I had been looking forward to this weekend for some time - it was the Ryder Cup weekend and I am a massive fan of the tournament which pits the leading golfers from America against their European counterparts. It promised to be a gripping competition. This year it was held in Kentucky and The American team bucked the trend of the last few years and romped home beating the Europeans right from the start.
Even though 'our team' lost I still enjoyed watching some brilliant golf. What I didn't enjoy was the near loutish behaviour of some of the American players who had been encouraged to whip up the spectating crowds into a frenzy. The result was that every time a European player missed a put or hit a ball badly the crowds would cheer in delight and the inane chants of "USA, USA, USA" rang out over and over and over again.
What has happened to good sportsmanship in professional sports today? After a spectacularly brilliant Olympics I guess we were spoiled by great examples of sporting endeavour coupled with sportsmanlike behaviour.
Another example of loutish behaviour was seen this weekend at the Manchester United - Chelsea match where a whopping 7 of the 11 players on the Manchester United team were booked by the referee - many for dissent.
In each of these situations the men in charge turned a blind eye to the behaviour of their players. Sir Alex Ferguson didn't 'want to get involved' despite taking a £25,000 fine from the FA and Paul Azinger said that European crowds would do the same and talked down his open instructions to "cheer when they (the Europeans) miss" as simply "educating the crowds. Football already has a bad reputation I would be very sorry to see Golf going the same way but if this weekend is anything to go by we are on the rocky road.
You know it's bad when golf is getting out of control. What's next? Fights breaking out at professional tennis matches?
In golf, I call this the Tiger effect. Much like Michael Jordan in basketball and David Beckett of football, Tiger Woods has taken golf to a new level of popularity in the U.S. and around the world. He's made it a primetime, nail biting, fist pumping spectator sport.
I'm all for good sportsmanship - and I don't condone cheering at the other team's or player's expense - but the raucous behavior is a symptom of a sport that has found great success of late. And its hero - or the person to blame - is Tiger.
Posted by: Ted | October 03, 2008 at 09:58 PM