brutalbrutus
* Ace Member *
This might be fun or a complete trainwreck of a thread... either way it should be entertaining...
https://www.pdga.com/news/silence-really-golden
https://www.pdga.com/news/silence-really-golden
Is Ball Golf the Right Model?
As you know, the ball hitters have come to the conclusion that they can only swing the club effectively in complete silence. That results in a tremendous amount of effort to control spectators at events. There are legions of marshals assigned specifically to make sure that the gallery is dead quiet at the moment of the sacred swing. That's right — we have attempted to construct an 18-hole sports church, or maybe a library. Admittedly, part of the reason for the silence is it makes the activity seem more important. The fact is, there's no real reason that silence is required to execute a golf swing. It's all about the context that we have chosen to create. We need only compare a throw with a player shooting a foul shot in the NBA finals; there are 30,000 people screaming and the player calmly strokes it through the net. In many ways, it's a challenge similar to putting in both bolf and disc golf.
Of course, other sports insist on this same kind of silence. Bowling traditionally quiets the crowd prior to the player's approach to the line. However, there is a current series of tournaments that actually encourages fans to express themselves as the bowlers are playing. It should be noted that there doesn't seem to be any reduction in the effectiveness of the bowlers in that noisy environment, and it's clearly a good bit more fun for the spectators. Speaking of which, we have some history of that ourselves. In 2008 at the Pro/Am World Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Jay "Yeti" Reading won his first (of, count 'em, five) World Putting Championships in a theater in front of 1,000 fans. As Yeti recalls, it was hard to keep the crowd completely quiet for the three finalists. So, rather than chance being distracted by some random yahoo, Yeti decided to encourage the crowd to cheer him on during his putts.
It was epic. They hooted and hollered and Yeti drained putt after putt to take the title.