The Golf Blog: LPGA screws up again, denies press credentials to blogger
The Golf Blog says: We just got word that the LPGA denied press credentials to local blogger The Deep Rough (click here for the site), who lives 2 miles from the tournament site for the upcoming Sybase Classic.
This is pretty outrageous. The LPGA needs as much media coverage that it can get. It is hurting financially. It is hurting in fan interest. It is hurting in not having any identifiable “star” on tour who actually wins. The thought that the LPGA would turn away bloggers makes no sense at all. Once newspapers become practically extinct, bloggers will become the major source of news for many local events.
Several years back, we at The Golf Blog did receive press credentials for an LPGA event. We were very thankful to the LPGA and the host site, and we thought the LPGA was headed in the right direction. But that was back when Annika Sorenstam was still around, when the future of the LPGA looked rosy. What we learned is this: the so called golf “reporters” mainly sat on their behinds all day and then asked slanted questions with answers that they had already predetermined in order to write the angle on the story they had been thinking about between mouthfuls of the free food they were eating. Not all of the golf beat reporters were that bad, but a good number were. Bloggers are no worse, and many are better in asking honest, but probing questions. Golf bloggers often have loyal readers and a local connection to tournaments. Of course, the LPGA shouldn’t be handing out press credentials to every blogger, if the press passes are in high demand. But when media coverage of the LPGA is so little, the LPGA should welcome golf bloggers with open arms.
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