AJ Cadman Cadman is a graduated senior
staff writer who covered UCLA men’s basketball for the past
three seasons and saw every game in person during that span. E-mail
him your thoughts on the 2001-02 men’s and women’s
basketball programs at [email protected].
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The epic marketing debacle the country witnessed last Monday
dubbed “The Battle at Bighorn” smells like a
conspiracy.
Is it coincidental that this made-for-TV showdown was scheduled
at the exact same nightly time slot the Monday before the
season’s first Monday Night Football telecast?
For those of you who fortunately missed the event staged last
Monday night … newsflash! This was not a sporting event. This was
not even a battle.
Yes, hand-held instruments of war called clubs were involved in
the head-to-head, 18-hole alternate shot golf match involving the
two most popular players in professional men’s and
women’s golf. But the players didn’t get to use their
weapons to attack their opponents.
The decision by ABC Sports to make last Monday’s pairing a
doubles format doesn’t evoke the type of viewership and
enthusiasm other team sports bring out.
It tarnishes the grace of the game much like doubles tennis
does. This is evident from the number of people I could count on
two hands at the Mercedes-Benz Cup doubles final that followed the
standing room only crowd there to catch Andre Agassi defeat Pete
Sampras.
This wasn’t even a strange twist of man vs. woman like
1973’s “Battle of the Sexes,” a prime-time tennis
match between then-women’s No. 1 Billie Jean King and
over-the-hill Bobby Riggs.
To no one’s surprise, Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam
tied it all up and forced sudden death after David Duval and Karrie
Webb notched a four-hole lead with four to play.
In this made-for-TV extravaganza, which might as well have been
scripted, anyone could see the sudden death showdown coming.
Actually, most of the East Coast didn’t see it, since they
were asleep when the deciding holes were played.
The play at Bighorn was bearable at best, with poor shots by one
player forcing a teammate to salvage a second shot to win the hole.
Instead of showcasing their individual games, we were stuck with
this gimmick.
Please don’t assume I am anti-golf just because I struggle
to make par at the local pitch-and-putt. I can be found watching my
share of final round Sundays with the rest of America’s
bandwagon golf following.
But from now on, I want to see towering drives off the tee by
Woods, the approach to the green skills of Duval and Webb, and the
putting marksmanship of Sorenstam.
I want golf and I want it the way Arnold Palmer and Jack
Nicklaus would want it: pressure-packed on Sunday afternoon rather
than a ploy to bill the upcoming football season.
Fore!