The pick of the letters and emails to hit the Golf Monthly offices this month
Who decides the pairings?
I’ve often wondered how groups for the first two rounds of a tournament are decided. Is it names out of a hat; is it by world ranking; or is it to make them attractive for spectators both oncourse and watching on TV?
Also, can a player refuse to play alongside someone he has been paired with because, for example, that player is a slow golfer or attracts a noisy gallery or they simply just don’t like one another? I was an organiser of a golf society many years ago and can recall many incidents of society members telling me who they did and didn’t want to play with!
A backward step
The papers, golf magazines and golf broadcasts nowadays are full of top golfers talking about ‘extra tournaments’ laid on especially for them, thus creating a closed shop. The entitled, deserving elites appear to be dreaming of a golfing career with more money and fewer tournaments – their very own Super League in their very own limited circuit. Then I watch a broadcast that features an amateur or hitherto unknown golfer winning.
Those spectacles make my heart soar – seeing their joy, their happiness. But if the elites get their big money-spinning events, the probability of me seeing an unknown talent win diminishes because they won’t be given that opportunity. Unknown golfers who fall outwith the parameters of the top-tier events won’t be allowed to show off their prowess.
Creating various top-layer events will also have consequences. If the normal tournaments are no longer deemed worthy by the super talent, sponsorship for them may very well disappear. Why sponsor an event with less advertising potential? I don’t mind if talented players who choose to make playing golf their profession earn a lot of money, but when they are expecting to earn not millions but tens of millions in prize money alone, I personally get turned off. They may still ‘work’ on a golf course, but one that is no longer open to new talent.
I enjoy watching new talent or golfers who haven’t played well f
