Know The Next Golf Tournament Winner? Wanna Bet?

I like betting.  I can't help it.., it's just fun for me.  I'm not an addict.  I'm not at the casino every other night.  I haven't lost my house or my car.  Maybe my shirt, but that's about it.  I'll bet on individual games, drop money into fantasy sports and, of course, the brackets going on this time of year.     

The thing about betting is, it just makes the game, or whatever you're betting on, that much more interesting.  Whether you're betting on the NCAA Championship game, or the day your co-worker's baby is born - it makes you care that much more about the result. 

We here at golfstinks have touched on different kinds of betting in the past.  Be it betting while out on the course or creating a bracket in the hopes for a real PGA championship, we're always looking for a way to put our hard-earned greenbacks on the line.  But let's be honest, golf isn't exactly a big-time sport for betting. 

Now we've all seen the odds posted for the favorites in golf tournaments - especially the majors.  But golf doesn't get nearly the betting action that most major sports get, be it legal or illegal.  I think a lot of that has to do with the relative anonymity of the players on the tour.  But what if you found yourself in a golf pool?  What if you were in a Vegas sports book and you saw the odds pop up for The Masters?  What would you do?  Who would you choose?  How much would you bet?

See, you can check just about anywhere for betting assistance on football or basketball - the internet, the newspaper, even the phone!  But golf?  Not so much.  However, that doesn't mean they don't exist.  Sites such as Golf Picks are out there to help you. 

Now, if there was only a way to raise golf into the ranks of the top wager-worthy sports, we could put all of this to better use.  But I guess until the PGA recognizes the opportunity it has at a gold-mine with an actual PGA Championship, the world of golf betting will remain a lesser interesting option. 

But let it be known, golfstinks will do what it can to raise interest in all things golf, including the occasional wager - on-course or off.  You can bet on it.

Swing 'til you're happy!            

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The Mental Grind Of Golf

So as some of you may know by now, I've been droning on in the past about the PGA's need (in my opinion) to restructure the tour stops, create some type of a playoff system and create a "real" PGA Championship. Whether you agree with me or not, you'd have to admit that I've got to be onto something. At the very least, I'm trying to make the tour more exciting!

But last week, after my post about restructuring and streamlining the tour, we received a comment from our buddies over at Three Guys Golf. Referring to the reason golfers skip so many tournaments, the statement "too much of a mental grind" was used. This got me thinking about two points. One having to do with my PGA playoff pursuit, the other just a general thought on the "mental grind."

Firstly, the season schedule/playoff angle. I understand that no player can or is going to participate in every tournament from January to December. There are just too many (50 last year!). But that's where it starts - shortening the season. Why not have a season that runs from March or April through October with November designated for playoffs and a championship? Why not shorten the season to twenty or so tournaments and a few opens? Make every tour stop count toward a playoff seed. That way everyone will pretty much have to participate in just about all of the stops in order to give themselves a better shot at a higher seed. Cutting out some of the tournaments will create more star-studded stops along the way. I would have to imagine this would mean a better turnout at the gate, as well as a better TV rating.

Secondly, the "mental grind" aspect. As for the reason PGA tour players can't play every week or even every other week being due to the mental grind? I'm sorry, but I have to call B.S. on that. Now I realize that the popular school of thought is that it takes great mental strength to play professional golf. And I do not doubt this for a minute. However, I highly doubt the degree to which it is exaggerated. What I mean by that is, it takes a high level of mental strength to play any sport professionally. But the old-school thought of the "well-educated, well-raised" golfer vs. the "dumb jock" that plays any other sport still exists to a certain degree. Has anyone ever seen an actual NFL playbook or heard an actual play called in a huddle? It's mind-boggling! And to think that these plays need to be communicated from a sideline, called and understood in a huddle and executed in less than 40 seconds is incredible.

