On Sunday, Akron Beacon Journal writer Marla Ridenour posted a story with the headline “PGA Tour tramples its own history with decision to abandon Firestone“.
Break-up phrases like “shuffled to the side” and “error of its ways” are sprinkled throughout the story, painting the TOUR as jilting Firestone for another (richer) love interest.
But pro golf is a business. Firestone is just another stop in a history of stops that are ever changing. Think of some of the great past-played courses no longer on Tour: Cypress Point, Doral, La Costa, Westchester, Butler National, et al.
To read a well-crafted counter-point to Ridenour’s “I can’t believe you are leaving me!” emotive, check out the column “Rubber meets road for PGA Tour in Akron” by Gary Van Sickle in Morning Read, a daily golf email newsletter.
Van Sickle — a longtime national golf writer and photographer who travels the Tour — first lays out the case made in Ridenour’s story, but then goes off in a totally different direction.
The story’s transition line: “This is where I’m supposed to rage against the machine and fight against change and all of that trampled history.”
See where Van Sickle goes from there…
