It’s This View That Their View Might Hurt the Game

I might not play golf well, but I’ve always considered myself the Ben Hogan of golf watchers, a gallery hall of famer.

Timing is everything. Given a course map, tee-off times and good walking shoes, I know how to beat the crowds to the ropes at a PGA tournament so that I can follow Nick Faldo for a few holes, watch John Daly drive a couple of times and see Ben Crenshaw putt.

My $20 daily ticket buys me the same right as anyone else to the front row.

Or it did until this week.

Strategic Marketing International LLC has devised GolfWatch for four PGA tournaments this year, debuting at the Nissan Open Thursday through Sunday at Riviera.

For $1,500, golf fans--corporate clients in most cases--will have their own express lanes next to the fairways and seats near the greens, giving them preferred viewing locations for the week.

Jack Vickers, the SMI chairman, calls it golf’s version of the NBA courtside seat, which is fine as long as it works the same way. When Jack Nicholson sits a couple of seats over from the visiting team’s bench at the Forum, he doesn’t obstruct anyone else’s view.

He won’t if he buys a premium ticket to the L.A. Open, either, Vickers says. When possible, express lanes will be put on the side of fairways opposite the regular galleries. When impossible, premium ticket-holders will be encouraged to use portable folding chairs that their $1,500 buys them.

I’m skeptical, but Vickers deserves the benefit of the doubt until we see how it works this week.

I’m more bothered because golf, which hardly has an egalitarian image, appears to be segregating the rich from the not so rich. This at a time when Tiger Woods is almost single-handedly breaking down barriers, appealing to races and classes that didn’t always feel welcome in the sport.

SMI President Barry Brokaw says that wasn’t the motivation for GolfWatch, pointing out that Vickers conceived it long before Woods became a pro, much less an icon. The motivation, he says, was to provide a service for corporate sponsors.

In return, they serve. Selling 1,000 weekly passes at $1,500 instead of $60 creates a lot more revenue, not only for the purse but for charity.

I’m also comforted that the premium ticket-holders still have to walk, just like everyone else, at least until, as someone suggested, the PGA finds a way to line the fairways with moving sidewalks.

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The San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday is jinxed. The West Coast’s top three Kentucky Derby candidates were supposed to run until Silver Charm came down with a fever last week, Boston Harbor broke a bone in his leg Monday and Mud Route developed inflammation in his shin Wednesday. . . .

Mud Route probably will need a month to heal, leaving him too little time to prepare for the Derby on May 3. Pity. Trainer Ron McAnally last week told the Daily Racing Form the horse reminds him of Kelso. . . .

Dennis Scott told the Orlando Sentinel that Shaquille O’Neal wishes he had remained in Orlando, especially now that Coach Brian Hill is gone, and might return when his Laker contract expires. . . .

Shaq says best friend Scott knows him better than anyone else but denies he wants to leave L.A. . . .

ESPN-The Store opens this fall in the Glendale Galleria. You can have a Tickle Me, Olbermann, in time for the holidays. . . .

I can’t fault Henry Bibby for responding honestly when he said he would consider a job at Memphis because it pays twice as much as USC. . . .

It would have been better for his team, however, if he had politely deferred answering until after the season. The Trojans don’t need distractions in the stretch run for an NCAA berth. . . .

Bibby says the Trojans will be invited to the tournament if they win three of their last four games. I’m guessing that will get them into the NIT. . . .

After Texas became Brand X champion in 1978, legendary sports information director Jones Ramsey said, “We won the NIT. A year ago, we couldn’t even spell it.”

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While wondering how Grantland Rice wrote in an era without Dennis Rodman, Riddick Bowe and Tonya Harding, I was thinking: It’s hard to take the L.A. Marathon seriously as a major sporting event, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang should play Davis Cup in Newport Beach, Jack Murphy deserves better.