Does The PGA Tour Need A Longer Off-Season?
Seems like we just watched Jim Furyk finish off the season and collect the FedEx Cup, but here we are already a few tourneys into the 2011 PGA Tour year again! And I’m not the only one wondering why we don’t have more time between the end of one year and the start of the next:
How can the PGA golf season kick-off during the most important time of the largest spectator sport (TV-viewer wise) in the country?! Seriously now…there is no possible way they are gaining any new viewers. Next thing you know, they’ll have a final round going on during the Super Bowl!
Second; When exactly did last season end? And when did this season begin? Was there really even an off-season? If so, how long was it…a month? See? This is another problem. The season is just too damn long and filled with too many meaningless tournaments that don’t get promoted properly. It’s like baseball season: You get kind of psyched up for baseball at the beginning of the year, then it’s blah for four months before you get excited again for the pennant race. And even though the season is too long, the off-season is long enough to give you a break. In golf…there almost is no off-season! I’m sorry but, there has to be a break or you simply get golfed out. Source: GolfStinks blog
What do YOU think? Does the current schedule work for you, or does the PGA Tour need to do a better job of disappearing for a few months to build demand?
~Scratch
PS: Thanks and a big thumbs-up to our friends and fellow bloggers over at GolfStinks – you guys were right on the money with this one, if you ask me!
The problem is not the golf season, it is that all the major sports have extended their seasons with endless playoff games to arrive at the “big game”.
The world series used to end early in October, the stanley cup in a month when there was still ice long before the summer, etc.. I thank god and Arnold Palmer for the golf channel so that my winter months are no longer wasted watching what used to be basketball.
Golf is something I can still do, so I enjoy trying to get better at it thru instruction and practice. The Golf Channel provides all of this 24 hrs a day if I like. So, you should use your time the way you like; I’m happy with the golf season as it has evolved, I even enjoy the tournament play in “foreign” countries with non-American players, because they are great players. I don’t even mind the broadcasts being live at non-primetime.
Big Ed
PS Scratch your comment is a disappointment. I’d rather watch the Skins Game opposite the “superbowl of selling” anytime.