I sat down Tuesday night to watch The Showdown, a made-for-TV match between the PGA Tour team of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy and the LIV team of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.
If you missed it, you didn’t miss much.
The Showdown was The Snoozefest.
Was there competition?
Not really. The Tour team quickly had their opponents in a body bag when McIlroy started birdie-birdie-par-eagle on his own ball. The match was split into three six-hole sections and the Tour team would continue the domination into each of them, winning all available points in convincing fashion.
Was there banter?
Not really. DeChambeau, who rightfully gets a lot of credit for his YouTube presence, looked uninterested in the entertainment portion of the night. He took off his earpiece at one point and wasn’t talking much to the broadcast crew between shots. Together with Koepka, there was little chemistry. Charles Barkley got in a few one-liners and offered a plea for the Tour and LIV to merge while criticizing the Tour’s decision to reduce available cards to 100 (from the previous standard of 125). McIlroy got in a fat joke at Barkley. DeChambeau and Koepka were asked about “how different their balls are” which led to certain people giggling like teenagers.
That was about it. The effort to put this match on is appreciated—hey, we got to watch bonus golf in mid-December—but this was a resounding dud.
Watching The Showdown crystallized a striking problem that professional golf will continue to have over the coming years. This isn’t a new realization but I think more golf fans are thinking this way:
The best players in the world are not that entertaining as “performers” beyond their golf skill.
Given the state of the game, that might be the biggest issue.
Is pro golf about serious competition or entertainment?
The golf world has spent a lot of time wishing that the Tour and LIV would reunite. Instead of having two watered-down products struggling to attract viewers, golf would be better served to have one cohesive circuit.
While I don’t mean to underestimate the impact of players coming back together, I think golf’s problems are even more insidious than this divide.
It would obviously help a great deal to have DeChambeau, Koepka, Jon Rahm and others added back into PGA Tour golf. That’s a given.
But underneath the obvious is that pro golf has a floundering, archaic TV product. If people are going to sit through 54 minutes worth of commercials per three hours of golf coverage, the golf better capture their attention.
Even in an event like The Showdown that promises to be dynamic—only four guys on the course, players wearing AirPods to converse with the broadcast team, etc.—we still had a lot of downtime filled by commercials or discussion that ended up being boring.
The Showdown would be substantially better if it wasn’t live. If it was an hour-long edited video—even one with commercials—everything would move along much quicker and be more entertaining.
I hate to harp on this again but this is why people are connecting to YouTube golf.
If you add in that YouTube golfers are generally more entertaining—throwing around jokes and barbs in a way pro golfers don’t have as much license to do when sponsors and reputation are at stake on national TV—then why would someone watch professional golf?
The answer is supposed to be the outstanding level of play. That will carry the day for some viewers but most are not going to be invested enough to wade through the commercials for that.
The majors are different. It’s inherently serious competition, usually with a reduced commercial load. We are all watching to see who will make history. Money is irrelevant. These are the tournaments that matter to the players so they matter to the viewer.
Outside of the majors, what is the incentive to watch? There is only so much serious golf a person can watch. At a certain point, you want to be entertained by more than that. Beyond the four biggest events (and the Ryder Cup), the gravity of the moment is rarely heavy enough to warrant everyone rushing to their TVs.
In a niche sport like golf, people need a reason to watch. A lot of people instinctively watch the Jaguars play the Titans on a Thursday night even if both teams are ineptitude personified. Golf is a slower-paced game that revolves around individual personalities so it doesn’t have that kind of automation that sports like football get.
So what is golf outside of the majors? Is the draw meant to be pure entertainment, serious competition or both?
Because right now we are being served a lot of golf dressed up as purely serious competition—and that is not entertaining enough.
Most of the top players are not built for this
I wrote about this in my article about why TGL could fall flat, but the players are not natural entertainers.
Pro golfers work their entire lives to be good at golf. Some of them are funny but the vast majority are not performers who can go on camera and be hilarious or informative or interesting.
This is the single biggest pitfall TGL can find in its inaugural season. It has the advantage of a primetime ESPN slot and a tighter TV window, but ultimately the product itself needs to be fun. These guys need to be laughing and needling each other.
Yes, the unique format and unprecedented technology could be benefits but the novelty of that will only keep people around for an episode or two. People will only stay if the players are leaning into the entertainment aspect.
It is a lot to ask of players who haven’t done that on camera much. “Hey, be funny on command. Play good golf in an environment no golfer has ever seen … and also can you have a good time?”
YouTube golfers are watched because of their personalities. Boring personalities “lose their tour card” by not attracting viewers. Most of the top YouTubers are talented golfers but there are way more talented golfers on the planet than those with YouTube channels.
It’s just that they are successful in the business of captivating you. No matter what it takes; pro golfers are in the business of getting the ball in the hole which is only intermittently captivating.
Take the TGL concept away and substitute it with 72-hole stroke-play golf where viewers have to wait out four-minute commercial breaks every 15 minutes.
The golf has to be good enough to grab hold of the golf fan’s diminishing attention span. It’s a tall order.
What does pro golf do from this point?
It’s definitely an uphill battle. Nobody should be banking on the players all of a sudden becoming unbelievable entertainers on top of unbelievable golfers so pro golf needs to focus on controllable items that give the players help on the entertainment front.
I think Step One is that the best players need to get back together as often as possible. It’s not necessarily the biggest problem but it is a prerequisite to getting everyone rallied in the same direction.
The second is that the TV product needs a massive overhaul. The golf has to be on for longer so we need fewer commercials and more sponsored content baked into the telecast as the golf is being played (and no, I’m not referring to Playing Through). The pace has to be way quicker.
The third is to cater the product to gamblers. Some of you might not like this but gambling is the top option for improving the game as an entertainment product. Right now, golf is almost impossible to follow for gamblers so it’s not that much fun for them. If you limited commercials and put live odds on the screen, that would immediately get more gamblers to watch.
The fourth is more direct access to players as they compete. The AirPods idea is cool but the audio is a little scratchy. We saw multiple tech issues in The Showdown. I wish they would give the players better mics. We don’t necessarily need to constantly interview players as the round unfolds—just hearing them talk through shots is additive.
The fifth, and perhaps most unlikely, is limiting big events to around 20 or so per year. Golf on TV is so over-saturated. That quantity is vast and the quality is sparse. It’s not a healthy cadence. I don’t think having 48 events per year—and marketing them all as meaningful, serious golf—is sustainable.
Fixing these issues can boost the entertainment without pressuring the players into being something they are not. It’s not perfect but it would be a huge step forward. I’m highly skeptical that the organization looking for a new CEO is going to ace its exam in getting viewers back on board, but I had to say my piece anyway.
What are your thoughts? Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Rory McIlroy putts during The Showdown as Brooks Koepka looks on. (GETTY IMAGES/Kevin C. Cox)
Guy Howell
5 months ago
There is lots of good insight, ideas , criticism and much more involving golf , whether it be the PGA or LIV tours. Personally, I believe that no one is really interested in the golf anymore , because of the division between the two , especially the events other than the majors! The PGA tour and the media that covers golf has made the masses quit watching as a whole anymore , for lots of reasons . But the one that irritates me the most , is the media and the “golf analyst “ ( Brandel Chamblee comes to mind). This guy is an asshole first of all , and I believe he has won once on tour ( BC Open)LMAO, geez!!!
Listening to him , is really annoying because he comes off as one of the greats of the game and he constantly is critiquing a lot of the top players in the current game , as though we believe he knows what he’s talking about? Seriously?