It’s almost three years since 12 of the biggest football clubs in the world announced plans to form a European Super League. Terrible idea. It rocked the sport, and caused uproar amongst fans, who accused the clubs of sticking two fingers up to everyone else. However, it wasn't just the sheer greed of this brazen move that disappointed me - rather what it would do to the 'beautiful game'.
It didn't happen - or hasn't yet, at least. How shocking it was for these founding clubs that not everyone was salivating at the prospect of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City playing each other more regularly in a competition that completely closed off anyone else.
I couldn’t help but think of this sorry saga again recently when hearing, not for the first time, that ‘golf has to find a way of getting the world’s best players on the same stage again’. I almost threw my remote at the television, much in the same manner as I do when I hear LIV Golf players talking about “growing the game”.
Although the men’s game is suffering with an image problem and the current fractured state is far from ideal, I’m sure that I’m not the only one who doesn't feel short-changed on a Sunday night when Messrs Rahm, Scheffler, McIlroy, Koepka, Hovland and Smith aren’t all trading blows with one another.
Quite the opposite, in fact. Whether it’s a Tour rookie, journeyman or a world’s top 10 player, I’d sooner watch a tournament play out as it has done in its many previous years than tune in to something manufactured that ensures Sunday’s leaderboard is jam-packed with star names. Sometimes ‘ordinary’ finishes are fine – it makes the thrillers even more memorable.
Like every golf fan in the world, with Masters week a little over three weeks away, I’m buzzing with excitement. Except for Christmas, tournament golf doesn’t pause for breath these days, but despite the endless globetrotting and hours of live coverage, this is the real start of the season, when the best players in the world lock horns for the first Major Championship of the season. This is when we really want to see the game’s finest battling it out, not on a weekly basis.
Golf isn’t the only sport obsessed with this idea that, at the elite end, its star names must be competing with each other on a regular basis. In fact, it’s hard to think of a sport that doesn’t subscribe to this theory.
Allow me to use darts as just one example. For 16 straight weeks, eight of the best players in the business compete in the Premier League, before a playoff in London to determine the overall champion. Week one is fantastic; week two is really good; week three is worth watching if you’re not doing anything else; then, well, meh.
Back to the Super League. Picture the scenario. A friend asks whether you fancy watching the Barcelona versus Real Madrid game down the pub. Remember, this is the Super League – two footballing giants, and here's a bonus midweek El Clásico. Only it’s the fifth meeting of the season. ‘No thanks, mate, I’ve got yoga tonight, I’ll watch the next one with you at the end of the month.’
I’m no rugby fan, but I’ll watch the Six Nations, and I’m pretty sure that’s because England don’t seem to be playing Scotland every other week. When I go down the pub to watch it – and this is a game where I’d struggle to name more than one or two rules – I’m drawn to the buzz and anticipation the fans are feeling.
I am a horseracing fan. I might be digressing a touch, but the idea of a five-day Cheltenham Festival makes me want to scream, as does the daft idea of holding a World Cup every two years. Absolute nonsense, Mr Wenger – shame on you. The phrase, 'Killing the the Golden Goose' comes to mind.
Money talks, of course, and sponsors want to know that they are receiving good return on investment. Putting the best up against the best, however, is a model that I don’t see working long term. I'm firmly in the less is more camp.
So I hope that whenever the world of men’s professional golf finds a way forward, and that the best players in the world can compete against each other more regularly, that they don’t end up doing so every week. As for some kind of golf super league… God forbid.
Can I suggest a meeting of the crème de la crème maybe eight times a year, including the four Majors? That, in my opinion, would be just about right. And can I also suggest that we all listen a bit more to Max Homa, who had this to say when asked at the Players Championship recently as to what could make the sport more watchable.
“I don't know. I do feel like we're stuck in this age where we're nitpicking absolutely everything. I'm not going to say I haven't done that as well in my free time, but I'm kind of getting over it. It's golf. It's slower. It's not football, it's not basketball.
“But there's a lot of beauty in it. I think if I had to pick one thing I would like, Fridays out here are awesome when we do have a cut. I think something just to lean into, Friday's not determining the golf tournament, let's follow some guys sweating the cut line. Little things like that.”
Hear, hear, Max.
