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Credit: @PGATour - Official Twitter account of the PGA Tour
Tiger Woods will draw the largest crowd every time he steps onto the golf course. It doesn't matter how he plays, the people will watch. In contrast, Brooks Koepka's second major of the year and third in two years still failed to pull anything more than a respectable crowd. Then again, European viewers were... Well, not viewing.
Eleven Sports Falls Short
In my tournament preview I talked about the fact that the 2018 PGA Championship was bound to be a spectacle. It was tailored for fans of big-hitting superstars. Yet the build-up to the event was marred by outrage at the lack of TV coverage, before those who did the dirty work (that's plugging a couple wires into your TV; not that dirty) and tuned into Eleven Sports were outraged at the fairly abysmal coverage they offered. Eleven Sports coverage was available free-of-charge if you signed up for their seven-day trial. The strategy was obviously to attract new viewers who would then go "Oh, this coverage by Eleven Sports is great. I'll sign up!" Yeah, that didn't happen. I'm sure the channel will have gained a few new customers in the form of those forgetting to cancel the subscription in time, but streaming problems and generally poor coverage have not endeared them to golf fans. In a Twitter message to fans apologising for the aforementioned streaming problems at the start of play of Thursday, Eleven Sports thanked viewers for their patience. That's like thanking Patrick Reed for his sportsmanship. Patience was non-existent.
Respect the Koepka
It seemed fitting that, with half the eyes of the golf world blindfolded, the man who is so often unfairly overlooked took the Wanamaker Trophy. Jack Nicklaus tweeted about the incredible array of talent which, as predicted, crowded the top of the leaderboard at the start of Sunday. Five of the World Top-10, with eight of the 14 within 5 shots of the lead boasting major titles. Then, replying to his own tweet, Nicklaus honed in on Brooks Koepka; describing him as "A great young talent. Strong, aggressive, smart golfer." The Golden Bear then went on to say that Koepka will likely be a "force to be reckoned with" for years to come and "Should be in every conversation about today's best". Strong words, but not nearly as bold a statement as you may think. We're talking about the World No. 2, back-to-back U.S. Open champion and 3-time major winner in two years. He may have tagged the wrong Brooks Koepka Twitter account, but I think 18 major titles outweighs confusing @BrooksKoepka2 with @BKoepka. Well said, Jack.
I saw photos of Koepka's pre-tournament press conference and, honestly, it was embarrassing. There were more empty seats than an Arsenal home game. Compare that to out-of-form Jordan Spieth, majorless Rickie Fowler and World No. 50 Tiger Woods and it'll turn your cheeks red. I felt sorry for Koepka, to be honest. He's earned the right to the spotlight but nobody's giving it to him. Why? Because he's not charismatic enough? Because he's too professional? Call me old-fashioned, but golfers are there to win tournaments. The entertainment is watching quality golf, not mental breakdowns on the 72nd or eccentric 48-year-olds doing the worm in a £150 dress shirt whilst somebody fires golf balls at him. Koepka may not go out of his way to please the crowd, but he lets his golf do the talking and it's about time we listen.
Going the Distance
As I said earlier, the Bellerive leaderboard was stacked with big names. The biggest came in second as Tiger picked up his best major finish since the 2009 edition of this tournament (outright 2nd), but to dwell on Tiger- as almost everybody else is doing- would be as disrespectful as mentioning his name before the actual winner's name (and with the first words of the article no less). He played very well, shot 70-66-66-64 and put bums on the edges of seats. Adam Scott was a surprise name near the top; only slipping behind Tiger to 3rd after a bogey at the last, but names like Koepka, Scott, Jon Rahm (T4), Gary Woodland (T6) and Justin Thomas (T6) evidenced the effectiveness of driving distance.
Big-hitters have become commonplace atop the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) and it didn't take rocket science to predict their success at Bellerive.
The TV coverage may have flopped, but the tournament did not. The world's best produced some of their best golf to live up to the hype of this showpiece event.
Written by Joe Carabini
