It’s Thursday, March 14, and the Players Championship is in progress. This is supposed to be the PGA Tour's premier event. Top players, top purse with every effort made to make this the “fifth major.” OK, so a couple of LIV guys are missing, but they’ll struggle through without Talor Gooch, et al.
But today in both the Minneapolis and St. Paul daily papers there is no mention of the event. Ditto the local news. The sports pages were filled with NFL, NBA, MLB and even NHL and women's professional hockey news and articles. Golf was not mentioned at all. If you don’t have Golf Channel, Peacock or ESPN+ (all paid streaming services), you would not have seen any of the hype buildup to the event Monday through Wednesday and you wouldn’t watch the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday either. This is not exactly how the Super Bowl or World Series or for that matter any other major-league sport handles its premier event(s).
This might be a wake-up call for the boys. You may think you’re up there with the big boys in the major leagues, but every media indicator suggests niche minor-league sport with little popular interest. Professional golfers might want to keep these facts in mind as they whine and complain about how unfair their lives are. You just might be overpaid instead of undervalued.
Blaine Walker
St. Paul, Minnesota
Matt Cooper’s piece on the Sunningdale Foursomes in Global Golf Post was excellent and captured the essence of the event and Sunningdale itself (“Making memories at Sunningdale,” March 11 GGP).
I was lucky enough to play in the foursomes once in the late 1970s with Patrick “Teach” Tallack, a renowned golf coach of the time. We lost in the first round, but I have been in awe of Sunningdale ever since.
Richard Dixon
Cardiff, Wales
(Dixon retired in 2021 as CEO of Golf Wales.)
What a pleasure to hear Roger Maltbie and Gary Koch again on the Players Championship telecast. Two of the most knowledgeable voices in golf. I hope this was not a one-off.
Bruce Walker
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
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