The recently started thread about kids being the future of pool got me thinking. Pool’s image is not comparable to that of golf, and yet, though it’s not widely publicized today, pro golf was a lot like pro pool once upon a time. In the 1950’s, the greatest in golf, including Hogan and Snead, always gambled with other golfers (many of them pro and many of them amateur) as a necessary means of supplementing their far-too-thin earnings from tournaments. It gave golfers a bit of a shady image. Golf then was like pool today, and had it remained that way, it might never have gained the following it has today.
One man deserves most of the credit for making golf completely respectable, and that would be Arnold Palmer. At tournaments, he spent a lot of his free time talking with the fans of the game and networking with many corporate executives, unlike his fellow pros who were more inclined to fraternize with each other. Between tournaments, he used to visit some of those he'd met for a friendly game of golf with no money riding on it, just to build goodwill in his sport. Most importantly, though, he sold his fellow pros on following his lead to revamp their image and make themselves far more attractive to corporate sponsors. A well-known story is how he sat Jack Nicklaus down in the early 60’s and read him the riot act. Jack was a grouchy fellow who found little time for either the fans or the corporate executives, and Palmer was getting upset about it. Jack just wanted to play golf. Arnold, however, realized in full that Nicklaus was a rising superstar whose behavior would be visible for many years to come, and warned Jack not to “undo all my hard work” by projecting the wrong image to the fans and the corporate sponsors. Jack was equal to the task, and changed his ways. In the end, most of those in his sport followed Arnold’s lead to the great benefit of their sport. Success took some time coming, but it came.
Tiger Woods has done more for junior golf than any player in history, but without Arnold Palmer, he’d have never gotten the stage that enabled him to have such an impact.
Is the sport we love on the right track? I hope so, but have my doubts. At the BCA Open in Vegas, which I attended, amateurs gambled with amateurs, amateurs gambled with pros, and pros gambled with pros. Some of the action took place on the bar tables at the tournament venue at the Riviera, some of it at the nearby Cue Club. The “action games”, most notably Immonen vs Pagulayan at the Cue Club (which could be viewed for free), a late night marathon match that took place while both remained in the draw of the men’s professional section of the BCA Open, generated as much talk as any of the matches in the BCA Open pro event. How many of us would pay to attend a golf tournament if we could watch for free the best competing for huge money the same weekend as the tournament? Another thing about the BCA Open was that a lot of cigarettes were smoked and an enormous amount of alcohol was consumed by the playing participants. The halls were horribly smoky, reminiscent of the poolrooms of the 1960’s, and would have turned off any potential sponsor, or at very least, led them to the conclusion that pool has yet to evolved past its “smoky” past.
It’s no surprise that pool has managed to have Camel cigarettes and Gordon’s Gin as two of its bigger sponsors in the last decade, and both of those pulled out when the financial going got tough. Golf has American Express and Cadillac, and numerous other high profile sponsors that sell primarily to the demographic that pool wants to attract. Sadly, pool will have to become respectable first, and there’s little evidence that respectability is on pool’s agenda.
I guess what I’m saying is that pool needs its Arnold Palmer figure real soon. Until that figure comes along, pool will not have the respectability that would make the emergence of a Tiger Woods type of figure even possible.
One man deserves most of the credit for making golf completely respectable, and that would be Arnold Palmer. At tournaments, he spent a lot of his free time talking with the fans of the game and networking with many corporate executives, unlike his fellow pros who were more inclined to fraternize with each other. Between tournaments, he used to visit some of those he'd met for a friendly game of golf with no money riding on it, just to build goodwill in his sport. Most importantly, though, he sold his fellow pros on following his lead to revamp their image and make themselves far more attractive to corporate sponsors. A well-known story is how he sat Jack Nicklaus down in the early 60’s and read him the riot act. Jack was a grouchy fellow who found little time for either the fans or the corporate executives, and Palmer was getting upset about it. Jack just wanted to play golf. Arnold, however, realized in full that Nicklaus was a rising superstar whose behavior would be visible for many years to come, and warned Jack not to “undo all my hard work” by projecting the wrong image to the fans and the corporate sponsors. Jack was equal to the task, and changed his ways. In the end, most of those in his sport followed Arnold’s lead to the great benefit of their sport. Success took some time coming, but it came.
Tiger Woods has done more for junior golf than any player in history, but without Arnold Palmer, he’d have never gotten the stage that enabled him to have such an impact.
Is the sport we love on the right track? I hope so, but have my doubts. At the BCA Open in Vegas, which I attended, amateurs gambled with amateurs, amateurs gambled with pros, and pros gambled with pros. Some of the action took place on the bar tables at the tournament venue at the Riviera, some of it at the nearby Cue Club. The “action games”, most notably Immonen vs Pagulayan at the Cue Club (which could be viewed for free), a late night marathon match that took place while both remained in the draw of the men’s professional section of the BCA Open, generated as much talk as any of the matches in the BCA Open pro event. How many of us would pay to attend a golf tournament if we could watch for free the best competing for huge money the same weekend as the tournament? Another thing about the BCA Open was that a lot of cigarettes were smoked and an enormous amount of alcohol was consumed by the playing participants. The halls were horribly smoky, reminiscent of the poolrooms of the 1960’s, and would have turned off any potential sponsor, or at very least, led them to the conclusion that pool has yet to evolved past its “smoky” past.
It’s no surprise that pool has managed to have Camel cigarettes and Gordon’s Gin as two of its bigger sponsors in the last decade, and both of those pulled out when the financial going got tough. Golf has American Express and Cadillac, and numerous other high profile sponsors that sell primarily to the demographic that pool wants to attract. Sadly, pool will have to become respectable first, and there’s little evidence that respectability is on pool’s agenda.
I guess what I’m saying is that pool needs its Arnold Palmer figure real soon. Until that figure comes along, pool will not have the respectability that would make the emergence of a Tiger Woods type of figure even possible.
