PGA Tour Spokesman: "We feel today's game is more exciting than ever for our fans"

Rex Hoggard of GolfChannel.com examines the likelihood of the PGA Tour not going quietly on the distance issue, even though their initial statement after the Distance Insights Study exuded peace and prosperity! Silly me for thinking Live Under Par culture could be restrained for long.

Hoggard writes:

However, asked specifically if the Tour considers increasing distance gains a “problem,” a spokesman for the circuit offered a slightly less sanitized version: “The PGA Tour will continue to work with the USGA and the R&A in monitoring trends. At this point, we feel today’s game is more exciting than ever for our fans and the integrity of the competitions are intact – we still see a diverse set of winners on the PGA Tour and our examination of the data reveals that the skills involved in winning a PGA Tour event remain largely unchanged. But we are carefully reviewing the findings in the Distance Insights Report and we will collaborate with all of our industry partners, including the USGA and the R&A, on the next steps in the process.”

Down boy, down!

Is this a bad time to note that Sunday’s Golf Channel’s pre-coverage of the 2020 Waste Management Open lost to Hallmark Channel’s Kittlen Bowl VII and CBS’s final round coverage was way down for this more exciting than ever golf?

Hoggard added this commentary:

Clutch putting will always be a central element of the game – along with ball-striking, the short game and course management – but fans don’t tune in to watch players convert 3-footers for par. Fans want to see long drives and birdies and eagles and excitement. Anything that endangers that simple formula is going to be heavily and understandably scrutinized.

An excess of seeing three-footers is a television issue.

And last I looked, the highest rated, best attended golf tournament featuring the toughest ticket in sports, shows us just a few tee shots. The roars all come at the greens.