Keegan Bradley a.k.a “A Mile With a Smile” wins Golf’s Latest Audition of “Does America Have Talent?” at the PGA Championship.
The PGA Championship boasts the strongest field of the Four Majors, but its abysmal television coverage continues to erode its position. Whether on CBS or TNT, the presentation amounts to little more than a barrage of hours of commercial interruptions, inane repetitive commentary, and syrupy boring feature pieces. It’s been like this as far as I can remember back into the 90s. After watching non-stop for the first three days, I took nearly a 4-hour break on Sunday. Fortunately I returned in time for the last four-hole histrionics and the play-off. With all the replays, however, I fortunately felt I missed nothing. The CBS announcing team has gone from once entertaining to downright boring – their banter, jokes, and insights have become old and tired. Even the ever-so-polished Jim Nantz is beginning to seem over-exposed. A complete makeover of that group would be welcomed. About the only thing I enjoyed was the shot-tracker feature, as one has no idea of what happens to the ball flight when a touring professional hits a tee shot on television.
Quickly name for me a less appealing television coverage in all of sports, let alone golf, than the PGA Championship. I can’t think of one with all of the PGA Championship’s commercial interruptions and fragmented coverage. If the PGA of America wants to keep their golden goose polished, they’d do well to make for a more viewer-interesting presentation with completely different talent and far less commercial interruptions.
My friends at the PGA really do know how to run a first-class event and once again Kerry Haigh’s setup was masterful. Likewise the course’s conditioning was, as announcer Ian Baker-Finch said time and again about nearly everything – “perfect.” While I’ve already critiqued the playability of the Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course for every-day play for most golfers, the layout makes for a fun championship venue – if little else. Let’s face it, it’s a show piece for the Atlanta Athletic Club membership and a great test of golf – for pros and a few dozen of their members.
Next year, the event will be hosted at the Ocean Course at Kiawah – a links-looking layout near the ocean that doesn’t play like one. I suspect that hosting this is both a gift to past PGA President Roger Warren who works there and likely lobbied for it, and to the course’s designer Pete Dye who has made many contributions to the PGA of America. Doubtless we can expect endless pieces harkening back to “The War By The Shore” Ryder Cup of 1991 and the eminent 2012 Ryder Cup team selection, but it should be fun. Expect the Ocean Course to play long because nowadays it must, but when will this ever stop? Speaking of long courses, now even long-hitting Bubba Watson has just checked in now opining that the golf courses are getting far too long. Imagine that!
The PGA Championship and Ryder Cup are the negotiated rights given to the PGA of America that remain from their split with the PGA TOUR back in 1968. They are immensely valuable ones at that being for many years now the largest sources of revenue for the organization made up mostly of club professionals greatly subsidizing their annual dues. It’s ironic and sometimes a bit uneasy and strange that the touring pros hold in balance the financial health of the club pros by their support and participation in these two events. Fortunately the Ryder Cup has grown in popularity and no other tournament has yet surfaced to supplant the PGA Championship, but be on the lookout as professional golf is worldlier.
Speaking of the two organizations (PGA TOUR and PGA of America) that even many sports people confuse as one, each organization has representative on one another’s boards. That is actually a token political token gesture as the TOUR representatives seldom even show up at meetings and the PGA of America ones take more of an observing role. These are two very separate organizations with sometimes differing agendas (viewership/purses versus grass roots participation). That said, most every touring professional has a PGA of America member in their background, who has and may continue to be tremendous influence in each of their successes.
With Hall-of-Famer, Aunt Pat Bradley, Keegan looks to keep the Bradley name in the forefront for a long time.
Moving on to the man of the hour, Keegan Bradley, about a month ago, I was participating in the Viking Classic Pro-Am in Mississippi. One of my A-Position buddies Larry Olmsted with whom I was paired lobbied that we try to secure Keegan Bradley as our pro for the Wednesday Pro-Am competition. Larry was telling us of Bradley’s immense talent and being a really super nice guy. In that I already had some distant, loose association with the Bradley family and took an interest in the lad, I already knew about young Keegan and was content, even pleased to support Larry in lobbying to hopefully pick him. Though already a TOUR winner at the Bryon Nelson, Bradley was somewhat low on the radar screen and we were hopeful we might snag him. Unhappily for us, Bradley withdrew from the event which probably didn’t matter as we picked nearly last in the draw. We ended up with another one-time winner, Derek Lamely, and had a fantastic time with him. Be that as it may, Bradley has continued to impress me.
It looked like Bradley would crumble several times during the PGA Championship. It was sad to see him begin his third round in the PGA Championship with double-bogey on the very first hole. I assumed he would fold like a cheap chair. Like his back nine demise the week before at Firestone, he would chalk this up to experience and like others, someday he would learn and conquer it. I was wrong; Keegan surprised me! What a resilient gutsy player with a wonderful attitude. He rebounded handsomely that third round to remain only one shot back going into the final round, but my heart again sank for young Bradley. I was driving home and heard on the radio of his late-round triple-bogey on the 15th hole and Jason Dufner’s four-stroke lead. Again I assumed that Bradley’s triple bogey would lead to still more bogeys and Dufner could nearly bogey his way home and still win. Wrong again. I walked in the house and then witnessed Keegan Bradley’s amazing recovery on perhaps American golf’s toughest finish to tie and win. Wow, some golfing theater! And Jason Dufner played well. Give him credit; he didn’t fold like others have. Even down the stretch Dufner’s misses were superior to most of the field and he, too, hit some heroic shots finishing the playoff with a rare birdie. Would it have been too much to ask for Dufner’s putter not to let him down a couple of times in that 75-hole crucible?
Finally as Tiger Woods continues his epic struggle and the still ever so talented Phil Mickelson frustrates, the PGA Championship revealed the difference between the two. I have admired them both, but interestingly about half my insider golf friends love Phil and dislike Tiger and the other way around. Now many young players are coming forward to convey their appreciation for the mentoring and support that Mickelson has provided them. The list includes: winner Keegan Bradley, contender Brendan Steele, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Hunter Mahan, and Jeff Overton. Each of these individuals also conducts themselves with grace and class, like Mickelson and those before him. The 41-year old Mickelson is paying it forward as others like Paul Azinger, Payne Stewart, Mark Calcavecchia, and others earlier did with him. Known also for being an appreciative and generous tipper, “Philly Mic” as a “giver” may eventually leave the game with far, far more than Tiger Woods who appears to be a “taker,” except when he apparently feels that it is to his advantage to be gracious – as in the case with his Foundation.
So while American golf fans may take comfort that one of their own has again won a “Major” and we are reminded of many talented other youngsters with exciting futures who may distract us from our Tiger fixations, participation in golf continues to decline in America. The experience of the last dozen years is proof that golf viewership does not equate to golf participation and industry vitality except for the PGA TOUR. I believe that the role of and success of the PGA of America is fundamentally more important long term to every golfer than that of the PGA TOUR – that golf remains a healthy and viable activity. Working for the PGA during most of the nineties, I lobbied against focusing limited PGA resources upon talented player development efforts in favor of general player development aimed at a wider population of less skilled youngsters whose chance at college scholarships and the professional tours was non-existent. I lost. While the PGA of America club pros continue to donate their energies to growing the game, I bet they would agree that it would be just as nice to have more paying 25-30 year-olds coming to their facilities than watching just a handful of them playing on television.
