While the game of golf remains in a very delicate place right now, PGA Tour legend Fred Couples has been speaking about just what the current PGA Tour players need to do to improve things.
With LIV Golf’s emergence causing a divide we’ve never seen in the game, golf has a whole has struggled in terms of attracting and keeping viewers onboard.
There is so much talk of money that fans have been turned off, while the likes of YouTube and other social platforms continue to offer fans alternative viewership.
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Of course, the PGA Tour remains a big entity and has some of the top names in golf.
But according to former Masters winner Fred Couples, the PGA Tour players need to start showing a bit more emotion to the fans.
Fred Couples name-checks Rory McIlroy in message to PGA Tour players
Couples was asked by the reporter how the younger players on TOUR can go about being more entertaining and in doing so, bring more eyeballs to the game.
And with a measured answer, Couples admitted there’s many factors at play.
“What a great question. You know, sometimes I sit and I think about that and think about what did I do,” Couples said.
“When you play well you’ve got to give the people more than they expect. When you play poorly that’s when you don’t want to do anything stupid. Golf is a game of happy things. You know when Rory missed that putt at the US Open and lost, I don’t know what anyone else would have done. He got in his car and left, you can pick on anything you want to.
“But we have to get people to love the golf again. Everyone loves to play golf, but I laugh when I hear like ‘The LIV this or LIV that’. Our tour is what I’m worried about and I don’t even watch their tour so I don’t know if they’re laughing and giggling all the time, but our guys need to show a little more.”
The many problems in golf at the moment explained
While talk of a deal between LIV and the PGA rumbles on, we are still not actually anywhere further down the line in terms of official announcements.
As it stands, then, golf is awash with issues and problems.
The PGA has problems with rules and pace of play, while LIV Golf’s problem is securing a TV deal, although there are talks of that being resolved soon enough.
In terms of the average fan, there is an element of being turned off just by the constant chatter about money, while not seeing the very competing week in, week out, is also an issue.
For now, Couples has a point about the PGA players. But going forward, everything has to come together or else golf risks decline.
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