Interesting stories from Tour Championship

[Tom]

I went to multiple rounds at the Tour Championship at East Lake. Most interesting was Wednesday's practice round. Here's one for you...
Story one - props for Adam Scott
Phil, Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson and others were all standing around chatting and cutting up. Callaway reps bring several left handed FT-iZ drivers over, hoping Phil might want to hit a few. Phil takes one (left handed drivers), inspects it and, realizing he's "on stage" with the boys hands one to the group. The others kind of look at each other and with their stares seem to say "What do you want me to do with that?"

Adam Scott takes the left handed driver, tee's up a ball, stands to the ball left handed and takes one practice swing. Ok, I'm kind of impressed - not because he's taking the challenge, but because his practice swing looks like he's a left handed golfer. He addresses the ball and cranks a 300yd rope to the fence. I'm like "wow..." and others are like "holy crap - did you see that."

Dustin Johnson does the same thing, only when he takes his practice swing it's not the same. He looks like he's a right handed golfer about to embarrass himself, to which he does by hitting a 60yd banana ball.

Story two - Is Ernie Els a dick in real life too? Let's hope not.
In the morning as the individual players and their caddies come from the clubhouse to the practice tee, each has come through the designated roped off area to meet the autograph seekers. Several hours after the day began and all players have come through I notice someone carrying Els' onto the range. It's his caddie - there's the lion head on the driver. Where's Els? Not thinking anything about it, because with players as popular as Phil, for example, it could take the player half an hour to reach the range due to the hordes. After a while I realize Els is MIA. Then Bubba takes off his cap and with it, waves to the extreme right hand part of the range and with a funny high pitched voice yells "Mr. Els, sign my hat..." There's Els, standing under a tree out of plain view. He has been cleverly brought to the range, cloaked in secrecy. He looks at Watson and shrugs off the gesture as if he's saying "What a dumbass..."

I thought the event spoke legions for who these tour players are... They are athletes yes, but they are entertainers - heroes to children. And when they duck out of the obligatory rope line they damage themselves. I will likely never take interest in Els again because he damaged himself in my eyes. Flip side... On the Sunday round, my wife and two kids (ages 10 and 9) followed Dustin Johnson and Overton for three holes. At each hole, as they exited the green I had my kids stand at the rope line and put their hand out because I told them "Put your hand out and they'll high five you and may even give you a ball or a glove." Every of the three holes, sure enough DJ and Overton did just that. On #17, DJ realized my kids were his fans and gave my son the ball he'd just birdied the hole with, slapped him a high five and said "What's up!" My son - 9 years old - loves Dustin Johnson. His dad, however, thinks Ernie Else is a dick...

[Zeph]

Bubba, Dustin and Jeff are all fairly new to the good times, Ernie is 40 years old and has been around for a long time. I'm not suprised he sometimes want to avoid the fans and just out to do his stuff.
I don't know how Ernie usually acts, but to judge him based on one experience sounds a bit harsh.

[chrisronline]

They are athletes yes, but they are entertainers - heroes to children. And when they duck out of the obligatory rope line they damage themselves.

I don't necessarily agree with this. The man loves to play golf and he plays it well enough to play on the professional tour. I don't think his love for the game or his desire to make a living with the game obliges him to entertain fans. As a fan, I'd imagine the best experience going to a professional tournament is not to make friends or get an autograph from a player, but rather to watch them play and be amazed at their ability.

Bottom line: They are there to play golf and you are there to watch, right? (Btw, I don't know if players must talk to fans or what exactly the tour rules or for that sort of thing - I'm just speaking from my point of view)

[jlh1508]

yeah a guy in a tournament to win 10 million, wants time to himself. What a jerk.


Sometimes people have ridiculous expectations of athletes

[JWL1957]

I would not expect a pro to sign autographs before a round, but it would be nice if all of them took 15-20 minutes after a round to aknowledge the fans. There are alot of them that seem to forget where thier money comes from. Some of the shit heads need to spend a day with Richard Petty.

No fans......... no PGA tour.

