One of my favorite TV shows lately is HBO\u2019s \u201cDeadwood,\u201d a Western set in the 1870s in what later became South Dakota. The strength of the show lies with its characters, the prime example being Al Swearengen, a saloon owner and general overseer of the town. Al\u2019s authenticity jumps off of the screen. He is cruel, funny and intelligent all at once. And that\u2019s before he\u2019s opened his mouth to swear at you and offer you a drink.<\/p>\n
When I watch golf, I\u2019m watching for entertainment. As a good golfer, the players\u2019 performances go a long way towards accomplishing that goal. However, to a less dedicated golfer or to a non-golf fan, golf is very unwatchable. The players performances cannot be appreciated and golf doesn\u2019t seem to conjure up that universal nostalgic feeling that baseball does for many folks. Instead, non-golf fans are left with dorky commentary and an abundance of quickly clipped shots of various no-name golfers.<\/p>\n
Part of the reason I became so enamored with golf in the first place was because some of the players of the past had such strong characters. They put their personalities on display instead of tucking them neatly into the side-pocket of their golf bag along with their watch and other valuables. Guys – who seemed more like guys than professionals or men – like Chi Chi Rodriguez and Lee Travino had fun with the game. They joked with the gallery and seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing. Even Arnold Palmer would hitch his pants for the gallery.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t see players\u2019 personalities anymore more unless it\u2019s in a made for TV special. Only then might they cautiously reveal that they\u2019re wine connoisseurs or they like to snowboard. Whoopie. But, get them back on the course and it\u2019s like they\u2019re in a business meeting – a focus fest – an anti-smile-a-thon.<\/p>\n
Well, they\u2019ve raised a lot of money lately. Maybe it\u2019s time to give some back. Crack a smile guys. Give a fan a high-five. It\u2019s good for the game and who knows, maybe you\u2019ll inspire some other nine-year old kid to pick up a club and start talking up his game on the range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my favorite TV shows lately is HBO\u2019s \u201cDeadwood,\u201d a Western set in the 1870s in what later became South Dakota. The strength of the show lies with its characters, the prime example being Al Swearengen, a saloon owner and general overseer of the town. Al\u2019s authenticity jumps off of the screen. He is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[741,1163,742,220],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-golf","tag-character","tag-golf","tag-personality","tag-pga-tour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}