I understand that a great deal goes into a golf swing. But at the same time, a great deal goes into a baseball swing, a football pass, a basketball shot or a hockey shot. Not too mention, there are plays, formations, audibles, defensive positioning and situational decisions that need to be made in a matter of seconds. And all of this happens in a venue containing thousands of screaming fans. A golfer on the other hand stands in almost complete silence so he or she can concentrate, walks the course with an assistant and has basically one job...swing a club. Not too mention, they can pretty much take as long as they choose to do this. I'm sorry but, the mental grind? I don't want to hear about it.

Further, I think part of the reason the "mental" part of the game is so emphasized by golfers is to make up for the fact there is so little of a physical aspect to it in comparison to other sports. I mean, outside of a handshake at the end of a round and maybe a hi-five with their caddie, there is no other physical contact throughout their round. Now, if a professional baseball player can play 162 games in a span of roughly 190 days, sometimes playing as many as ten to twelve consecutive days, then a golfer should be able to handle his or her schedule. Hell, if a professional football player can play his sport, sixteen times in seventeen weeks, then for Pete's sake come on! This is a sport which is so rough it has been shown to shorten the life expectancy of it's players. A sport that, on any given play as many as 21 of the 22 players on the field (if the QB doesn't get hit) have some sort of physical, many times violent, contact occur.

A golfer experiences none of this. They don't have any physical contact with anyone, they don't run, they don't jump...they don't even carry their own equipment!! But they can't handle a certain schedule because they have to think too hard? Ha!

My point here is certainly not to poke fun at a comment made, but to attempt to explain how ridiculous this popular way of thinking sounds. And it is popular! It seems the majority of golfers who take their game serious believe their sport somehow requires a greater mental capacity to play than any other sport. And if you don't play, then you must be some sort of a mental midget. It's an unfair way of thinking. It's pretty much the equivalent of a pro football player saying "Golf? What, are you too much of a pansy to play something else? Or was the chess team already full?"

Look, what it simply comes down to is, this is golf. Is it a tough sport to play? Sure. But every sport played on the professional level is. Does it require a great amount of mental ability? Sure. But again, every sport played on the professional level does. But thinking too hard is no excuse for not playing.

But to the original point, my attempt here has been to come up with some ways to draw additional interest to the PGA Tour. And if shortening the season and playing fewer tournaments will do this, then it at least deserves some consideration. I know it's probably unrealistic, but with a sport fading in both viewership and participation, it would be best for the tour to be proactive rather than reactive. Maybe my ideas aren't what the tour is looking for, but they'd better start coming up with something. Because slowly but surely, they're running out of time.

Try not to think. Just swing 'til you're happy!

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The Road To The PGA Championship

It's Sunday afternoon and me and a couple buddies are watching my Patriots finish off the Jets, their biggest and most hated rival. During the game, we're talking about some other teams (one of the guys is a Cowboys fan and the other is a Vikings fan) and some other sports - namely the MLB playoffs.

It's during these discussions that I start to consider the regular season schedules and playoff scenarios of the major sports in the U.S. For some reason, I compare this to golf, particularly, the PGA Tour.

Back in February I wrote a post about the need for a real PGA Championship. The question remaining though was, how do you get there? Is the final tournament based on the world golf rankings? Is it based on the money leaders? Hopefully not. But if not either of these, what then? Well, I've added another idea to the mix, but it would require a radical change.

Currently, we play Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday tournaments. At the end of the tournament we emerge with one winner. But what if we used those days to play a series of one-on-one matches? What if a player could emerge from a weekend with a record, say 3-1, rather than finish "16th, nine shots back." What if, rather than a money list or a ranking system that no one understands, there were actual golf "standings" with a win-loss-tie record?

I'm sorry but, whether you are a golf purist or not, I feel like I'm onto something here. Imagine opening up the sports page of your local newspaper or checking the standing on your favorite sports/golf website, and instead of seeing Luke Donald is #1 on the money list at $5,837,214.50 with Webb Simpson in second trailing by $68,971, you this:

PGA Tour Standings

Luke Donald 52-35-4

Webb Simpson 48-36-7

Nick Watney 47-36-8

Etc....

