Not me, must be the equipment, caddie, spectators, marshals

When did some professional golfers determine that bad play, shot or outcome in an individual sport was someone or something else’s fault? Over the last two weeks of watching way too much golf on TV I have noticed that some of today’s golfers think that errant shots or a bad hole is not actually their fault. Before I go any further, I admit that I have had some bad days on the golf course and done nothing but blame someone or something. I have been known to mumble a little bit, even about squirrels scampering up a tree. But I’m by no means a professional golfer. Two weeks ago I observed Rory McIlroy pull the “Colin Montgomery” glare at the caddie for what he could only have felt was a misclub by the caddie. Even the announcer commented on it. Lee Westwood apparently hadn’t practiced or used his new clubs before his season began, as he dubbed them feeling like fishing poles. Geez, his equipment company flew a club fitter out just to make him happy (not sure that mission was accomplished). Not sure how to take the “slanderous” comment by fellow Phil Mickelson golfer. Could that be interpreted as, “I don’t have any of those clubs so now I can’t play as well”…. Not sure personally on that one. (My other opinion on that is “Get a life and worry about it instead of someone else’s”, but that’s probably another future blog idea). Another questionable “blame” event had to be by one of my favorite active golfers. Retief Goosen hits one out of play into a lateral hazard and to put it mildly was a little ticked no one (fan or marshal) saw it cross the hazard. I am only going based on the TV coverage as I saw no post round interviews of him. But when was the last time you played golf that you didn’t watch a ball to mark where you thought it crossed a hazard. And gee the bad swing was really the issue to begin with. Hey I get the heat of the moment or heat of the battle. At the end of the day it’s the golfer who hit the shot and not all this other stuff that is really at fault. I would much rather see someone like Tiger yell at himself than someone blame someone or something else.