I grew up with the same name as my dad, and it always caused a lot of confusion. It actually still does. So I can sort of feel the PGA Tour’s pain here today.
One of the more common mistakes made by casual golf fans and non-golf media outlets alike is confusing the PGA Tour and the PGA of America.
They’re separate organizations now, with the Tour running the vast majority of pro events (but none of the majors), and the PGA handling many other functions not related to top-level professional golf, and also running the PGA Championship and partnering with the European Tour to stage the Ryder Cup.
It’s understandably confusing, given the PGA moniker (and even moreso when you consider that neither organization has anything to do with the Masters, U.S. Open, or British Open), and it does lead to occasional criticism levied at the wrong organization.
With the PGA Championship teeing off today (the second edition with ESPN handling the first two days of coverage, well-received last year), the PGA Tour took to Twitter to preemptively remind everyone just who they should be directing any and all tweets at this weekend:
Round 1 coverage of the PGA Championship will be available exclusively on ESPN+ and ESPN. The PGA of America, who owns and operates the PGA Championship, controls all digital streaming and broadcast rights to this event. @PGATOURLIVE will resume next week @CSChallengeFW.
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 20, 2021
Unfortunately, that tweet ended up angering people in itself, though presumably they sent it because otherwise they’d be dealing with a deluge of similar sentiments all week. Some examples of people who took the tweet to mean something different than it actually did:
Imagine not being able to watch the “PGA Championship” on “PGA Tour Live” lol
— Lesley (@DoinkTheCIown) May 20, 2021
Not even a friggin' tracker available
— Philip (@Philip19s) May 20, 2021
Thank God I bought @nbc GOLD last week. Great work
— Dan (@dannysharps) May 20, 2021
https://twitter.com/onemoretweeter/status/1395351019622522880
This is, of course, fantastic irony. Essentially, the Tour had hoped to clarify things and address this early (as evidenced by the tweet coming at the beginning of the opening round.)
Translated: “Do not, under any circumstances, @ me.” 😂 https://t.co/rG2S0zcEWB
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) May 20, 2021
Instead, it just exposed exactly how common this mistake is, including the possibility that some paying subscribers wouldn’t have noticed.
