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Fore Please. 2019 Golf Running Thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Chef2, Dec 31, 2018.

  1. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    It's complicated. The membership of Augusta National, who are very retrograde and progressive in differing ways when it comes to golf, did this to get exposure for these golfers which the Women's Amateur never gets. It'll be on TV on Sunday. It'll have media which otherwise would never cover women's amateur golf. They had the US Women's Amateur here in Boston some years ago at Charles River, a fine golf course. Admission was free. And like dozens showed up. So I think the Augusta National tourney is a good idea for which the club should be congratulated, as you did. As for the fawning, part of that is CBS policy, and part is that the Masters is played in springtime when millions of golfers up North have their courses either all mud or still undr the occasional snowdrift. It breeds fantasy. If you've never been, let me say that in my experience the Masters is 1000 times less pretentious and pompous in person than it is presented on TV. Why the club shortsides itself in that way I have no idea.
     
  2. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    This is precisely what I've heard from my co-workers who have attended.

    And I agree with your point on the exposure. Point of order, it'll be on TV Saturday in a short window on NBC, which is probably why Golf Channel is slobbering so much over it. Sunday is Drive, Chip and Putt. Only one round of the ANWA is actually being played at Augusta National. To paraphrase our guy Double Down (his take on Twitter at least), comparing the ANWA to Amelia Earhart, for instance, is just a bridge too far.
     
  3. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    The event is good, and progress is good. But ANGC treating it like it's a historic moment and Instagraming pics not just of Amelia but Sally Ride is absurd. They also had quotes from the first tee with women being like "This is an amazing moment." Ok, I've played Champion's Retreat and it's not some historic track. Just the idea that Augusta could only give up their course for one round but wants the credit for doing this amazing thing is a bit much for me.

    I'm not sure I agree that the pretentiousness of the Masters is lessened in person. It's pretty pretentious and also kind of creepy now that as soon as you sit down, your badge auto scans you in so they can monitor who is asking what questions.

    The first time you go, it's fucking amazing. Go a few more times (#1stWorldSportswriterProblems) and you start to feel the eyes that are on you at all times.
     
  4. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    That's what floors me, that Augusta National isn't even hosting a limited field for all three rounds. They're the absolute masters (cough) of opening the door just enough to make themselves look good. Like when they silenced the uproar over the lack of female membership by admitting all of two women, a business tycoon and a well-connected politician.

    If I played the piano like Augusta plays most of the media, I'd be taking my mail at Carnegie Hall.
     
  5. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    That badge thing is amazingly creepy. I bet they know everything you eat that week too.
     
  6. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

  7. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    For the record, when the tournament was announced last year during the week of the Masters, many reporters pointed out that it wasn't exactly full field, three rounds at the National, and some actually did point out that it was too self-congratulatory to let 10 threesomes on your course for one round. It's also a misconception that they don't tolerate dissent. Christine Brennan, Ed Sherman, Len Shapiro and Dave Anderson roundly ripped them for years for their policy about female members and had open debates with chairmen during the Wednesday news conference (the famous, "don't you lecture me," reply from Hootie Johnson to Sherman comes to mind). But they always had a credential the next year. The only ban I know of was Shipnuck for one year and that was because he kept trying to sneak in Angel Cabrera's champions dinner and was nailed 2-3 times.
     
  8. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I know the tooonamint tolerates dissent, but a lot more golf media seem to sharpen their knives for, say, the USGA than the greencoats. The edges are softened with how well the media is taken care of. That's human nature. Heck, about the only regret I have in my scribe career was not getting there and I'm sure I'd have turned into a puddle of goo at every turn.

    Didn't know the backstory on Shipnuck, that's hilarious if not baffling. How the heck do you sneak into the champions dinner and expect to get away with it? Hide under a table?
     
  9. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member

    I heard it was because he got caught following Cabrera into Butler Cabin for a Q&A.
     
  10. hondo

    hondo Well-Known Member

    Yes. That was the first attempt. Then he tried to get in the dinner.
    As far as golf media going after the USGA more, it's pretty much because they deserve it.
     
  11. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    Augusta National is a club which has significant influence on the sport of golf. The USGA is a governing body of that sport. It SHOULD be a target for more media scrutiny than Augusta National.
     
    Chef2 likes this.
  12. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I don't disagree, I just can't be convinced that some media -- not all -- give ANGC a free pass on foibles large and small because they don't want to lose the ability to go. Even if it's virtually impossible to get a credential pulled.
     
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