Player feedback on own play.

[Hankshank]

This gets a bit philosophical maybe. Why do we (guys who spend time on a subforum like this) really appreciate following tours? On TV, live or via articles and leaderboards? A couple of obvious reasons is that we like golf, probably play it ourselves, and can through the tours get to see sports events that we understand, events played on courses few of us really get a chance to play. 
 

Also, obviously, we like to see what the guys that do what we do best are capable of doing. In different  aspects of the game, physiologically and psychologically. 
 

But, is there not more? The tournaments as such, the surroundings, the controversies, all kinds of drama. What I think LIV have got wrong is that, although entertainment gets bigger and bigger as factors for peoples life, a golf tournament is, basically, not a comedy, it is a drama. Its no laughing matter, its stern faces in face of difficulty, and sometimes anger shown. Of course, a few laughs makes it all the more human, but at the core its a drama.

 

And in the drama you want to get into the heads of the characters.  You do not really want to know what their favorite meal are, you want to know what they think and do as golfers on the golf course. And we are not really interested what goes on in their heads when making a stock drive in the middle of the fairway(although we really want to know how they do it). It gets interesting when they go out of the ordinary. When they play beyond their normal capacity and - as much - when they do not perform well. One can vividly put oneself in their clothes wthen the wtf shot was that is pulled off. 
 

Now, as you guys with at least some routine will remember, before the days of internet it was through journalism we got the inside stories, interviews and articles in magazines. When WWW happened things got more interesting. The golfers discovered the possibilities, and all started Web pages, often with “journals” where they gave almost daily insights on how play and training went down. Gradually blogs came along and later Twitter. And as time got along, the written info got more and more sparse and less and less covering own play. And in parallel with that, the intenet has had the effect on journalism that we all know of. 
 

I think things are more obvious in a small country like my Scandinavian homeland. If a player plays good or bad is just a number nowadays. In the 2010’s guys like Robert Karlsson, now doing good on the Senior tour, always would make some comments after the tournaments or even after each round on what worked and what not. Our few golf magazines also had personal contact with the players. Loved the comments on the banter and comments between the top british players on their respective plays on twitter. 
 

There are still some good stuff. Guys like Rory and fellow countryman Noren will not only go “stay patient” in interviews, they will always say something about their play. As Tiger always did. But I find it harder to follow the players, as players, now than earlier. Guess they earlier saw some economical benefit from having that fan contact or simply liked it. But now they mostly do not want or need that kind of contact.

 

Any views on this?

[Ferguson]