Michael J Benkusky's Golf Design Blog

The good, the bad, and the ugly of the PGA Tour

Part 3 - The Ugly

Here are some of the ugly things that have been happening this year.

Tiger Wood’s rules run-in

I changed my writing of these blogs after the incident between Tiger Woods and Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee’s surfaced last week.  This may become the ugliest thing to hit golf in a long time.  You can check it out here.  If you click the link on Geoff’s site you can see all the run-ins Tiger had this year.  Saying Tiger was “Cavalier with the rules” sparked an ugly response from Tiger’s agent.  I’m not going to delve into this any more than this as I don’t want to be dragged into the lawsuit, although that may be great exposure.

Note:  Since the original writing of this story, Brandel has apologized over his twitter account.  However, Tiger says that wasn't the case.  You can read more on this exchange at www.geoffshackelford.com.

Phil Mickelson’s tax problem

Do you remember this comment? 

“If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate is 62, 63 percent,” Mickelson said. “I’ve got to make some decisions on what I am going to do.”

Paying away 62 percent of your income would be tough to swallow. But many people don’t feel bad for someone when the left over amount is over $16 million. But it still means he lost over $26 million. I know that would upset anyone.

Still, those comments just put more fuel to fire that golf is a spoiled, rich man’s game. Heck, just the other week a question was asked on Family Feud to name a sport played by rich people and the person answered golf. That just about explains it.

These are just two things, but they happened to the biggest names in the sport.  It’s these types of incidents that gives the game a bad rap.  Golf still has a lot to overcome.  We have made strides in the environmental department, but there is still more to do.  We will get there and golf will remain a sport that people will play for a lifetime, and that’s about as good as a sport can get.