They Don’t Make Pro Golfers Like They Used To

The people at the very top of the game (both the greatest players and the R&A and USGA) must remember that they set the tone and the culture for the game.

Tech founders at the turn of the millennium (most with a God Complex) stood over their worlds like Colossus – giving out $100 bills to strangers and partying like it was the last days of Rome. ETrade bought a halftime advertisement during the Super Bowl in 2000, in which a monkey fooled around for 50 seconds. Then, an announcer said, “We just wasted a million dollars. What are you doing with your money?” Overhyped and overvalued. Eventually, the market sussed them out, the bubble burst, and some of these paper millionaires were soon driving taxis and wondering why the party had finished.

Golf was built on a reputation of playing with honor, decency, and fairness. At the end of the game, we take our hats off out of respect, shake our opponent’s hand, and thank them for the game.

Growing up, we learned to be respectful when others were playing. We knew the game’s rules. We learned the word etiquette. We learned how golf is different from any other sport. You call the rules on yourself. Nobody dives to win a penalty in golf.

Older players told us stories about the professionals who had gone before us, and we learned from watching these pros on TV or listening to them on the radio.

The stories about Bobby Jones abound, from when he paid for his ticket to get in when he lost his admission badge at the 1926 British Open at Royal Lytham, or a year earlier calling a penalty on himself in the 1925 US Open, which cost him the victory. When talking to the sportswriter O.B. Keeler afterward, Jones said: “You might “as well praise me for not robbing banks.”

We learned about how Jack Nicklaus gave the putt to Tony Jacklin at Royal Birkdale to tie the Ryder Cup in 1969. At the 1983 British Open, Hale Irwin whiffed on a 3-inch putt at the 14th hole of the final round, counted the shot, and this eventually cost him a spot in a playoff with Tom Watson.

To quote Bobby Jones, “In golf, “the customs and etiquette and decorum are as important as the rules of play.” But those at the top of the game don’t think etiquette or off-the-course applies to them. Whether arguing in the carpark at last year’s Ryder’s or players telling the media they only have five minutes for a Press Conference, modern golfers are not what they used to be.

Photo courtesy The Spun

Sadly, golf’s petulant side raised its ugly head at Pinehurst No. 2 when one of the game’s best players could not get past himself to congratulate Bryson DeChambeau for winning or be gracious enough to stick around to speak to the media and the world.

The golf was dramatic and magnificent, a U.S. Open for the ages, but Rory McIlroy not only lost the Open on the final few greens, but he also didn’t play nice on the 19th hole. He sullied his personal brand with images of him escaping on his private jet awash on social media.

Tom Watson was 59 at the British Open at Turnberry in 2009 when he lost to the fairytale-killer Stewart Cink in the playoffs. With decorum, Watson walked into the press tent, looked at the disconsolate reporters, and said: “This isn’t a funeral, you know.”

This commentary is not a moral argument about the importance of role models. Still, the people at the very top of the game (both the greatest players and the R&A and USGA) must remember that they set the tone and the culture for the game. In golf, like in life, it is worth remembering that nothing beats a story of redemption, which is why Bobby Jones is so important to the game’s history.

When he was 19 and playing St Andrews for the first time in the 1921 Open, Jones famously ripped up his card after he could not escape the bunker at the 11th. The great redemption was that Jones went on to win the Open in 1927 and the Amateur Championship in 1930 – both at St Andrews.

Golf, as always, can take a leaf from the man who gave the game everything.