Hit & Giggle Season
Golf’s Silly Season is here. Much like a San Francisco summer, it's short-lived.
From a few months at the end of the old golf season, these money-grab “hit and giggles” have been replaced by over-hyped single pay-per-view contests.
“The Match(es)” isn’t a unique phenomenon from the past 2.5 year; the idea of having players compete in a more “fun” setting has been around decades:
Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf
- original ran from 1961-1970, mostly head-to-head stroke play contests
- revived from 1994-2003 by Golf Channel through Nicklaus Productions
- intimate with player’s dialog throughout, condensed into an hour for network TV
- often featured superstars of the day competing for bragging rights
- ran from 1983-2008, in Nov/Dec during old tour “off-season”
- 4 players, match play, win a hole outright for a skin (ties lead to carry overs)
- mic’ed up players, laid back vibe -> aka “Silly Season” monicker
- Fred Couples is Mr. Skin(s) -> 5 wins, $4.4M, 77 skins overall
- ran from 1999-2005, revived for 2012, all involved Tiger Woods
- played in Prime Time on a Monday night, variety of one-on-one and team events
- winners took home lion’s share of prize money
- four made-for-TV matches thus far: $10M match (Phil vs. Tiger), plus three team events
- Phil has played all (2-2 record), $9M winnings (all-time Silly Season winnings leader)
- last three events for charity (Covid-19 relief, HBCU, Feeding America)
KP for the deed to your vacation home!
While debatably entertaining, what would make things truly interesting is if a series were created where these millionaires put their own millions at stake….you know, like us mere mortals haggling over a bar tab after the round.
