Is seeing a PGA Tour event in person worth it?

[Moppy]

I would probably go to one if they were playing in my town and it was free.  I'm guessing they aren't though.

I went for free because my friend knew somebody who belonged to the club and gave him passes for the entire week, they were out of town for the tournament, maybe rented their place out, IDK, but it is interesting that they loved golf enough to have a home on a TPC course and were out of town for the big event. I wouldn't have felt robbed though had I paid full price. It was worth it.

As for these arguments about the quality of golf. You can see I don't even have a handicap, so I can't really weigh in, but I was stunned by it.

[RandyBobbitt]

I've been to the Memorial five or six times, the Wells Fargo twice, and the U.S. Open twice. I doubt if a week-long pass is worth it, because by the seventh day you've done and seen it all and are actually looking forward to going back to work. If I'm making it a two-day trip, it's usually Wednesday-Thursday, so I get one practice round and one tournament round. I also enjoy watching the pros on the practice range and putting green, but that gets old after about an hour.

LPGA tournaments are much cheaper and the players are better from an autograph standpoint. Plus, I think you can learn more watching them on the range hitting it 240 (about the length of my drive) than watching the men hitting it 320. The Champions Tour events I have been to were a joke from a spectator standpoint. What you don't see on TV is the high percentage of players riding carts. I witnessed several cases of spectators almost getting run over by carts as the players raced from the green to the next tee in order to avoid having to make eye contact with spectators.

The worst competitions to watch: mini-tour events and college tournaments. College players are incredibly slow; rounds often take 5 to 6 hours. College coaches always talk about slow play but do nothing about it.

Better than watching is volunteering. If there is a PGA or LPGA event in your area, check the website for volunteer opportunities.