Glenn Younes: 2013 Masters Ruled
With Tiger red hot, golf on the forefront of the sports world and a 14 year old from China in the field, Master Week was to be glorious. Instead it ruled. And those rulings took the soul out of a sporting event and made it into a reality TV gossip sports talk radio extravaganza.
If golf has soul, football has life and maybe the drama of the Masters is what propels the entire sport of golf one step closer to the life of sports, FOOTBALL. After hearing the news of the young 14 year old Tianlang Guan being hit with a pace of play penalty stroke and still making the cut, then Tiger and his funny business happened Friday night into Saturday morning. I'm not going to outline the penalty's why, how and what but the 2 strokes penalty slapped on Tiger gave the sport a steroid shot of publicity for a fast few hours, to me the appeal faded fast.
The idea of Tiger being less in the mix than normal didn't give me the golf fix I needed. The drama may have given mainstream a reason to turn the knob but it gave golf fans the opposite. Who knows the real answer, time will truly tell. Adam Scott in a two hole playoff was remarkable, golf prevailed at the end but will it prevail in the end. The idea is to grow the game, maybe throwing golfs version of the Tuck Rule at the Masters will show a spike, who knows? I'd bet a buck that those who like golf hated the noise it made.
It's the right ruling but a bad rule. Sound familiar? NFL tuck rule is no more, once the league embarrassed itself in an AFC divisional playoff game, gave it proper time and several years later it's no longer a rule. Expect the rule that dropping a ball as near as possible becomes much more clear and far less vague.
Golf has changed, whether now or soon enough, it's gone public, global and mainstream. Hope you enjoy.
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