What Other Bloggers are Saying: Part 3

This week, once again, I ventured out into the blogosphere to see what others were chirping about. Obviously, the hot ticket this week is the Masters Tournament at Augusta National. It is the first of the four Major tournaments, and in my opinion it is the greatest golf tournament on the planet. On the subject, I found a quite a few interesting posts from fellow bloggers. Of those, I have posted comments to two different entries out there. In the first, Ryan Ballengee from the blog Waggle Room discusses the new Masters Twitter page. His light-hearted discussion brings up a slightly larger issue on how the sport should be taking advantage of new technology to spread the game's reach and popularity. I enjoyed the awareness and was glad to have to subject introduced by a blogger of which I was previously unaware. In the second comment, I responded to one of my favorite bloggers, the One Eyed Golfer. In his entry, Greg Norman, Just Shut Up..., he lambasted the 54-year-old for criticizing the changes to Augusta National this year. I did not think the original comment made by a popular ESPN radio show was appropriate, but I appreciated One Eyed Golfer's thoughtful discussion.

@The_Masters is On Twitter
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First of all, thank you for helping bring the game of golf to the 21st Century. For that matter, I’m proud of The Masters PR person who convinced the board this would be a good idea. Wouldn’t you have liked to be a fly on the wall as they tried to explain the concept to Hootie and the gang? They are on Facebook, too? Simply amazing.

Well, you should have only picked up on a tinge of sarcasm. The sport does need to rebrand itself, and taking advantage of social media and networking sites is a step in the right direction. Looking through some of the recent posts on Twitter, they have done a good of a job as possible. However, I have never been truly sold on the website concept as a whole. You have to be simply enamored with someone of something to stay current with a Twitter page. It seems a little obsessive if you ask me. The Masters and Twitter just do not seem like a likely match. The site is too new and frankly too hip for most prestigious golfing event in the world, aside from maybe the Ryder Cup. On the other hands, the US harbors thousands of obsessive golf fans that will surely keep up with the tweets this week. Heck, I probably will, too. Facebook makes a little more sense, though. The Facebook team has made leaps and bounds in turning their site from a place where college students share their party photos to a respectable social networking tool. The Masters can track their “fans,” upload media, and let the user post their thoughts. I applaud the move and have liked reading the “wall” so far.

“Greg Norman, ‘Just Shut Up’…”
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I have definitely heard his grumblings before. At 54, Greg Norman is becoming a crotchety old man, but he still deserves a little more respect than he is getting here. Though he has never won the tournament and arguably holds the title for biggest single day choke, he is still one of the greatest and most liked players of all time. My own opinion might be getting in the way in this instance, but Greg Norman has earned the right to criticize. Whether we have to agree with his criticism is another story. The members at Augusta National have worked every year to keep their sacred tournament challenging. In doing so, as equipment and players have gotten better, they have had to make their course more demanding and longer. They have every right to do so.

Greg might just be resistant to changes in the course because he has not been able to cope with his own changes that have come with old age. As a tough competitor, he must be feeling effects of the inability to perform at the same levels. I cannot imagine the feeling to playing a course that only gets harder year after year as your game slips away. That frustration is showing up in his dialogue, but it is justified frustration from one of the game’s greats.