I gotta tell ya, this is a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a money list. It's a hell of a lot more interesting than looking at a ranking list. And it sure makes each match mean a lot more when you are working your way toward an actual PGA Championship. Plus on Sundays, when many players are out of reach of the tournament win, this format would give each player a shot at still playing for an individual win rather than an additional $500 or $1000.

Each player becomes, for lack of a better term, a one-man-team. An individual rather than a nameless face in the crowd. Players will have a chance to pull away from the pack to give themselves better playoff seedings. And guys who are lower in the standings have the opportunity to play spoiler.

OK, so it's still a work in progress. But it's also a refreshing change to a stale sport. I've still got a few kinks to work out, but I'm sure I'm onto something. I know there are going to be plenty who hate this idea. But I also know there will be many who may see some potential. But in the end, all I'm trying to do is come up with some ideas to pump some new life into a great but fading game. And hey, whether you agree with me or not, you sure can't fault me for that.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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What If The PGA Experienced A Lockout?

Well, all signs are pointing in the right direction. It seems there's finally some agreement between players and owners. All signs are pointing to an on-time start the NFL regular season...and I couldn't be happier! Now, if the NBA will soon follow suit, then the sports world will once again be right as rain.

But with lockouts currently going on in two of the three most popular spectator sports in the United States, it kind of makes me wonder what would happen if there was a PGA Tour lockout.

Would it be like an NFL lockout? I guess that could go two ways. With the current lockout, I think all of us know that both parties understand there is way too much money to be lost if games are not played. It's by far the most popular spectator sport in the country. When it's estimated that anywhere between $200- $250 million could be lost per week of the PRESEASON (!!), imagine what's to be lost during the regular season!

But if you look at it like 1987 (which was actually a strike, not a lockout), it may look a bit different. Back then, the owners thought it would be a good idea to play a few games with replacement players. I remember distinctly watching a "replacement player" game when flashed upon the screen was a players regular job - car salesman. This was not the NFL I or anyone else wanted to see. Can you imagine the PGA Tour heading in this direction? Many of us have no idea who many of the players on the tour are now. Could you imagine if, in place of the tour pros, we had a bunch of course pros out there? Or, a bunch of guys from the Hooters Tour? Well, I guess if many of us don't know who the players are now...

But what if it was approached like the NBA? Back in the 1998-99 season, the players were locked out and the games simply didn't happen. No replacement players. No D-League players. Just no games. By the time it was over, the season was shortened from 82 games to 50. Would a PGA lockout look something like this? Just no golf at all for almost half the season? This would be the equivalent of missing approximately the first 17 tour stops of the season. Now, before you look at the schedule I'll fill you in...yes, that includes The Masters.

But what if it worked out like the MLB strike of 1994? Everyone recalls only one thing from the '94 season - no World Series. Obviously, The PGA Tour doesn't work the same. Despite the tournaments name, there is no actual PGA Championship. But you get what I'm saying...

My question is, how would the golf world react if a lockout or strike were to hit the PGA? Would all be forgiven as it was (and will be) in the NFL? Would there be lingering after-affects as there was in MLB, a sport that was already on the decline viewership-wise? Or would it deal the sport a significant blow such as it did in the NBA which, 13 years later, has still yet to recover?

Obviously this is all theoretical as we know the PGA doesn't work the same as the players organizations in the other sports mentioned above. But that doesn't mean it can't happen one day. And if it ever does...and since Tiger has already hit his decline...would we even notice if replacement players were out there?

Swing 'til you're happy! Because one day, you too could be a replacement player.

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What If There Really Was A PGA Championship?

One of the greatest periods of time for a sports fan is just around the corner...March Madness. Pretty much everything about the tournament is exactly what sports fans are looking for. All the top teams, the upsets, the "Cinderellas" and, of course, the brackets.

