Professional Golf 2024

[Mel Smooth]

Saw a few people questioning why the start time wasn't brought forward for the RBC with the rain forecast - I wen't to bed when it had turned dreary, damp and miserable - and the weather was pretty bad too....

You'd think wouldn't you, that they'd recognise the risk from the forecast and give themselves the hour they needed to get the tournament done on the weekend.

 

[srixon 1]

Saw a few people questioning why the start time wasn't brought forward for the RBC with the rain forecast - I wen't to bed when it had turned dreary, damp and miserable - and the weather was pretty bad too....

You'd think wouldn't you, that they'd recognise the risk from the forecast and give themselves the hour they needed to get the tournament done on the weekend.

You would, but like a lot of sport these days, because the TV companies are paying for the rights to show it they want it to be shown at the best time it suits them. Unfortunately, mother nature doesn’t always play ball.

 

[Fore Right]

Scottie's consistency is unbelievable.
No 1 player in the world on any tour by quite some margin right now !

 

[Mel Smooth]

You would, but like a lot of sport these days, because the TV companies are paying for the rights to show it they want it to be shown at the best time it suits them. Unfortunately, mother nature doesn’t always play ball.

I’d imagine it’s the last thing the tv companies wanted. There’s already a lot of pressure on them to maintain their position in a rapidly changing digital market.

The event has effectively fizzled out - a signature event at that.

An earlier start was the only option, and they decided to ignore it for some reason.

 

[BrianM]

Scottie's consistency is unbelievable.
No 1 player in the world on any tour by quite some margin right now !

No one is even close, it’s absolutely frightening how good he is at the moment.

 

[Slab]

Scottie's consistency is unbelievable.
No 1 player in the world on any tour by quite some margin right now !

Korda at least on par, if not ahead ?

 

[Singlefiguregokfer]

Congrats to Emily Toy winning the Rose Ladies event at Sunningdale.
Excellent work by the ’s…that’s what you call growing the game

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Nelly Korda looks to have found her old form over the last few weeks. 3 wins on the bounce is impressive.

It’s now 5 in a row - rather awesome - equalling the all-time record set by Nancy Lopez and more recently by Annika Sorenstam - and barring a few +ve comments here few seems particularly interested.

Then again no surprise perhaps as the final round of the Chevron (an LPGA major) was not shown live in full in deference to showing what some would consider a workaday PGA event.

We won’t engage with LPGA golf unless we want to engage with it, and we won’t want to engage with it until we understand it and the players better. And for that we need TV. And no TV because limited viewer engagement - and so the negative feedback loop is closed.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

We won’t engage with LPGA golf unless we want to engage with it, and we won’t want to engage with it until we understand it and the players better. And for that we need TV. And no TV because limited viewer engagement - and so the negative feedback loop is closed.

Women's golf is not new. It's had plenty of time to get tv coverage, see how the figures go. That tv still doesn't put it out first suggests those numbers are still low and shouting for change every time a new star comes along is not going to change that overnight. Fundamentally, the game needs to be more attractive, it needs to change from the norm as the norm is not working.

Ian Carter wrote a good piece on the BBC yesterday. He was at the women's event and he highlighted the glacial pace of play as being very off putting. Not much different to the men's game but because the broadcasters have fewer cameras at the ladies event they can not hide it as well as they can not bounce between the groups in the same way. Maybe the women need to bring in the 45 second clock that the ET tried a year or two ago. Do something different than what they are doing now. What is happening now is not going to change the mind of the broadcasters.

 

[BiMGuy]

It’s now 5 in a row - rather awesome - equalling the all-time record set by Nancy Lopez and more recently by Annika Sorenstam - and nobody seems that interested.

Then again no surprise perhaps as the final round of the Chevron (an LPGA major) was not shown live in full in deference to showing what some would consider a workaday PGA event.

We won’t engage with LPGA golf unless we want to engage with it, and we won’t want to engage with it until we understand it and the players better. And for that we need TV. And no TV because limited viewer engagement - and so the negative feedback loop is closed.

I watched some of the Chevron and the PGAT on Sunday night.

The coverage of the Chevron was terrible in comparison. 6 hour rounds don’t help.

But it’s the lack of star players that is the problem. I watch a fair bit of LPGA and there just isn’t a consistent enough group of players batting it out for wins.
We don’t see Korda, Hull, Henderson, Ko and the like together very often.

Other than a small group, from event to event I just don’t recognise a lot of the players.
I could obviously do something about that, but the LPGA don’t seem to be bothering either.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I watched some of the Chevron and the PGAT on Sunday night.

The coverage of the Chevron was terrible in comparison. 6 hour rounds don’t help.

But it’s the lack of star players that is the problem. I watch a fair bit of LPGA and there just isn’t a consistent enough group of players batting it out for wins.
We don’t see Korda, Hull, Henderson, Ko and the like together very often.

