Have Tour Golfers Forgotten That They're in The Entertainment Business

View From The Fairway by Derek Clements

Did you watch the World Darts Championship? And did you watch the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the first event of the 2025 PGA Tour season?

If you answered ‘yes’ to both, here is another question: which one did you most enjoy? The chaos at Alexandra Palace or the action on the perfectly manicured fairways trodden by an elite field of multi-millionaire golfers?

For me it is a no-brainer. I eat, sleep and drink golf but despite fact that Hideki Matsuyama rewrote the record books in Hawaii the darts wins hands down. 

Let me say here and now that in no way can this be classed as a sport, and to hear the commentators and pundits describe the participants as athletes and talk about the stamina of darts players makes me laugh out loud. 

If they struggle with the effort of throwing darts for 90 minutes it is because they are not fit. And, let’s be brutally honest here, most of them are grossly overweight. That should be little surprise - this is a pub game. Even teenage world champion Luke Littler has a sizeable paunch.

But I have an admission - I have been to Alexandra Palace on several occasions to watch the darts. I have also been to the O2 to see the Premier League Darts final. And I love it.

Why? Because it is an entertainment business that cares about its followers. The players interact with the fans, happily sign autographs and pose for endless selfies. Even during the biggest of tournaments they make time for their supporters. They are also not afraid to show their emotions and encourage wild celebrations from the fans who come to watch them. 

And they are proper characters. Offered the choice between having a few beers with Scottie Scheffler or a teenage Luke Littler, I would choose the latter every day of the week.

I am in no way saying that I want to see darts-style crowds turning up at golf tournaments. Heaven knows, we already have that at the WM Phoenix Open in Arizona and it can all be a pretty unedifying sight. But it is surely not to much to ask of the world’s best golfers that they should be able to give more to their galleries.

Can PGA Tour players honestly say that their first priority is putting on a show for the galleries? With hand on hearts, can they claim to give enough of themselves to their fans?

I don’t believe so.

When you watch the likes of Littler, Luke Humphries, Stephen Bunting and Michael van Gerwen on stage you just know that they feed off the crowd. And they constantly interact with them. 

There is also a genuine sense of camaraderie among darts players. When Australian Damon Heta threw a nine-darter, his opponent, Luke Woodhouse, celebrated almost as wildly as Heta. Remember that Heta’s performance meant that Woodhouse lost the leg. It was wonderful to see. I simply cannot imagine seeing the same sort of thing in professional golf.

When Robert MacIntyre joined the PGA Tour in 2024 he said that the thing he struggled most to come to terms with was the sense of isolation. On the DP World Tour, players socialise together. That simply doesn’t happen in America. Players generally keep themselves to themselves. They don’t mix with each other or with the fans.

Is it any wonder that so many young golfers end up battling with their demons, turning to drugs and/or drinking too much?

There are times when the behaviour of Tyrrell Hatton drives me to distraction. He acts like a spoilt child. But at least he shows that he cares. I love watching Tom Kim play because he wears his heart on his sleeve and lives every single shot he hits. And he loves to play to the crowd.

There is no better swing in professional golf than that of Patrick Cantlay but do you know anybody who roots for him? When he hits an approach stone dead or drains a lengthy putt, the American barely acknowledges the crowd. And he is not alone. Too many American PGA Tour players perform like robots.

You will know that I am no fan of LIV Golf but it most certainly knows that one of its top priorities is to entertain. 

The PGA Tour needs to remind its players that they are in the entertainment business. They have a duty to the fans who come to watch them. Jay Monahan will almost certainly never have watched a darts match in his life but I hope that somebody sends him a link because his sport can most definitely learn something from Littler & Co.

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