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How to make new stars??

SquirrelyDave

SquirrelyDave

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One of the common complaints about watching golf is that in every generation of golfers there are one or two big names that get all of the air time. Interviews, shots, post round interviews, interviews with his ex-girlfriend's dog sitter's neighbor, discussions about his caddie, discussions with his caddie.... The list goes on and on. Meanwhile there are another 49 players in the OWGR top 50 that no one is talking about.

This leads to my questions:
A: Does golf need more stars?

B: How does "golf" get more stars?

I think more we'll know players is good for the game as a whole. Watching my daughter get excited when a Lydia Ko interview comes on is great, she couldn't care less about Lexi, or Spieth, or Rory. But she likes Lydia, in a large part because Lydia is so young, she feels she can relate a little better (I think, who knows what's going on in the mind of a 9year old) so more we'll known golfers would bring more people to the game, which leads to growth, which is good right?

The harder question is how does golf make more stars? I don't know that there is a single way, or even a good way to "make" a star. I think Callaway has a good idea with their vice sports collaboration, but I think it's going to take more than that do really get the names and stories out to the masses. I think it would take a concentrated effort from Golf media, the assorted tour organizations, and the sponsor companies.


What do you think?
 
It takes the media getting out of their comfort zone and going for the easy story of missing tiger or what is tiger doing, talking about Rory when he was hurt and not playing. They need to give guys who are playing well more airtime and help build their recognition up.

I also think with social media and the sorts players and their mgmt teams need to do better of getting their names, personalities out there.

i don't think there can ever be enough stars in golf because players have time off and the same guy doesn't win every week. There will always be a superstar or a couple superstars but more stars can be had
 
I think it would help if some of the young guys can win more than once. Of course thats very tough to do.

I like Scott Piercy a lot and Smylie Kaufman looks like he could be marketable. But both of them are going to have to back up their one win with something more substantial.

Smylie blew a big chance yesterday being in the final group. But I think a lot of people probably felt that kind of performance was likely given the stage.

That said there is a great stable of young stars right now winning. Day, Fowler, Jordan and Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed.
 
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emart2173 said:
It takes the media getting out of their comfort zone and going for the easy story of missing tiger or what is tiger doing, talking about Rory when he was hurt and not playing. They need to give guys who are playing well more airtime and help build their recognition up.

I also think with social media and the sorts players and their mgmt teams need to do better of getting their names, personalities out there.

i don't think there can ever be enough stars in golf because players have time off and the same guy doesn't win every week. There will always be a superstar or a couple superstars but more stars can be had
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I think this is an excellent point. I have watched 0 golf media (aside from THP of course) today, because I just don't want to read or hear about Jordan blowing up. If I thought there would have been a solid 30 minute segment anywhere on Danny Willet I'd have watched some. He seems like someone I could root for week after week, but I think he got more coverage facetiming with his wife than he did then entire rest of the tournament. (BTW...how annoyed would your wife have been to be caught on camera and broadcast worldwide during a face time with no warning?)
 
dazeedmonds said:
I think this is an excellent point. I have watched 0 golf media (aside from THP of course) today, because I just don't want to read or hear about Jordan blowing up. If I thought there would have been a solid 30 minute segment anywhere on Danny Willet I'd have watched some. He seems like someone I could root for week after week, but I think he got more coverage facetiming with his wife than he did then entire rest of the tournament. (BTW...how annoyed would your wife have been to be caught on camera and broadcast worldwide during a face time with no warning?)
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I didn't watch Md this morning because i didn't want to see it either. News media has become pretty predictable and they will go with the easy stories and the ones that will get their ratings. I have slowly been coming around to a Willet fan after watching him the last year or so on Euro tour.

my wife would be pissed if that happened especially after recent child birth
 
emart2173 said:
I didn't watch Md this morning because i didn't want to see it either. News media has become pretty predictable and they will go with the easy stories and the ones that will get their ratings. I have slowly been coming around to a Willet fan after watching him the last year or so on Euro tour.

my wife would be pissed if that happened especially after recent child birth
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I'm pretty certain my wife would have murdered me in my sleep if I'd done that to her. LOL.

I like Willet and hope he continues to do well, and maybe we'll get to see more of him.
 
dazeedmonds said:
I'm pretty certain my wife would have murdered me in my sleep if I'd done that to her. LOL.