[jlh1508]

I would not expect a pro to sign autographs

Where do you work? I am assume at some point in the chain of your job there are customers, and if the customers weren't there you would not have a job. Are you out meeting all those customers giving autographs?

[Quinn07]

Where do you work? I am assume at some point in the chain of your job there are customers, and if the customers weren't there you would not have a job. Are you out meeting all those customers giving autographs?

I am a business development manager for my work and I would have to say I have never given any customer my autograph, but I do speak to them on a regular basis and I certainly do my best to entertain them when possible. I do this because without customers purchasing my companies services, I would be looking for another job. This isn't much different from the PGA Tour where the fans ultimately pay the millions that these pros make. If there is no one following the PGA Tour there is no benefit for corporate sponsors and there for no purses. So I don't think there is anything wrong with expecting professional athletes to spend time with the fans.

It might be a little aggressive to call Els a dick because for one day he decided not to sign autographs...but I suppose that's the risk one would run avoiding one opportunity to provide autographs to fans.

[JWL1957]

Where do you work? I am assume at some point in the chain of your job there are customers, and if the customers weren't there you would not have a job. Are you out meeting all those customers giving autographs?

You are damn right I do........

and gladly . I spend considerable time with customers doing charities, events, and golf outings. They send work my way for home repairs, and I make a decent living. If a pro doesnt take the time to give a some kids a few autographs..... he is only hurting his sport. Any pro who does not appreciate the people who put money in his pocket is totally selfish. I am not speaking of Ernie either, I am talking about Pro's in general.

[Bluenoser67]

Then Bubba takes off his cap and with it, waves to the extreme right hand part of the range and with a funny high pitched voice yells "Mr. Els, sign my hat..."

Does anyone feel like me that Bubba comes off a little bad here as well for his treatment of one of the tours current great vets.

[jamo]

Adam Scott is one of my favorite players. He's also the man. Hope his good play in the Playoffs carries over to next year.

Does anyone feel like me that Bubba comes off a little bad here as well for his treatment of one of the tours current great vets.

They're probably friends. I'm sure he wouldn't do this is he didn't think Els could take it.

[Tom]

#1: this was the practice round. the only day where the players are on spectacle. the only day where fans are allowed to bring in cameras and snap photos before during and after swings.

#2: every single player (stricker, choi, overton, villegas, zach, phil, et al) went through the rope line and happily signed autographs and greeted fans. most fans i saw outside that rope line were children with sharpies, not big mean grown ups. somewhere in that line was a kid (or bunches of 'em) whose idol was ernie els. the only thing they saw of ernie was his caddie rush his bag on by. i'll not be a fan of the guy - very dissapointing.

Adam Scott is one of my favorite players. He's also the man. Hope his good play in the Playoffs carries over to next year.

Bubba is a prince. He was poking at Els and it came off wonderfully. He earned major kudos for the bravado displayed, and then he turned and hit bomb after bomb - Bubba's the real deal...

[Clambake]

The OPs experience with Ernie is opposite of what I've seen of him at a couple US Opens. I went to Torrey in '08 and again to Pebble this summer, and at both I saw Ernie spend a lot of time stopping along the way in the practice rounds, and he also seemed to pay particular attention to kids as well. I've heard from others that he is quite generous giving autograph time, and my personal experience is the same. It's too bad that your experience was different, but given Ernie's reputation of generosity and being approachable, I'd cut him some slack and instead assume that he was dealing with other things that day and didn't have time to work the rope line for a half hour. It's speculation of course, but perhaps he needed time in the training trailer working out a muscle problem, or dealing with a sponsor commitment, or one of a zillion other time drags that players of Ernie's caliber get hit with at every tournament.

By the way, at the Open at Pebble this year, Adam Scott seemed really generous with his time at each hole during his practice round on Tuesday. We followed him for about 4-5 holes, and on every single one he made a point of coming over to the ropes and signing, especially for any kids. Most players would stop and sign for about a half dozen at each little gathering, but Scott just kept signing and signing. Good guy.