The Power Fade Golf Blog

This week’s FAIL goes to the crowd at Atlanta Athletic Club.

On Thursday, I was at my desk quietly watching Tiger in his round. He pushed a ball into the trees and hit a beautiful 4-iron onto the green. Then, this guy comes running out of the crowd for his 15 minutes.

I almost fell out of my chair.

All week long the announcers were ripping on the AAC crowd. I think perhaps the best is Ian Baker-Finch’s line “I told you they were breeding in there.”

A friend of mine went on Friday and saw Rory McIlroy hit a poor shot from a bunker, wherein it rolled back to his feet. A fan (not 10 feet from the action) yelled out “Oh my God! That was a horrible shot! He didn’t even get it out of the bunker!” While I have used this line repeatedly on my friend since then, it’s absolutely unacceptable at a major tournament.

On Sunday, I was standing on the tee box of the 14th hole when Bubba Watson came through with a crowd of followers. After hitting his shot, literally 7 different people in the crowd yelled out “Go Dawgs.” Like we’re at a football game instead of a golf tournament. I’m sorry, who are the dogs? Which player is the dogs? I must not understand this idiotic recitation–in the middle of a pro golf tournament. I know Bubba went to UGA, but come on. I doubt the guy even likes football.

Given the events of the week, I can’t see the PGA returning to AAC for awhile. While it was a great tournament, the players HATED the course–they couldn’t stand the bermuda rough and really didn’t care for the greens, everyone disliked the bunkers, and most thought the course was too penal in the final stretch of holes. And, as noted here, the crowds were obnoxious (thanks for giving ATL a bad name).

Given all, it was a great tournament, but we can expect it will be awhile before they return to AAC. Here’s looking forward to East Lake in a few weeks.