Let's Check In On The Walk-Up Music At The Zurich Classic And OH BOY
Well that was awkward as hell! In case you don’t know, the PGA Tour is down in New Orleans this week for the Zurich Classic. It’s an interesting event cause it became a team event in 2017. A very cool wrinkle. Always interesting to see which guys team up. Then this year they’re experimenting with walk up music on the first tee. We (me, Riggs and Frankie) have all been skeptical of the idea. Why? Cause it’s an idea that sounds cool in theory. I mean who doesn’t love walk up music in baseball? It gets the hitter going, it tells you a little bit about the guy and, in theory, it makes for a cool atmosphere. It just works.
Walk up music in golf though? We just saw that it doesn’t totally work. Honestly, I wanted to peel the skin off my body and throw it out the window. That’s how awkward and cringeworthy it was. The fans didn’t now how to react. I appreciate the effort from Ben Crane and Alex Cejka but damn. It was funny but not for the reason they wanted it to be funny. Walk up music could maybe work if they tweaked it a little bit. Like, they should’ve played the music as the golfers were actually walking up to the tee. That way they wouldn’t have to have a dance routine planned. They can just tip their cap and tee off. What we just watched was two white guys dancing during the later parts of a wedding reception, except it wasn’t a wedding reception, it was the first tee at a golf tournament and it was weird.
You know where this would work? The 16th hole at the Waste Management. Think about it. You start playing the music before the fans on 16 even see the golfer. Remember when ‘Enter Sandman’ would play as Mariano Rivera made his way to the mound to close out a game? Same thing for golfers on 16 at the WMPO. Music plays, people get pumped, guy walks out, madness. It’d be a little tough since the players are in groups and it’d take a couple years for guys to have a song be their song but you get what I’m saying.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that the Zurich Classic is trying stuff. This blog makes me sound like a big time hater but I swear I’m not. But we can’t just change stuff and celebrate it simply for being a change. The change has to work. #GrowTheGame is a silly hashtag but golf does need to grow, particularly in the younger demographics. I’m all for that. I’d rather the PGA Tour try stuff than not try stuff. Look at the European Tour. They’re always trying stuff. They’ve experimented with a shot clock and night golf. I’m just saying walk up music in golf might not be the thing that gets younger people involved. Certainly not in the form we just watched.