sin” on the 18th hole.  The episode also includes one of the more dramatic elimination challenges in series history on the 18th hole, when Tommy Gainey executed an unconventional bogey that featured a ricochet off of a van and a complete miss from the rough to stay alive on the series before ultimately being eliminated in a sudden-death playoff.  Big Break IV: USA vs. Europe was filmed at Carnoustie Golf Links and aired on Golf Channel in 2005.
 
5-6 p.m. ET – Big Break VII: Reunion (Finale) – The seventh installment of Golf Channel’s reality competition series featured the first-ever reunion show, bringing back 16 competitors from the series’ first six seasons.  The finale of Big Break VII: Reunion featured Tommy Gainey defeating Ashley Gomes in a nine-hole match to be crowned series champion and the recipient of a tournament exemption to the 2007 Cox Classic, $70,000 in cash and prizes and a new Chrysler Aspen.  Big Break VII: Reunion was filmed at Reunion Resort near Orlando, Fla., and aired on Golf Channel in 2007.

"Tommy is such a good boy and for somebody to come from a small town like Bishopville, be a little unorthodox, never went to college and win on the PGA Tour? How hard do you think that is?"

From Doug Ferguson's game story on the course-record-60-shooting Tommy "Two Gloves" Gainey breathing life into the McGladrey Classic, which feels like a fall version of the Tavistock Cup only with much smaller galleries.

"Oh, man," Gainey said. "I tell you, you're out here on the PGA Tour. You're playing with the best players in the world. Ninety-nine percent of these guys have already won, and won majors, big tournaments. The only show I can say I've won is the `Big Break.' Now I can sit here and say I've won the McGladrey Classic here at Sea Island, and I'm very proud to be in this tournament and very proud to win. And wow, it's been a whirlwind day.

Tim Rosaforte does a nice job capturing the Gainey backstory beyond the Dexter Morgan two black glove look, including this from Tommy Sr.:

During the two-and-a-half-hour wait between when Gainey posted his 60 and Furyk, Tommy Sr. and Tommy Jr. talked on the phone. When Toms hit a drive, Tommy Jr. could hear Tommy Sr. rooting it into a fairway bunker.

"He said, 'Dad, you can't pull against these guys," Gainey Sr. said. "I said, 'Tommy, those three guys they have everything, they're Hall of Famers."

When it was over, Tommy Sr. headed back to his house in Bishopville so his wife, Judy, could punch the clock for the graveyard shift at the wood plant. He took early retirement when he was 57 but now, at 65, he does consulting work for A.O. Smith, the factory where Tommy Jr. worked as a teenager wrapping insulation around water heaters for $8.25 an hour.

The miniscule PGA Tour highlight package that would look so much better on YouTube: