Waste Of Time Management

Charley Hoffman's WM Open whining shows how extreme player entitlement makes the professional game susceptible to a dangerous split.

When we look back on the Tour Wars of 2022, Charley Hoffman’s post-round tirade will either,

(A) mark the day when the PGA Tour realized they’d let the lunatics run the asylum, or,

(B) Allowed a fatal grievance-culture mindset to define the image of professional golf, or,

(C) Both of the above.

The “athletes”, as the brass call them down at the Global Home, have come to believe they are bigger than the game. Some players are still grounded in reality, but plenty more let their negotiating leverage and years of sweet perks go to their heads. A disturbing number of PGA Tour golfers seem to believe they brought on the Saudi opportunity because of their sheer amazingness. It couldn’t have anything to do with Tiger Woods or an evil entity needing to refresh its image via sports sponsorship. Nope!

Today’s super-humans play courses manicured in almost unfathomably idyllic ways and live in a time when they can walk up to their ball, mash the grass down behind, and do something we might have called cheating just a decade or so ago. No one tells them to stop it.

Throw in gobs of money, a ball that flies super straight and “the product” believes it is entitled to whatever they want. This, even though at least 50% of today’s top 125 will be off the tour in five years and all but a handful of logo-clads could walk down most city streets, never to be recognized.

So it should be no surprise to read Charley Hoffman’s embarrassing post-round Instagram meltdown even when he’s serving as a “brand ambassador” for sponsor Waste Management. Irrational post-round whining is nothing new for Hoffman, long a proponent of the Tour making rules free from the USGA and R&A. But he’s also blissfully unaware of things you never hear at a PGA Tour event:

• What hole is Charley Hoffman on?

• What time does Charley Hoffman tee off?

• Have you seen that Charley Hoffman? Goosebumps!