Televised golf is losing viewers. That is a fact, offered up after every tournament. Theories are varied: Fans are turned off by the fight between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Too much money is spoiling the game. Tiger Woods, the game’s biggest draw for the past two decades, is nothing more than a sad, ceremonial golfer these days. But my theory is that the drama normally associated with professional golf has been muted by the recent success of Scottie Scheffler in the men’s game and Nelly Korda on the Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association tour. Both are lacking outgoing personalities. About as exciting as a wet washcloth. Dull.
But there is one solution on the men’s side. Viewership would skyrocket if Scheffler were to threaten to win the Grand Slam, an accomplishment never achieved in the modern era — winning the Masters, the PGA, U.S. Open, and the Open Championship (known as the British Open to many) in the same year.
Historically, golf’s only ‘grand slam’ winner is Bobby Jones, the storied Atlanta amateur who won in 1930 what were considered the four major tournaments of his day — the U.S. Amateur, the British Amateur, the U.S. Open and the Open Championship. Woods in 2000 finished fifth at the Masters and then won the next thee majors, and then won the Masters in 2001 for the ‘Tiger Slam.’ He held all four majors’ trophies at one time, but they weren’t all won in one calendar year, so it didn’t count.
Scheffler might threaten to do it this year. It seems that everyone else is playing for second place when he tees it up at a PGA event. He has won four tournaments in his last five starts and finished tied for second in the fifth, missing a six-foot putt on the 72nd hole that would have put him into a playoff with Stephen Jaeger at Houston. Were he to win the PGA at Valhalla in Kentucky May 16-19, a few more casual viewers would be sure to tune in for the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June. If Scheffler were to get three in his holster heading into the Open Championship in July at Scotland’s Royal Troon, viewership would explode.
On the women’s side, Korda has been even more dominant. She has won five consecutive tournaments, including the first major of the season, the Chevron Championship. Korda, whose sister Jessica is also an LPGA player and whose brother Sebastian is a world-ranked (26th) tennis player, joins two of the LPGA’s all-time greats, Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam, as the only ones to win five consecutive tournaments.
Meanwhile, Scheffler will take some time off before the PGA as his wife Meredith is about to give birth to the couple’s first child. Winning at Valhalla would give him Woods-like media attention and also ramp up Grand Slam talk. Not to mention giving a big boost to TV ratings.
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