This week is The Presidents Cup. I could just link to my Ryder Cup post and say ‘read this and just substitute Presidents Cup everywhere it says Ryder Cup’. But that’s not quite right. As mentioned back in that post, the Ryder Cup is a team competition between a team made up of players from the US and a team made up of players from Europe, which was started back in 1927. It has a long and storied history, and lots of Tradition. And if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’m sure I’ll say it again, Golf is nothing if not Tradition. And for decades this was fine, because 99.5% of professional golfers were either from the US or Europe. But golf was not immune from globalization. The game made inroads in other parts of the world, and people outside of the US and Europe became infected with the fever. Most notably people in South Africa and Australia. But if you look at the list of current PGA players you will see players from Japan, Korea, Argentina, Columbia, and Fiji, just to name a few. Which meant that every other year, while European and US players played the Ryder Cup, some of the best golfers in the world could only sit on the sidelines and watch.
In order to rectify this situation and, lets be honest here, in order to keep the TV revenue flowing in the off years when there wasn’t a Ryder Cup, in 1994 the PGA created The Presidents Cup. The format of which is the same as the Ryder Cup, but the two teams consist of the US and ‘the rest of the world except for Europe’.
The Presidents Cup is a good match play tournament, and it is great golf. But it’s not the Ryder Cup. To see how the golfing world feels about it all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Ryder Cup points are tabulated and re-tabulated and there is speculation for months before hand about the captain’s picks. And once the teams are known the possible match ups are discussed endlessly. There are months of articles leading up to it, and non-stop speculation as to the outcome of various matches. It is all the golfing world talks about for weeks leading up to the actual tournament.
For this years Presidents Cup the big stories are the fact that there was a fertilizer mishap on some of the greens at Harding Park ( the course where this Presidents Cup will be played ) and they got burned pretty bad, and would they be ready for play, and the fact that 2 weeks before the tournament the ‘rest of the world’ team captain Greg Norman announced that he and his wife of just 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, were separated. Which was a bit of a shock since they had both left their previous spouses to marry each other. Even the staid world of golf has it’s little soap operas.
Anyway. Players do consider it an honor to be on the Presidents Cup team and, since the teams do consist of the worlds best players, it is, as I said, great golf. It’s main problem is that it just hasn’t been around long enough. In golf 15 years is not nearly long enough to have established Tradition. And without Tradition, it’s just another tournament. Give it another 50 years or so and it will have acquired enough Tradition that people will have totally forgotten it was originally created to grab TV revenue.
Meanwhile, here are the basic facts for this year, including team members, format, and TV times and stations. We will be watching it here in The Household. Well. Except for on Thursday and Saturday ( and hopefully on Sunday ) when it conflicts with Rockies playoff games. Playoffs over Presidents Cup any day.
In order to rectify this situation and, lets be honest here, in order to keep the TV revenue flowing in the off years when there wasn’t a Ryder Cup, in 1994 the PGA created The Presidents Cup. The format of which is the same as the Ryder Cup, but the two teams consist of the US and ‘the rest of the world except for Europe’.
The Presidents Cup is a good match play tournament, and it is great golf. But it’s not the Ryder Cup. To see how the golfing world feels about it all you have to do is look at the press coverage. Ryder Cup points are tabulated and re-tabulated and there is speculation for months before hand about the captain’s picks. And once the teams are known the possible match ups are discussed endlessly. There are months of articles leading up to it, and non-stop speculation as to the outcome of various matches. It is all the golfing world talks about for weeks leading up to the actual tournament.
For this years Presidents Cup the big stories are the fact that there was a fertilizer mishap on some of the greens at Harding Park ( the course where this Presidents Cup will be played ) and they got burned pretty bad, and would they be ready for play, and the fact that 2 weeks before the tournament the ‘rest of the world’ team captain Greg Norman announced that he and his wife of just 15 months, tennis star Chris Evert, were separated. Which was a bit of a shock since they had both left their previous spouses to marry each other. Even the staid world of golf has it’s little soap operas.
Anyway. Players do consider it an honor to be on the Presidents Cup team and, since the teams do consist of the worlds best players, it is, as I said, great golf. It’s main problem is that it just hasn’t been around long enough. In golf 15 years is not nearly long enough to have established Tradition. And without Tradition, it’s just another tournament. Give it another 50 years or so and it will have acquired enough Tradition that people will have totally forgotten it was originally created to grab TV revenue.
Meanwhile, here are the basic facts for this year, including team members, format, and TV times and stations. We will be watching it here in The Household. Well. Except for on Thursday and Saturday ( and hopefully on Sunday ) when it conflicts with Rockies playoff games. Playoffs over Presidents Cup any day.
Comments