Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)

When Rory McIlroy launched his golf ball through the rapidly encroaching twilight and landed it inside Matthew Wolff’s effort on the 19th hole of play last Sunday evening in Juno Beach, it officially brought the curtain down on the ‘Taylormade Driving Relief’ event and the fundraising it had all been in aid of – which, come the time McIlroy’s TP-5 came to a stop on Seminole’s 17th green, had amounted to well over $5 million.

What McIlroy’s match ending wedge also brought to a swift conclusion, however, was the experiment which this event, ultimately, was for how professional golf can exist in the time of Covid-19 and how it could possibly look going forward once all the ridiculously smart scientists and virologists figure out a way to take the Coronavirus out the back of the sheds and give it a right good kicking.

So what did we end up learning from this much needed 18 hole exhibition?

Well, I’ve collated all the relevant data into five succinct points (or at least that’s the plan at any rate).

Broadcast Teething Problems

The amount of work that goes into making a golf broadcast run as smoothly and as expansively as possible is a gargantuan effort that requires a lot of people being on-site at golf events. As we all know, however, having “a lot of people” on the ground isn’t feasible at the moment – nor will it be for quite a while – and, at times during last night’s broadcast, that lack of manpower showed. For instance, the par 3 5th was won by DJ and Rory with a par … I think. Why the uncertainty? Because the coverage cut out and we didn’t actually see how the hole was won; instead, we had to become makeshift Sherlocks and put together the puzzle from the snippets of footage we’d managed to see of the four on the green and the fact Rory and DJ had seemingly won back the honour come the 6th tee.

Now, is this me ‘complaining’ about that missed footage? Not at all. The fact that there weren’t more missed shots is a testament to the work that went on behind-the-scenes to provide as seamless a broadcast as possible. When those four scheduled PGA Tour events get underway in the coming weeks, however, it’ll be interesting to see how the broadcast handles things when they’re dealing with a large field spread across an entire course and not just a single quartet playing one hole at a time.

No Special Guests? No Problem

Around the same time Rory, DJ, Rickie and Wolff were playing the 5th and heading straight for the “Phantom Par” incident, Mike Tirico – the lead anchor for the event – spoke over Skype with Bill Murray. They talked about salt & pepper flavoured pistachios from ‘Costco’, Bill ate the segment of an orange and they just generally had the kind of conversation you’d expect to hear two lads who hadn’t seen each other in a while having as they awkwardly changed out of their golf shoes in the car park of a golf club.

Now, whilst I appreciate the effort they went to in order to make this happen, there was really no need for it. I mean, I have no problem with Bill Murray whatsoever, but do we have to throw the poor guy in front of a camera at any and every available opportunity? And especially so when it’s through the medium of an incredibly laggy Skype call, something which is irritating enough to participate in, nevermind have to listen to, when all you want to do is watch the first bit of live golf that’s been on since March?

In other words, the golf itself is enough to keep us entertained, so just let us – and Bill – watch it.

Crowdless Events

The facet of golf events which is going to take the most getting used to for the foreseeable future is, of course, going to be the lack of a crowd. Having thousands of people walking around a golf course and crammed into tightly packed galleries just isn’t an option due to the infection risk, so over the next two months at the Charles Schwab Challenge, RBC Heritage, Travelers Championship and Rocket Mortgage Classic we’ll have to make do with birdies and particularly good shots being applauded by the tour pros themselves and the smattering of people who’ll actually be allowed on the courses.

Does this have an impact on the experience of watching golf? Yes, but you’d get over it. I mean, would it have been cool last night if when Rickie drained a beautiful, long birdie effort on the 11th to nab two skins worth $200,000 and push him and Wolff through the $1,000,000 mark that it was greeted by a loud, throaty roar from a few thousand people? Absolutely. At the same time, however, come the final few holes of the round when the skins were piling up, I didn’t miss not having a crowd there – the action itself was enough to keep me engaged.

So the lesson to be learned from this? Crowdless events can work … but the jury is still out on whether a crowdless Ryder Cup would be a goer or not.

Rickie Should Really Have A Major

If it weren’t for Rickie Fowler last night, there’s a good chance that Rory and DJ might have rendered this match done and dusted come the turn. His driving, ironplay, putting, pretty much every facet of his game was looking like stainless steel, i.e. not rusty (give me a break, it’s been ages since I’ve written one of these). In fact so solid was Fowler’s play, that he pretty much single handedly dragged himself and Wolff from where they started on half a million dollars to where they finished on just over a million.

And, yet, despite his obvious talent the 31 year old Fowler is still without a Major to his name – which just seems like utter madness when you say it out loud.

If we do end up managing to get some Majors played this year, though, I’d be fancying Rickie to possibly right that wrong.

The War on Bare Knees

Earlier in the season, thanks to ridiculously warm temperatures, European Tour pros were allowed to wear shorts during the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek Golf Club down in South Africa – a matter which, amazingly, was considered news in the world of golf.

The truth is, though, that the war between golf and men’s legs is centuries old and only in recent times – under the leadership of the European Tour – has golf made some concessions that allow male professionals to show their knees on the golf course during an official event. The PGA Tour, however? Well they’ve been less willing to see men’s calves during their events, only relenting last year to let their members wear shorts during pro-ams. 

Yet, last night, we watched four of the best players in the world play 18 holes in shorts and the world didn’t end. Everyone looked nice and presentable, and I’m sure they were all a hell of a lot more comfortable to boot. Now, for the record, I, personally, think trousers look better and am absolutely certain that if players were allowed to wear shorts at Augusta, then any winner would definitely change into a pair of pants before slipping into the Green Jacket – they just would.

But, at this stage, given we’re all realising what is and what isn’t important, should we really still be living in a world where a rule exists in golf that explicitly says male professionals aren’t allowed to show their legs from Thursday to Friday? I don’t think so.

So just give people the choice. You want to wear shorts? Cool. You want to wear pants? Grand job.

BECAUSE IT’S NOT IMPORTANT.

*

So, those are the five things I think we learned from ‘The Seminole Experiment’. Are they particularly groundbreaking? No, but they were never going to be. Because, the fact of the matter is, golf tournaments and the world as a whole is just going to have play everything by ear over the next few months as we continue to persevere through the uncertainty that is the ‘Covid-19 Crisis’ as best we can.

What I do know for certain, however, is that last night reminded me of how much I miss covering golf, so whatever taste of it we manage to get over the next few months I’ll be right here covering it.

Until then, though, mind yereselves.

Title Photo Credit: Seminole/Jeff Bertch