I like Willet and hope he continues to do well, and maybe we'll get to see more of him.
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I hope he takes up his 5 year exemption on theta tour now that the kid has been born. I think he can be like some others that can play on both tours with no issues
 
I'm not sure but I actually think golf thrives with less stars as long as they are marketable. I'm not sure people want to have 50 choices. Maybe 4-6 is a better number. People , in general, don't have time to follow that many players. I think they are more comfortable just keeping up and rooting for a few!
 
I think winning cures a lot plus it helps to have personality. Secondly, most golfers give stock boring answers during interviews.....plus for me it is hard to watch on TV because they play too slow.

Even in person it is tough. I went to the tournament in DC last year & one of the few golfers that was smiling and looking like he was having fun was Ricky Fowler. I see why Ricky has a lot of fans....he is charismatic, has some swagger & looks like he is enjoying himself.

I don't blame golfers though....who would you rather be...Ricky who probably can't walk in a mall without everyone knowing who he is...or the other 45 golfers in the World top 50 who can walk through a mall and never be recognized.

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RNG said:
I'm not sure but I actually think golf thrives with less stars as long as they are marketable. I'm not sure people want to have 50 choices. Maybe 4-6 is a better number. People , in general, don't have time to follow that many players. I think they are more comfortable just keeping up and rooting for a few!
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That's a solid point, but I don't think everyone would necessarily follow every player on the course or root for every player in a tournament.

That brings up another point though. If you're a Willet fan, how do you follow his group when Jordan or Rory or Jason are on the course? You can't, and that's on the broadcast teams. Watching the masters this weekend I personally opted for the featured groups coverage on masters.com because I preferred following one or two groups at a time, i found it much easier to follow. Maybe a broadcast of coverage like that where you could pick the groups you want to watch play (with commercials by their sponsors of course) would work out.
 
bobgeorge said:
I think winning cures a lot plus it helps to have personality. Secondly, most golfers give stock boring answers during interviews.....plus for me it is hard to watch on TV because they play too slow.

Even in person it is tough. I went to the tournament in DC last year & one of the few golfers that was smiling and looking like he was having fun was Ricky Fowler. I see why Ricky has a lot of fans....he is charismatic, has some swagger & looks like he is enjoying himself.

I don't blame golfers though....who would you rather be...Ricky who probably can't walk in a mall without everyone knowing who he is...or the other 45 golfers in the World top 50 who can walk through a mall and never be recognized.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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Some excellent points. I think a lot of the stock boring answers we see by the lesser known guys on tour may not be so much personality as nerves. These guys don't get interviewed at nearly the rate the better known players do. I've seen plenty of interviews where I thought a player was as interesting as a stick, but once they win, and you get to see more of them on camera they become more interesting and relax a bit as they get more comfortable in front of the cameras. Bryson DeC was that way for me. He wasn't boring so much as arrogant and annoying, but after seeing his press conferences at the Masters I found him much more likeable, it's easy to misjudge someone from a 3 second sound byte. I do agree, you can't make everyone popular, and some of those guys will always be a stick in the mud, and just not that popular.

To you point about fame, I'm certain some of these guys wouldn't mind the exchange of fame for the money Ricky's making from his sponsors, and I'm equally certain there are some guys who'd rather give the game altogether than have that level of fame.
 
dazeedmonds said:
That's a solid point, but I don't think everyone would necessarily follow every player on the course or root for every player in a tournament.

That brings up another point though. If you're a Willet fan, how do you follow his group when Jordan or Rory or Jason are on the course? You can't, and that's on the broadcast teams. Watching the masters this weekend I personally opted for the featured groups coverage on masters.com because I preferred following one or two groups at a time, i found it much easier to follow. Maybe a broadcast of coverage like that where you could pick the groups you want to watch play (with commercials by their sponsors of course) would work out.
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Maybe golf could take a cue from the NCAA basketball tournament. During the final four there was the main broadcast, but there were also simulcasts for each fan base. That way each fan base could hear their own "homer" announcers.

Golf could do something similar like have separate broadcasts for the final 3-4 groups during the majors.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
bobgeorge said:
Maybe golf could take a cue from the NCAA basketball tournament. During the final four there was the main broadcast, but there were also simulcasts for each fan base. That way each fan base could hear their own "homer" announcers.