The NCAA Tournament is one of the greatest ways to decide a champion of a particular sport. 68 teams get one game against a particular team. One shot to move onto the next round. Win six (or seven) in a row, and you're the champ. Anyone can play anyone. Perennial powers play the small schools...upsets happen. It's great!

Now what if this particular format was brought into the PGA Tour? What if a tournament billed as a "championship" actually was? What if there was a way to finish the season, without a ranking list or anything based on money, to determine a clear-cut champ? It sounds like the way to go if you ask me!

Wait...what? They already do this? The Accenture Match-Play Championship? How is this NOT the be all and end all?! This needs to replace the PGA Championship!

As it stands now, the PGA Championship is really just another tournament. OK, it's a major. But in effect, it's just another tournament. When I hear "championship," that's exactly what I expect it to be. It should take up two weekends and should determine an actual champion! So in another attempt to come up with ideas to make viewership and interest in this sport greater, I propose the fourth major to be held at the end of the season and be renamed The PGA Tournament Championship.

Think about that. You take the top 64 golfers in the world and pair them up by seed - #1 vs. #64, #2 vs. #63, etc., just like the Match-Play Championship. The tournament is held over a four day span as usual. However, by the time Sunday afternoon rolls around, only four golfers remain - The Final Four. The following weekend, the final four matchup. Thursday and Friday could be two one-on-one matchups, aggregate score wins each. Saturday and Sunday, the two remaining seeds face each other in the actual championship, again with aggregate score winning. I don't know about you, but this sounds like a winner to me!

I'm not sure exactly how you figure out the seedings - World Golf Rankings, PGA Tour money list, who knows. Hey, it's not perfect and would need to have some details hammered out. But its got its strong points. For starters, it's an actual Championship in the truest sense of the word. It's exciting - every matchup matters. And perhaps just as important (and the PGA would probably never want to admit it but it's true), is the gambling aspect. Bringing in a bracket system for fans to fill out like the NCAA basketball tournament creates even further meaning for fans. Now, every fan has a vested interest in the tournament.

The more I think about it, the more I feel it's a winner. A tournament such as the match-play championship belongs at the end of the season, and a tournament set up as such deserves not only to be a major, but to be THE major.

Every sport needs a championship game. Golf is no different. Who wants a #1 player based on some ranking system, or worse yet, based on earnings! Battle it out on the course. In the end...the one true champion will be the one still standing.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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Super Bowl Hype For Golf?

So, much like 100+ million other people, I watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Another good game for America's favorite sport as, once again, the big game lived up to it's hype.

It kind of makes you wonder why the Super Bowl is as revered as it is. What does the Super Bowl have that the World Series doesn't? Why are we all excited to tune into the Super Bowl, but not as much the NBA Finals, or the Stanley Cup Finals? And where does golf rank in this question?

Well, to get it out of the way quickly, my short answer to why the Super Bowl is so much more popular than the championships of other sports is...there's only one championship game. The whole season and everything a team has played for, comes down to one game. That right there is part of the popularity for two different reasons.

Reason 1 - The sporting reason - There simply is no second chance. The team has one chance to win. It's not a series. There is no game 2 (or 3,4,5,6 or 7 for that matter). You lose, you're done. It's exciting! What if there was no series in the World Series or NBA Finals. Would it have made Rangers-Giants or Lakers-Celtics even more exciting? My guess is yes!

Reason 2 - The entertainment/get-together reason - It's just so much easier to gather friends and family for one game than it is for, somewhere between, four and seven games. Who gets together for the entire World Series? Maybe a game or two...and a game 7 if there is one. But unless there is a game 7, then who knows when the last game (the actual championship game) will really be? See, the logistics of it are just too tough to figure out.

Now take golf...it's just a mess. The Maters, The PGA Championship, The Opens, The FedEx Cup, the money list, the rankings...what the hell?! Who's #1 and why? I mean, I can see who's ranked #1...but how did they get there? Especially if they haven't actually won any tournaments! Drawing on stinky golfer Pete's idea - there should be one single tournament to determine the season's champion!

