The Pros

Watching Pro Golf
I occasionally watch pro golfers. While I love playing the game, watching it isn’t always as
interesting. I have been to the US Open at Shinnecock, and I was bored to death, granted my
dad and uncle decided I should go just to drive them. This was just what I wanted to do on a
Friday afternoon in the dead of summer, with the beach 10 minutes away. I really couldn’t
follow what was going on, just standing by a random green for a few hours.
I can watch on a Sunday if there is a race to the finish, every stroke matters. If someone is
running away and can 3 putt their way to victory on the back 9, I can’t get invested. That is
more due to the lack of drama.
While these turn me off from watching the pros, it isn’t my biggest gripe. I played hockey
growing up, and I could relate to the pro game, because the game scores tended to be similar. I
could understand the tense OT back and forth battles.
So why can’t I always relate to golf? A lot of the tournaments I catch, it is perfect shot after
perfect shot. The average score is around -10. I haven’t even played par 3 courses where
people can pull that off. There might be a fight over who will win, but they are making it look
like they are playing pitch and putt. I get it, they are paid millions to do this, and should be top
tier. Still, the game looks completely different to what the rest of us play. This is ignoring a few
tournaments I have watched where they are 50 yards away from the green and putting.
I come across tournaments where the leaders are -2 or so, and the average of the field is
around +3. They will hit bad shots, struggle a bit, and look like they are actually making an
effort to recover. These tournaments are so much more enjoyable to watch. I can atch,
appreciate what they are going through. I can’t hit recovery shots like the pros do consistently,
but I have shot from awful lies and had it work out. When they have to hit from the trees, then
a branch gets in the way, I know what they are feeling. I’ve had days where I’ve hit so many
trees, I may have been playing pinball instead of golf.