Golf could do something similar like have separate broadcasts for the final 3-4 groups during the majors.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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That's exactly the kind of thing I was thinking. It would certainly add something to the tournaments. I would think the sponsors would be all over it. You'd see Callaway commercials on the broadcast with Phil, Titleist and UA on Jordan's group etc.
 
The Masters was a perfect example. I think it was the Smylie Kaufman interview where, instead of getting to know him better and spending some real time featuring a young kid who was playing in the final pair, they instead asked him about Spieth what kind of car he drove. The media focus on only a handful of players is the issue IMO.
 
DOMINATION - Wire to wire victories. Leaving the field in their dust is what I think will create more stars because the golfers are so good now, I think to see guys dominating a field either week in or week out will lead to he question if will they do it next week etc
 
Howzat said:
The Masters was a perfect example. I think it was the Smylie Kaufman interview where, instead of getting to know him better and spending some real time featuring a young kid who was playing in the final pair, they instead asked him about Spieth what kind of car he drove. The media focus on only a handful of players is the issue IMO.
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Yup. Agreed. I think it comes back to the same thing over and over again. The media darlings get all the attention, so they get more fans, so they get more attention.

What's sad to me is that the media are eating their own tails in all of this, they have just as much to gain as the equipment companies from growing the game and getting more fans to watch more of the tournaments. More viewers = more revenue. They just can't seem to get that figured out. Imagine if ESPN only broadcast 1 NFL game a week. The NFL would be in a terrible position right now, but they broadcast all of the games and everyone wins. Golf tournaments are made up of a lot of matches, they just happen to be going on at the same time, and now the technology is there to broadcast all of these stories and they're not doing it.
 
OITW said:
DOMINATION - Wire to wire victories. Leaving the field in their dust is what I think will create more stars because the golfers are so good now, I think to see guys dominating a field either week in or week out will lead to he question if will they do it next week etc
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See I don't think someone has to dominate....well, more accurately I don't think someone should have to dominate to get the attention. There are a hundred stories every week, and we hear 3 of them. Is JDay going to get dizzy? Can Rors putt this week? What kind of car does JSlow drive, JSlow once had a third grade teacher, Jordan is wearing orange socks he must be feuding with Ricky. I like Jordan, I really do. He seems like a solid player, more than that he seems like a decent human being, but he's not the only one on the course.
 
A lot of good points here, however, blaming the media, sounds a bit shallow.

The main issue at hand is clearly the lack of "action". By action I mean, the unlikely event of underdogs winning, back to back majors, tough childhood turned superstar etc.

Even though I am conservative, and love the golf "attitude", I believe you need more events like the Waste Management, with shitloads of spectators, more drivable par 4s and more matchplay.

Bringing more action to the proffessional side of the game will in turn create more stars, as normal people, not only golfers will spend the nicest weekend of the year, in their mancave watching a major.

Also, some of the emerging players should really step up their PR-game if they want to be superstars. Being nice is great, but somewhere between a perfect gentleman and Floyd Mayweather, I am sure there are potential articles.


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I'm in the minority's but I believe good play makes stars. You can also create a star that has personality like Boo Weekly and Billy Ho or even Matt Kuchar. But I think you need to play well to get to that star status.
 
martbora said:
A lot of good points here, however, blaming the media, sounds a bit shallow.

The main issue at hand is clearly the lack of "action". By action I mean, the unlikely event of underdogs winning, back to back majors, tough childhood turned superstar etc.

Even though I am conservative, and love the golf "attitude", I believe you need more events like the Waste Management, with shitloads of spectators, more drivable par 4s and more matchplay.

Bringing more action to the proffessional side of the game will in turn create more stars, as normal people, not only golfers will spend the nicest weekend of the year, in their mancave watching a major.

Also, some of the emerging players should really step up their PR-game if they want to be superstars. Being nice is great, but somewhere between a perfect gentleman and Floyd Mayweather, I am sure there are potential articles.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I don't disagree. I think the media is only one aspect of the issue.

More WM type events could be helpful they do bring out a lot more of the casual fans.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I'm in the minority's but I believe good play makes stars. You can also create a star that has personality like Boo Weekly and Billy Ho or even Matt Kuchar. But I think you need to play well to get to that star status.
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Yeah they need to be able to play well and compete each week.
 
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