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The sports highlight of February has been hockey’s 4 Nations Face-Off, a week-long exhibition that gathered NHL players from Canada, the U.S., Sweden and Finland during what would normally be the All-Star break. Played to record TV audiences, the games have been electric—emotional, occasionally bloody, with minimal money and mostly national pride at stake. There were three fights in the first nine seconds of the U.S.-Canada game last Saturday. On Monday night, with his team already assured a spot in the finals, the American star Brady Tkachuk was forced to leave the game early after charging full speed into a goal post.
As someone who had skates on long before setting foot on a putting green, the raw energy of the 4 Nations represents everything I love about hockey. It also underscores the nagging problem at the core of professional golf.
See if you can tell what’s missing from marketing pitches of the various new iterations of golf. LIV Golf has touted a party atmosphere and alternate format. TGL marries high-tech indoor golf and chatty interplay between golf superstars. Similarly, The Match and the recent Showdown, both produced by Golf Digest’s corporate cousins at TNT, draw you in on the promise of unfiltered A-listers tussling over briefcases full of cash. This is not where I argue these efforts are misguided. They all have their moments. It’s just that none of these new concepts are straining to convince you how much the athletes involved genuinely care. |
