Major winners add value to PGA Tour
I enjoyed your recent article about the lack of economic value the PGA Tour derives from golf’s biggest events (“Compensation from majors a PGA Tour priority,” March 30, GGP). Your article indicates that the PGA Tour doesn’t think Scottie Scheffler or any other player winning a major championship enhances equity or value to the tour at all. I disagree with the tour’s thinking about this. The winners of the major championships and participants in the Ryder Cup draw many people to come to regular tour events. These winners also draw many viewers to television broadcasts.
The USGA, R&A, PGA of America and Augusta National are undertaking many costly endeavors to further the game of golf. These organizations are very involved with providing amateur tournament events, introducing new players to the game, providing instruction to help golfers better enjoy the game, and fulfilling many golfers by facilitating fair competition against other golfers. Without these entities, the PGA Tour would not get the talent to make it sustainable for people to watch or attend in person.
The PGA Tour supports many professional tours developing avenues for players to hone their skills in order to make a living playing golf. I fear the direction the PGA Tour is heading, focused on how much profit they can make, will negatively impact the charities they support. I hope the charitable support does not diminish just to give the players significantly more money and investors a bigger return on their investments.
Jim Mason
Freeport, Florida
‘Wisdom’ and ‘foolishness’
Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
This is what the golf world experienced during the last week of March. We all have to deal with adversity. Gary Woodland dealt with adversity with courage and grace (“Woodland snaps drought with emotional victory,” March 30, GGP), Tiger with contempt and entitlement (“Tiger’s personal challenges put golf on the back burner,” March 30, GGP). I believe in second chances, but Tiger has had more than his share.
Even though Dickens wasn’t referring to golf, his description captures the essence of the time. The golf world should be focused on the achievements of Woodland not the selfishness of Woods.
Charlie Miller
Westport, Connecticut
Missing the gathering camaraderie
I miss those hand-crafted scoreboards as well (”Divot: Handwriting on the wall,” March 30, GGP). I am 69 and love competitive golf. Now at championships I walk by the large scoreboard area and it is BLANK.
The part I miss most is the scoreboard area was a gathering place for players and spectators to exchange stories, good and bad, about the day’s round. I am glad you miss them, too.
Tom Brandes
Bellevue, Washington
Give Bhatia a break
Being an avid golfer and having used a long putter several times to cure the yips, I say leave Akshay Bhatia alone (“It’s Your Honor: Limit the length of the putter,” March 16, GGP). His fellow pros do not believe he is cheating and he denies anchoring. If he was, the other competitors would be making noise about it. Using a long putter is a skill in itself and requires patience, discipline and lots of practice. It can be used effectively without anchoring. Akshay is an exciting young player and is great for the game. The haters need to move on and try to putt better.
Rick Garrison
Port St. Lucie, Florida
No anchoring up the forearm
I agree with Michael Vander Zwan on limiting the length of the club (“It’s Your Honor: Rules official supports putter-length limit,” March 30, GGP). What that limit should be might need to be adjusted for a player’s overall height. But we should also address a related topic, that being only the hands may be used to grip a club. No “anchoring” of an extended shaft up the forearm. Sure, you sometimes need to really choke up on a club for some circumstances and that may result in the extended part of the grip rubbing against or riding against the forearm. But that exception is sensible to permit.
Richard “Doc” Miller
Cary, North Carolina
Standard putter length would halt questions
This could have been solved when they did away with anchoring on the stomach (“It’s Your Honor: Rules official supports putter-length limit,” March 30, GGP). The solution was simple: have a standard length you can’t exceed. Let’s use, say, 40 inches as the max and then you don’t have those long putters on tour.
Like you said in your letter, no one wants to embarrass a professional but when can you really tell when a person is anchoring?
Thanks for a great synopsis!
Mike Herbert
Hammond, Louisiana
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