Slow Play and Marketing
This letter gives me the chills. It's from Gary Myers of Seymour, Indiana, about slow play on the Tour and I know he can't be right. Can he?:
In response to the article by Jamie Diaz in the May 9th Golf World, titled ?Confronting the PGA Tour?s slow-play addiction,? I would offer one additional reason for slow play??.advertising. Most tour players have lucrative contracts with companies that basically turn them into walking billboards. The trend is now extending to the caddie wearing clothing with logos. I have a degree in marketing and it is logical that corporate executives would ?encourage? players in the last few groups of a televised event to slow down when they know they are playing the televised holes so the corporate logos get more exposure on TV. There are companies that monitor how much TV exposure logos and products get and calculate the value to the company for such exposure. Most of us still remember the chip shot of Tiger?s on the 16th hole at Augusta that trickled toward the hole and paused for that precious moment while the Nike swoosh was visible to the TV millions before falling in the hole. That chip had a significant economic value to Nike for sure. I feel it would be naïve to think that players are not ?pacing themselves? when it is their turn to play to get the most exposure for the companies they are paid to represent.
Gary, you're cynicism surpasses that of old reporters I know. The idea of slowing down to get more television time? Say it ain't so!
--Bob Carney
05.19.08
I'm as big of a cynic as anybody, but no way that a tour pro, coming up in the final group of a tournament, trying to figure out his exact yardage, pin placement, green slope, wind, how tired he his, what his adrenaline level is, trying to stay calm and not let his emotions get in the way gives a rat's hind end if his sponsor's logo gets an extra 10 seconds of air time.
And anyone who does have that thought, probably isn't in a lot of final groups on Sunday.