January 13, 2007
Tournament Golf
Ball games are usually attended by cheering fans screaming their lungs out and clapping till their palms are red and raw. Golf tournaments are different, since the fans have to hold their breaths and not make a peep. The slightest sound might distract the player, and the tiniest wrong move might spell the difference between a properly executed drive and a ball lost to the water traps.
What is so exiting about watching a bunch of players driving a tiny white sphere toward a miniscule hole hundreds of yards away, avoiding obstacles and traps along the way? There is this subtle current of excitement that a spectator feels while standing in the fairways with bated breaths while the golfer prepares to take a swing, which is not present in the noisy bleachers of a basketball game. There is the feeling of disappointment that ripples through the golfing fans when the golfer misses his putt that does not quite compare to the groans of the soccer fans when the goalie fails a save, groans drowned out by the cheers and applause of the side that scored. There is this feeling of awe as the ball soars toward the putting green after a perfectly aimed drive that is quite different from the frenzy of baseball fans after the batter hits the ball over the stadium fence.
The four most prestigious men’s tournaments are known as the majors, comprising of the US Open, the British Open, the Masters and the PGA Championships. The US Open, staged by the United States Golf Association, is staged at a variety of courses around the United States. It is in the open format, which means the playing field is open to any professional, or to any amateur with an up-to-date USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 1.4. The courses of the US Open courses are staged such that accurate driving is important.
The Masters, known as the US Masters outside the United States, is unique in that it is held every year in the same course, the Augusta National Golf Club. Winning the Masters automatically entitles a player to play in the other three majors for the next five years, and to play at the masters for the rest of his life.
The British Open, known as the Open Championships in the United Kingdom, is also played in the open format. The Open championships are played in various golf clubs in the United Kingdom. This is the oldest of all the four majors.
Watching a golf tournament might seem a bit less exciting than some other sports, but part of the mystique of golf is that no two courses are the same. The same course might be played differently on a windy day or a rainy day that even the greatest players might end up stumped by the water trap, or find that they have lost their ball somewhere in the woods. Some courses are even legendary on their own, for toughness or unpredictability.
Also, golf is an individual sport. Even though some tournaments are played by teams, it is still the individual player’s scorecard that is added up to those of his teammates to get the team’s score. So watching a golf tournament is basically watching a group of people trying to get a small white ball into a tiny hole hundreds of yards away with the least possible strokes.
Still, golf tournaments are often filled with history making moments that come once in blue. Who can forget Annika playing as the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias to play on the PGA Tour? Who can forget Tiger’s near impossible shots? Or was Tiger missing the cut for the first time in a long time, ending his streak? Who can deny noticing the feeling of triumph as the winner puts on the green jacket? These moments are what fans hope for, and every professional golfer lives for. There are also other less famous (or infamous) moments, yet they are all special to somebody. It could be a hole-in-one a twelve year old kid shot during his first time on the course. It could be the day somebody improved their handicap after decades of playing. It could be the game played by the grandmother stubbornly insisting on using only a nine iron and a putter. Golf does not have to be played by the best players or played for the huge amount of loot earned by the winner. Golf is also played for fun.
Golf tournaments are not just played by the elite players who are after the top spot in the money list. These professional players also play for charity events, for practice, for fun, for exercise, and for a lot of other reasons just like the rest of the golf playing public. There are tournaments that cater to members of the club in which the tournament is to be played, there are tournaments held for charity, tournaments for caddies, for father’s day, and almost any other reason. Local tournaments cater to the casual player and the professional player alike. These tournaments give the golfers, both professional and amateur the chance to pit their talents against other players.
Golf tournaments, though, do not really set the golfers against each other. Golf tournaments really are the golfers testing their talents against the golf course. It is the toughness of the golf course that tests a player’s skill. A course might be made to be advantageous to players who have better aim, or longer drives. Some players even say that each course has a distinct “personality”, making the golfers adjust their playing styles to match the course. Of course, in the end the winning player is the one who managed to tame the course by hitting the ball with the least number of strokes.
So the game is basically the survival of the fittest. In the light, the winning player is just the person who managed to “outsmart” the course better than the other players, by hitting the tiny white ball with the least number of strokes. What other ball game can compare to this?
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