Jason Day's antics...

Every player does different things with their anger. As long as he isn't hurting anybody, it doesn't really matter much to me. Now, if he throws a club and whacks somebody in the face, that's one thing, but I don't think he's done that...

I didn't see anything too bad. It's OK to get angry.

relatively tame behavior, have you ever been to any form of competitive event before?  This is their job and they care therefore they get pissed...simple as that.

people have complained about tiger's 'antics' before and I just have to laugh.  He's about middle of the road as far as these things go as is jason day's behavior yesterday.  I can only assume that the increased camera's on telecast are just making these things more obvious to casual fans, if anything players are more tame today than they were years ago before the advent of sports psychologist etc...

My job is to sit behind a keyboard and write code. My job is often frustrating and I often get pissed, but it's not ok for me to act out by swearing, punching my monitor, or violently throwing my Starbucks Vivanno Smoothie to the ground. I've never understood why we give sports figures a pass just because they get paid to play.

Wow, these are competing athletes.  Not showmen.  They are not playing to entertain you.  They are playing to beat the best golfers around.  Yeah, they shouldn't be throwing stuff, smacking the ground, or any other tantrums like that, but why is it your business to criticize them for that behavior?  I see this inappropriate behavior in all aspects of life and that is just the way people are.  The well mannered person is rare, however discussing a person's, whom you have no actual relation to, rash behavior is just silly and inappropriate as well.  You want to be a gentleman?  Let them be, and move on.  Your walk if life does not belong to someone else, and it's not like you would want someone else discussing your personal flaws.

I hope you are kidding, you don't think this way do you?

I'm not sure if your post is agreeing with or disagreeing with the topic.  You state that players shouldn't be throwing, smacking, etc and then say that sacm3bill shouldn't be criticizing. Then you criticize sacm3bill for his post even though you have no actual relationship to him either (like he doesn't know JD) even though he is posting on a golf forum and answering the topic. I really don't get it.

I saw Jason drop his club in his finish and just thought he looked silly. I believe he left it there for his caddy to pick up. Maybe a little immature of him or pretentious, but not crazy or out of control. I also get that they are responsible for their behavior and if they get out of hand it could affect their pocketbook as far as fines and loss of endorsement dollars. No one likes to see guys get too worked up, but I think they do a great job most of the time.

I have been to plenty of PGA Tour events and have seen maybe a half-dozen examples of worse behavior from cursing, smacking the ground, and a new one where a major star flicked off the divot his ball was in after he hit his shot. It was hilarious because he was hiding his bird from the crowd but two other guys clearly saw that he did it and we all got a laugh out of it. Subtle, but to the point and a victimless crime. I think we were the only ones who caught it.

I think those of you who haven't competed at a decent level in golf or any other sport shouldn't try to pass judgement in this case.  no offense but it's pretty obvious who's been there and who hasn't.  If you want to know what it's like then devote yourself 100% to the game (give up everything but golf, work at it 8 or more hours a day) for a few years and see how you feel when you make a mistake then let us know if that changed your opinion on the matter.

Not playing to entertain us?  If the paying public wasn't being entertained and stopped paying to go through gates, stopped subscribing to pay per view channels the Sponsors would soon disappear along with the big prize funds. The Ladies Euro Tour is struggling, and apart from a few tournaments a year we hardly see anything. Why?, because the Sponsors don't think it's a good deal.

Also, the well mannered person is rare? Well over here in England the majority seem to be well mannered, and when on my two visits to the States found them equally well mannered ( in fact almost more formally so)

I think a better comparison would be if your income depended on writing code but...every day the keys on your keyboard would randomly change function on occasion..an L would be a Q but then switch to a W etc...  While you worked you had at least 5 people standing over your workstation with timers and if you couldn't produce accurate code in a time they deemed adequate (ala not making any errors and typing as fast as you possibly can) you didn't get paid for an entire weeks work.

I bet you'd have a complete psycho meltdown if that was how your job was.  Tournament golf is like that at times.

Another thing I notice when people criticize golfers for their on-course behavior/tantrums, is the tendency to take a revisionist history approach.  In other words, they pretend it's a relatively new trend with the current and last couple generations of golfers.

I'm relatively new to the history of golf, meaning although I played some when I was younger, I only actually watched and paid attention to the professional sport over the past couple years.  I've become accustomed to watching a lot of the golf network and their replays of historic golf matches and events.  With the impression that only today's golfers ever acted like big babies on the course, I watched with slight surprise to see the greatest of the greats throwing their clubs in disgust, pissed off at their putters for putts not dropping, etc., etc.

Maybe they didn't do it regularly, and maybe some guys on tour do it way too frequently, but it's not like the acts themselves are some new phenomenon that was absent from yesteryear.

Brandon

That's a closer analogy, but it would also have to be in a competitive environment.  We all have day jobs.  Not all of our day jobs are spent in direct physical competition with others.

Brandon

I have mixed feelings about incidents like this and Hoffman breaking his putter last week.

As a former (non-professional) athlete I can appreciate the raw emotions of competition and understand that it's not always easy to control them in the heat of battle  As a fan, I enjoy seeing their passion and knowing that they do care when they miss a shot they think they should have made, it makes them seem more human and golf more of a sport.  As a coach and father I'd sometimes prefer they set a better example of sportsmanship and maturity, especially in a game that claims to be played by gentlemen.

As for Day himself, the kid has always seemed to have a pretty cool head.  I think the pressure of being "mic'd" was more than he expected.  He knew the producers and announcers would hear every word, and that it would result in the cameras following him even more closely than normal, especially on a Thursday round.  He was under the microscope and he didn't handle the additional pressure well but I didn't see him do anything that outrageous that he should feel bad.  I hope he remembers yesterday the next time GC wants to mic him up for the day.

Please... You speak as though competitive sports is the only arena in which there is a lot of pressure. If anyone has experienced anything like getting layed off, not knowing where your next paycheck is coming from, having a mortgage to pay, wife and kids to feed, ailing relatives to care for, or any number of things *way* more important than competing in a sporting event... then those people know what real pressure is. And while the goal is to deal with every setback with grace and style, we often fall short. I'm not blaming the PGA pros for falling short. I'm simply saying that they have no more right to ungentlemanly outbursts than the common man does. It doesn't matter whether you have "competed at a decent level", and it doesn't matter whether you get paid for it - bad behavior is what it is.

What you need to understand is that your analogy perfectly describes many of my days.  I've had people standing over my workstation waiting for me to solve a problem, I've had 5 or more coworkers depending on me for results, I've had customers with million dollar deals at stake if I don't deliver what I'm expected... Being under the gun to produce quality work in a short time frame is something familiar to just about everyone who has a job . And our weekly pay may not necessarily depend on the quality of work do, but our long term employment status sure as hell does.

Bottom line: I can't fault anyone for getting stressed or mad under pressure since I do it too. And yes, it can be entertaining to see the emotions show. My only point is, getting enraged and throwing things is still bad behavior, regardless of what you do for a living.

you sound like a winner.  I bet you dominated sports as a kid.

Heh... and you sound like a pre-adolescent with that comeback. But actually no, the best I ever did was when the college boat I crewed in (CSU Sacramento) placed 5th in the rowing nationals in Albany NY, 1989. Lost to Harvard, Yale, Penn, and Navy. We did win the West Coast Championship to get there though... not bad for a backwater program that had to do erg-athons to raise money... just my opinion of course, you're welcome to yours.