Have you watched the Netflix Golf special yet? The same people that did F1 are doing pro golf. I thought it was decent but not as good as F1. I think Netflix could do a similar one on pro tennis since pro tennis players are similar to pro golfers when it comes to the structure of the sport.
I play golf (not well), and one of my closest friends grew up in the golf business. His family started Ram Golf and his father recently passed away. My friend was a scratch for many years and still regularly shoots in the 70s at our age. His father was a pretty cool guy to talk to about business in general but golf especially.
Another close friend of mine has a son that is caddying on the PGA tour. I have other close friends who are excellent golfers who shoot in the 70s very often. They played golf at a very high level in high school and college. I played absolutely terribly the other day and one of my friends said he’d quit the game on the spot if he shot that.
We have one older gentleman in our country club, age 91. He shoots in the 70s regularly. I think he was a +6 when he was young. My favorite comment of his after a round is “Hey, did anyone else shoot 15 shots under their age?”
I guess what I am getting at is golf is an interest of mine so I was looking forward to the Netflix special. I do think it is worth watching. Golfers are independent agents, sort of like commodity traders. Golf is highly competitive and it’s a very very difficult sport to master. There is a reason there are only four letters in the word “golf”.
Netflix got a big bonus when they were filming because the LIV Golf Tour started up. That added some drama. Some of the golfers they were interviewing went to the LIV, and some didn’t. It doesn’t take an accountant or a genius to understand why. It was all about the Benjamins.
However, if you look at your job would you consider moving to a new company with less prestige and maybe a worse reputation than the one you are at if you could get more money?
One thing that I think is interesting is when Phil Mickelson initially went to the LIV Tour, he said he was doing it for the PGA Tour players. He felt like the PGA officials were holding back on the size of purses and other things on the tour. Guess what’s happened? The PGA Tour has increased the size of purses and is in the process of changing some things around to compete. Looks like Phil was correct.
Here is what I would like to see this Netflix series cover in succeeding segments if they continue to do it. Interviews and understanding the pro is fine but there is so much more to it.
Show what is in a pro golfer’s bag. Those things are huge. How heavy are they?
I’d like to see a pro do a club fitting with their manufacturer. Wouldn’t it be cool to see what shaft/head combos they are using and understand why? What degree of driver they are using? Are they using forged or cast clubs and why?
How do they pick a putter?
I’d like to see a pro do a ball fitting with their manufacturer.
I’d like to see more interviews with paid support personnel. Caddies have great stories and observations. So do trainers and other support personnel that aren’t families.
What goes into organizing a weekly golf tournament on the tour? How do they get the course ready? How fast are the greens and how close do they cut the fairways or let the rough grow compared to when the duffers like me do a loop?
What’s a caddy really do for a pro?
How do scientists in the lab change the specs on clubs/balls to make them better?
The other thing I would love to see is pro golfers play in one tournament with balata balls, real woods with steel shafts, and old-time golf spikes. They can play it on a course that hasn’t been modified yet. You haven’t lived until a spike mark pushes your birdie putt wide of the hole or your balata ball smiles at you after you hit it.
"The other thing I would love to see is pro golfers play in one tournament with balata balls, real woods with steel shafts, and old-time golf spikes."
Okay...THAT would be a blast to watch.
As I was reading your thoughts it occurred to me that two of my favorite sports books are "A Good Walk Spoiled" and "The Majors". Both about golf and by the same author but both covering very different aspects of the sport. While not having delved into the Netflix series yet (and with "Drive" dropping yesterday I have to get through that first), I wonder if it will have so little focus as to make the series less interesting.
"Drive" caught my interest because I had been trying to learn more about F1 for a couple of years but didn't really know where to start. When it premiered it was a great intro to the sport. But I find that as I dig deeper and deeper, reading Steve Matchett (and others) and leaning about the history and digging into the business of the modern sport, each season of the Netflix series holds less and less interest. It is becoming superficial. But it is not the series that has changed, it is my knowledge of the sport that is rapidly growing and making "Drive" seem rudimentary. Entry level fare.
As a longtime golf fan, I wonder if this will have the same feel. I loved the two books I mentioned above not because they gave me a look at the personal lives of the big names (I frankly don't care about how Dustin Johnson and his wife spend their personal time) but because they covered aspects of the competitive game that don't come through the screen Thursday through Sunday. "A Good Walk" did a sensational job of bringing to life the grind of the bubble players. Q-School; earning one's tour card; keeping that card; the value of winning that one major that takes the pressure of losing that hard earned ticket to the tour off of a player.
"The Majors" opened a door to the four big tournaments that few really know about. The casual watcher might know a little about the handful of traditions that might be highlighted in the exact moments their televisions are tuned to a broadcast but the richness and history of these events is truly special (yes, even the PGA).
Netflix could have done an entire series on just these aspects of the game alone. These are the things that highlight the subtleties of the sport: the margin between making the tour and not (razor thin) and how far away even the best amateurs we might play with truly are; the absolute grind of being one of those guys always at risk of losing his tour card; the incredible traditions of the majors and the respect and reverence with which the players and fanatical followers hold those traditions.
These aspects would then really highlight the differences and controversy, as well as the appeal, among so many of the players surrounding the LIV situation. For many it's about money, yes. But there's way more to it than that for a lot of the players and without more than a superficial understanding of the sport that goes beyond private jets, exclusive access to clubs most of us would kill to play, and lounging about their palatial homes during extended breaks, the series may not land the way "Drive" did.
I may be wrong and I look forward to getting to the series later this year.
I was never a good golfer either. Nasty slice. Might pick the game back up again, but right now the only real interest was the LIV golf tourny thing. As a partner at a cpa firm, i laugh all the time at people and i like to use golfers all the time to give easy examples to people who don't think state taxes matter. They matter a lot. Its why most golfers now live in Texas or Florida and not CA.