25 Nov It’s simply terrible play not running out of steam
A five-year legal battle between Vijay Singh and the PGA Tour has been resolved, according to a statement released by the organisation on Tuesday. Basically, Vijay was accused of taking deer-antler spray, which is banned, and was suspended which was later rescinded.
At the time the whole action by the PGA Tour was seen by many as too tough and unfair to Singh who sued the tour. Now a settlement has been reached which leaves many shaking their heads as to why this wasn’t resolved much earlier. For Singh, trying to play with this issue hovering over him couldn’t have been easy. Meanwhile, those who saw Lee Westward win recently witnessed a seasoned player moving up into fourth gear and enjoying shot after shot of fantastic golf.
Everything was working — drives splitting fairways, sublime iron play and super putting. Last week he was right there again but played badly in the final round over the last few holes. What is cringing to hear though from commentators is that he ran out of steam and one wonders where this expression comes from when talking about a professional golfer.
A player around the lead of a big tournament doesn’t ‘run out of steam’. If he produces several double bogeys of the last few holes, let’s just tell it how it is — they have played badly and made some really big mistakes. Can’t we say this, rather than trying to smooth over some terrible play. A tournament player must fully concentrate from the 1st tee through to the 18th green, a time period of around five hours over four consecutive days. This is a requisite for any golfer, or they will suffer the consequences.
I don’t enjoy the excuse that a player is exhausted and they need a break from playing in tournaments — isn’t this their job? And it’s so hard to feel sorry, or become teary-eyed, for these players due to the massive amount of money that’s on offer now. the expression of ‘burnt out’ or ‘ran out of steam’ doesn’t wash with me.
Right now we have a feast of golf to enjoy on TV, from Melbourne to Hong Kong, and during these times of bountiful golf I think back to me listening to golf coverage on the radio — yes radio — and cycling over to my grandma’s place to watch her TV set that had some golf on — as the TV set we had only received one channel.
Out of Bounds: Judging from the feedback I’ve received on the new rule changes I explained last week I believe that there will be a little confusion on the introduction of several, in particular the dropping of a ball near to where you think a wayward drive went, the tapping down of spike marks and keeping the flagstick in if you wish to do so, let’s see. Great to see and meet many golfers at the Bangkok Post Golf Tournament in Hua Hin on Friday.