Other than a small group, from event to event I just don’t recognise a lot of the players.
I could obviously do something about that, but the LPGA don’t seem to be bothering either.

Slow pace of play is a big issue.

Don’t know if you noticed that a couple of times we saw Lottie Woad place her ball on the green before her turn to play - totally not interfering with the player putting - and it was commented upon. She did that because in the 2nd round of the ANWA her group were ‘put on the clock’ due to slow play of her partners, one in particular - on all shots not just putting. Lottie is a relatively quick player - by putting her ball on the green she was saying that she was ready to go. After the 2nd round was completed one of her group - Anna Davis - was penalised one shot for slow play even though the main culprit was the other player - who I am reliably informed had been taking an eternity over shot and club selection all the way. The 1 shot penalty given to Davis meant she missed the cut. Cue major upset but there you go.

For the final two rounds of the Chevron Lottie was making darned sure that she wouldn’t be anywhere near getting a penalty for slow play - even if a group she was in was being timed - which it was…probably as most groups were…

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Charley Hull doing her bit to make golf cool and trendy for girls? Not sure it really helps the overall image that much and grow interest in the women’s game across the board…though certainly doesn’t detract.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745102412308730093

 

[Golfmmad]

Slow pace of play is a big issue.

Don’t know if you noticed that a couple of times we saw Lottie Woad place her ball on the green before her turn to play - totally not interfering with the player putting - and it was commented upon. She did that because in the 2nd round her group were ‘put on the clock’ due to slow play of her partners, one in particular - on all shots not just putting. Lottie is a relatively quick player - by putting her ball on the green she was saying that she was ready to go.

After the 2nd round was completed one of her group - Anna Davies - was penalised one shot for slow play even though the main culprit was the other player - who I am reliably informed had been taking an eternity over shot and club selection all the way. The 1 shot penalty given to Davies meant she missed the cut. Cue major upset but there you go.

For the final two rounds Lottie was making darned sure that she wouldn’t be anywhere near getting a penalty for slow play - even if a group she was in was being timed.

I'm not making excuses for Lottie but I wonder by worrying about slow play it caused her to rush a bit. As she dropped away on the final round. Not taking anything away from her as I think she has done exceptionally well.

 

[Red devil]

Congrats to Emily Toy winning the Rose Ladies event at Sunningdale.
Excellent work by the ’s…that’s what you call growing the game

Went to Formby Ladies to watch a Rose series last week. Good day out.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I'm not making excuses for Lottie but I wonder by worrying about slow play it caused her to rush a bit. As she dropped away on the final round. Not taking anything away from her as I think she has done exceptionally well.

Quite possibly…though she won’t admit it or even cite it as an excuse. She plays very firmly to her processes and when preping for, and playing, a shot seems able to block out everything else. Will be interesting to hear her honest feedback on her 4th rnd as I may well be party to that - albeit second hand.

 

[Orikoru]

Charley Hull doing her bit to make golf cool and trendy for girls? Not sure it really helps the overall image that much and grow interest in the women’s game across the board…though certainly doesn’t detract.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1745102412308730093

Can't wait to see her sporting the Jason Day MC Hammer pants.

 

[Slab]

It’s now 5 in a row - rather awesome - equalling the all-time record set by Nancy Lopez and more recently by Annika Sorenstam - and barring a few +ve comments here few seems particularly interested.

Then again no surprise perhaps as the final round of the Chevron (an LPGA major) was not shown live in full in deference to showing what some would consider a workaday PGA event.

We won’t engage with LPGA golf unless we want to engage with it, and we won’t want to engage with it until we understand it and the players better. And for that we need TV. And no TV because limited viewer engagement - and so the negative feedback loop is closed.

And then just when her sport was getting a lot of column inches due to her achievement and just maybe some new viewers might tune in to watch her on the back of that media coverage... Korda has to pull out of the next LPGA event this week due to fatigue

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And then just when her sport was getting a lot of column inches due to her achievement and just maybe some new viewers might tune in to watch her on the back of that media coverage... Korda has to pull out of the next LPGA event this week due to fatigue

She has been injured and had not playing for some time before the Chevron. But nonetheless it’s very unfortunate timing as there would almost certainly have been heightened interest in the next LPGA tournament with her playing.

 

[Slab]

She has been injured and had not playing for some time before the Chevron. But nonetheless it’s very unfortunate timing as there would almost certainly have been heightened interest in the next LPGA tournament with her playing.

I wasn't criticising her

She's played 4 times in the last 5 weeks and deserves a week off
(Her 7 weeks off was earlier in the year)

 

[Singlefiguregokfer]

-8 winning today’s Rose ladies event at Walton Heath.
Hayley Davis