What Do Golf Fans Want to Read?

After the Presidents Cup, Golf World took what I though to be a cheap shot at Woody Austin.

The direct quote was, "His mental fragility is frightening." Now, I found this offensive for a number of reasons and wrote the following letter which Golf World published:

"His mental fragility is frightening." No, the media's ceaseless characterizations of Woody Austin as man on the brink is what's scary. No one who plays professional sports for a living, let alone one who has made well over $2,000,000 just this year, is anything like fragile. Why not let Woody Austin revel in his great play at the Presidents Cup? Real lovers of the game just aren't that interested in whether he fell in the water or not. Sometimes I think that Golf World's staff would be better suited to covering Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
--Paul Cervantes

This week, I stumbled upon this reply to my letter by a Golf World Online Editor.

Paul, while I tend to agree that Woody is mentally sturdier than he leads us to believe, your "no one who plays professional sports...is anything like fragile" got me thinking: Jimmy Piersall, Bill Lee, Dennis Rodman, Mark Fydrich, Steve Sax, Chuck Knoblauch, Rick Ankiel....and I'm not even into placekickers yet. Readers, I'm sure you can add to the list....
--Bob Carney

Of course, there's no way that I could leave well enough alone, or let that comment be the last word, so I replied:

First of all, Jimmy Piersall suffered from bipolar disorder which makes his inclusion on your list a really dubious choice. The other guys you mention may (or may not) have been less mentally robust than you'd like them to be, but did it really affect their ability to perform? If it didn't, why would it be relevant to you as a reporter?

That is the very same point that I was making about Austin. What aspect of his personal psychology is relevant to his play at the Presidents Cup? Setting that aside, how much do you really know about his mental state? I stand by my view that the golf press would serve its readers better by sticking to what they know.

Now, beyond enjoying a good written back and forth, there are more important issues here. Specifically, the question of what golf fans want to read about? Of course, we all want some sense of the humanity of the players who hit those amazing shots.

At the same time, I think that what Golf World did was to perpetuate an unfounded myth about a successful tour player. Beyond this, their brand of armchair psychiatry put the game and the Presidents Cup onto the back burner.

It's hard for me to believe that's what the average golf fan cares about, but I've been wrong before.