Now that football season has been packed away, at least until the breathless hype surrounding the draft ratchets up, golf on television becomes more than what many of us flip to during commercials on NFL Sundays.
Imagine, by the way, the conversation that would have been created by Nick Taylor’s closing magic at the WM Phoenix Open last week had it ended a couple of hours before the Super Bowl kickoff or, even better, on Saturday.
There is a cadence to tournament golf, and particularly PGA Tour golf. While LIV likes its three-day format and shotgun start, it has been more successful at being different than it has by being compelling.
Watching golf on weekend afternoons (particularly for those of us east of the Rockies) is a habit years in the making.
It’s coming to the time when many of us can settle into our comfortable routines on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Should a quick golf nap creep in, all the better.
It’s creeping toward golf season in places that go damp and dormant, and as the PGA Tour heads toward the Florida Swing next week, the road to Augusta is getting shorter.
Old-timers remember listening to Ken Venturi telling shots to slow down and Bob Rosburg proclaiming almost every lie in the rough virtually impossible to recover from. The voices of Johnny Miller and Nick Faldo became as familiar as those of our spouses and children.
Now it’s Trevor Immelman, Kevin Kisner, Colt Knost, Dan Hicks and Jim Nantz who take us from our couches and barstools to Riviera, to Bay Hill and to the Players Championship.
The enormity of football dwarfs everything in its immense shadow, and for good reason. Listen to players, caddies and officials talk during football season and it’s clear they’re paying attention to football, too.
Now, though, golf can take more of the stage. It’s creeping toward golf season in places that go damp and dormant, and as the PGA Tour heads toward the Florida Swing next week, the road to Augusta is getting shorter.
Elvis, as in the NFL, has left the building, but the show goes on. There is an ongoing discussion about reducing screen time in our lives, but that shouldn’t apply to golf screen time.
It’s finally getting toward prime time.
Ron Green Jr.
E-MAIL RON
Top: Superb Images, Getty Images
photo illustration: barbara ivins-georgoudiou, ggp