That’s Wet! a Golf blog in West Palm Beach Florida

Is a World Tour for Golf far away?

Thursday night - Day One of the Open

As I consumed hours of T.V. and online golfing content I watched a Golf Channel piece where Rich Lerner holds a round table discussion with golfing pros from Nike that include Stephen Ames, David Duval, Paul Casey and Stewart Cink. Other than the over-the-top endorsement from Nike the content has been decent. When asked about the Fedex Cup David Duval answered Rich’s question with a question. He asked us if the Fedex Cup was that different from the World Tour that Greg Norman had proposed a decade ago.

I agree that there are similarities but Greg’s plan was better. As avid golf fans we enjoy both the U.S. PGA on the tube and the European Tour on the Telly. I find myself watching the events that have more cache and I’ll certainly opt for the euro tour over the U.S. PGA tour when the locale in the U.S. is a bore. Let’s face it - there are a lot of ho-hum events on both tours.

As golf nuts we can handle some boring locale’s and line-ups but the average fan can’t. And when you look at the business side and the overall development of our game it is obvious that we need to expand our sport. It’s not growing and it’s still full of boring white people! But, my hopes for hip golfers becoming a major factor on golf courses is fuel for another post. OK, Tigger has done a world of good in the diversity and youth column but we need a lot more young ‘uns out on the course if our sport is going to thrive.

What better venue to reach that audience? Well, the web would be number one. So, more on-demand web-based golf content would be a good start. Where are the live web telecasts of Tour events that fans could have streaming in the background at work while they pound away on spreadsheets and business plans? We have wonderful content like shot-link but wouldn’t it be great for one of those deep-pocketed sponsors (ahem, like Nike) to sponsor shot-link so that we could consume that service for free? Moves like these could help grow our sport.

But to make the web more interesting we have to start with making the golf more interesting. The Fedex Cup is a move in the right direction. But a world tour, one where we combined the best venues from all around the world would be exotic, star-packed, and highly entertaining. I don’t WANT to watch another John Deere Classic. Sorry, my Grandpa was a farmer in his later years and HE loved John Deere but give me a break!

Tim Finchem understands that things need to change and he has the unenviable job of trying to please both elite and not-so-elite golfers along with sponsors and networks. Oh, and us. Tim, don’t forget us because we’re the ones that actually make the world go around - not Tigger and Phil. They wouldn’t have these pay checks without the fan and we want more change. Keep it coming. And Tim, nice job on the Fedex Cup. I don’t care what the detractors say, ANY change in our golf world feels like a good thing to us.