Golf is a bizarre spectator sport but it's oh, so satisfying
Golf in Rochester, given the relatively short playing season, makes no sense.
But people here love to play, and they love to watch.
The PGA Championship, which takes place at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford this week, is sold out. Fans will flock to the course and spend hours watching millionaires walk by, swing a club, and then walk away.
Let’s admit it. The golf-spectator experience makes no sense.
Watching golf means missing golf, again and again and again. Stand around the green at the 12th hole. A distant roar signals something really good happened far away, maybe at 15 or 16.
In 1995 during the Ryder Cup at Oak Hill, I talked with Kathy Whitworth, one of the best golfers – male or female – of all times. She was standing in the back row of the crowd around the 13th hole, straining to get a glimpse of the action.
A half circle of trees, some of them dedicated to famous golfers, overlooks the green.
“My tree’s over there,” said Whitworth, who died last December at age 83. “It’s got a great view. I wish I were in it.”
Of course, spectators can get to the course early, find a seat in the bleachers overlooking the 18th green and see the golfers finish their rounds.
But that’s like reading the last chapter of a book without having read any of the preceding chapters. Who does that?
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All in all, even if you’re on the course and using Twitter to monitor what you can’t see, you’re better off staying home and watching the golf on television if you want to know what’s happening.
Still, people by thousands will arrive at Oak Hill each day this week. The cost, the inconvenience of parking and then taking buses to the course, the arrival of bad weather (it always rains at Oak Hill), the high prices of merchandise, none of that will keep them away.
Being on the course and coming home with a T-shirt, a hat, and at least one good memory of one good shot is enough for the truly committed.
Golf fans do have their viewing strategies. Some follow golfers for the entire round, scrambling through the 18 holes. Others save steps by finding a hole and camping out.
I did that first in 1994 at the LPGA’s Rochester International at Locust Hill, my initial foray into covering golf crowds. Sitting under a tree, I had views of the 14th, 15th. and 16th holes. The world walked by; I picked off some quotes. It was heaven.
At Oak Hill, I sometimes camped out around the 15h or 16th holes. By that point, the golfers would be far into their rounds. The storylines for the day – who was up, who was down – would have formed, and the shots seemed more meaningful, the fans more intent.
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There will be people at the PGA this week who surround the clubhouse. They will be there, in part or in whole, to socialize, to visit, to be at Oak Hill itself, a private county club where membership carries a high price tag.
As the week goes on, there will be more attention paid to the golf itself, and eventually the focus will narrow to just a few golfers. Perhaps everything will be resolved by one shot.
Shaun Micheel, a relative unknown, captured a victory at the 2003 PGA Championship at Oak Hill with a shot from 174 yards away that landed just two inches from the cup on the 18th and final hole of the tournament.
Some lucky fans were there to see that shot. They were paid back for all the hassles, all the costs, of being there.
Which is probably why the fans keep coming back to Oak Hill. One swing, one shot, one moment and golf makes sense.
Still, a word to the wise: To get a glimpse of this action, get there early, stay late. When nobody’s looking, you might even get a perch in Kathy Whitworth’s tree. I hear it’s a great view.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Golf is a bizarre spectator sport but it's oh, so satisfying