But since it seems highly unlikely that the PGA would completely rearrange its entire structure to accommodate a complaint that a couple of hacks at a place called golfstinks have made, it seems the next logical step to add some hype to the boredom of the golf season is...halftime shows!!

Look, the Super Bowl is a huge draw every year. But ever since 1993, when Michael Jackson performed, it's obvious the NFL changed it's perspective on halftime and has made every effort to bring in big names rather than the college band theme they had been doing previously. And the result? One could argue that a significant part of the reason some people watch the game at all is for the halftime show! I would rank it with the commercials, but they seem to fall flatter and flatter every year. (On a side note, beer commercials used to be funny. Now, they are just awful).

So what better way to draw more viewers (and fans at the gate), whether fans of golf or not, than to book a kick-ass rock group for the Friday (halftime of a golf tournament) night festivities? It's working for the NFL, isn't it? MLB and the NBA are beginning to work it in at their all-star games. Why not give it a shot?

OK, so I'm really reaching again. But hey...I'm just trying to help. A little music and entertainment never hurt anyone. Just one request...if anyone involved in the PGA halftime entertainment division is reading this...please don't book the Black Eyed Peas. Was the halftime show a spectacle? Yes. But it was likely the worst music to ever make it to the Super Bowl.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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Get Some Wings & Beer, The Final Round Is On!

It's Sunday afternoon and Stinky Golfer Dog and I have just finished watching the Giants blow a huge lead and lose. To that I say...YAY!!!! Dog, a typical fair-weather Giants fan, does not agree with my sentiments.

But as we're watching the games, I start to realize it's almost every Sunday that either I have a buddy or two over to watch the football games, or I'm invited somewhere to watch them. Sunday afternoons watching the games by myself are few and far between.

But it's not like this for other sports. I'll get together with some friends to watch basketball once in a while. Some of the bigger rivalry baseball games will also call for the occasional gathering. But do you know what sport my buddies and I have never gathered for? Yup, you guessed it...golf. Not the Masters. Not any of the Opens. Not the Championship. Nothing. Why? Well, for me anyway, the answer is simple...because it's boring!

For non-golfers, it's easy to say the sport itself is boring and that's why they don't play. But we golfers know differently. Once we're out there on the course, it's far from boring. But that doesn't mean it's not boring on TV. I'm sorry, but it is. Golf as a spectator sport just doesn't satisfy my appetite for competition. Watching golf live is not bad, but on TV? It's like gathering your friends around the backyard to watch the grass grow. But what I haven't quite figured out is, why is it like that?

I enjoy the sport. I participate in the sport. We're watching the best of the best on the pro tour. So why do I have no interest? Why don't I call up the guys and say "Where are we watching the final round on Sunday?" I try to think of reasons, but I haven't come up with many:

Firstly, there's the commentary. It's dull. It's too quiet and reserved. It's....well...boring! Now I'm not saying I want early 80's John Madden style commentary. That's certainly not necessary for golf. But it couldn't hurt to spice it up a bit. Change up the tone on a great shot. I don't want to hear words like "useful" and stuff like that. That's just become more of a joke now. If you want to draw in a younger audience (and lets face it, the current core audience isn't getting any younger) then you have to make the sport more exciting to watch. Livening up the commentary couldn't hurt.

Second, and we've touched on this before, who the hell are these guys that we're watching? Most of the players in these tournaments are unknowns to the casual golf fan. If I don't have a vested interest in the players or a reason to follow them, then why would I care to watch? I'd much rather just go out and play myself!

But that's about all I can come up with. I don't get excited to watch a golf tournament on television, whether Tiger is playing or not. At most, I check in just to see what's going on and who's leading. I'll stick around for a few shots, but not much more. Apparently, my golfing buddies all feel the same.

So if I'm a participant in the sport, and my buddies are also, but collectively we just don't care all that much about watching it, the PGA may have a potential problem on their hands in the future. Because if that's the situation for me and my buddies, I'm sure there are all too many more like us out there.

Swing 'til you're happy!

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