By Larry Canning
BEFORE my controversial yet clearly brilliant media career began 12 years ago, I used to have regular conversations with my Dad about our mutual disappointment with media coverage of golf in this country.
We both blamed the journalists for their lack of commitment and wondered what it would take to fire them up and submit something.
Whilst my Dad’s view is still in a state of transition, I have seen the stark reality up close and personal and now know how hard it is for newspaper journalists to maintain the interest of their “football consumed” editors. The journos and journettes are perched behind their laptops, using every club in the bag to come up with an angle or a yarn to convince the boss’s that Jason Day’s victory at the World Golf Championships could get a mention somewhere near Josh Dugan’s change to St George. Or Adam Scott being on the threshold of overtaking Tiger Woods, (perhaps you’ve heard of him?), to become the World’s number one ranked golfer, might just be worthy of a reference in the same publication that had Adam Goodes headlined as another potential Brownlow winner.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of NRL and AFL and conveniently follow the red and white colours of both the Dragons and the Swans. Plus, I have nothing but respect for professional footballers who constantly show more courage than John Daly’s clothing sponsor but …. It’s getting to the point where Aussie golfers are more written about in newspapers elsewhere in the world than they are here!
Please step away from that next range ball or that sensual looking stubby of Coopers Pale Ale for a minute and consider this – we have a national population about the same size as the caddy shack at Augusta, but we have two Aussies in the World top 4!!!
Throw in the Earth’s best Woman Amateur in Minjee Lee, who could have easily just won the Women’s Australian Masters (LET event), then backed it up with the Australian Women’s Open (US LPGA Tournament) a few weeks ago and we are currently the talk of the golfing world!
Perhaps I should put it this way …. there are 196 countries on this planet. According to the World Golf Foundation, 118 of these are members of the International Golf Federation. I think it’s safe to say, most of these destinations have a newspaper and I also reckon we can conclude that golf is getting its fair share of coverage in the sports sections.
So who are they writing about? Well, now that we’ve moved on from Tiger Woods change of career direction from breaking Jack Nicklaus’s record to John Holmes’s, the news has swung to his poor form and who is his biggest threat. Now let’s see…. That would be Adam Scott or Jason Day wouldn’t it? As far as Women’s golf around the globe is concerned, it’s all about this 17 year old wiz-kid from Australia called Minjee Lee!!
Well everywhere except Australia!
In the words of a 92 year old legend named Arthur Canning, who has not so secretly harboured aspirations of taking over both Fairfax and Murdoch so he can give golf a better profile…… “What’s wrong with these D……..’s mate?!”