Mike and Mike and "Mashed Potatoes"

Golf, being the gentleman's sport that it is, tends not to have too many issues with its fans. Basketball had its "Malice at the Palace" (the infamous brawl that involved players entering the stands and patrons coming onto the floor). Baseball has it boos, its booze and its Bartman. Football's booze frequently tends to lead to brawls in the bleachers. Point being, rowdiness and often recklessness is commonplace at most sporting venues outside of golf.

Golf events encourage boozing as well. Beer trucks tend to be on every other hole, but the quality of fan and experience that these fans expect is very different than that of other sports.

That is why a recent trend of yelling nonsense after a player's shot has ticked off many people who love the game of golf and its tradition of class.

What began as fans supportively yelling things like "Get in the hole!" after Tiger Woods hit, eventually lead to fans cleverly yelling "Baba Booey", replicately a hilarious moment in television history where The Howard Stern Show's Gary Dell'abate crashed a White House presser. It was funny once, but since has become a moment that golfers and fans dread hearing after a player's shot. The issue became more noticable over the weekend when one eccentric fan yelled "mashed potatoes" repeatedly throughout the broadcast. His comic genius became evident later when he eventually switched his famous line to "scalloped potatoes".

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Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic of ESPN's Mike and Mike radio/television show brought the issue to light this morning, becoming increasingly passionate about putting an end to the "iodacy".

Greenberg and Golic, casual fans of the sport, are saying what most people are beginning to think about the rediculous practice. Greenberg called it "pathetic".


 My Take:

Pathetic is definitely a poinent word for what is happening at these golf events. As I mentioned, it was funny once, but there is no cleverness to "mashed potatoes". It's stupid. This is why something like this would not be tolerated at Augusta. They would never stand for it, as was mentioned on Mike and Mike during their rant. It in no way benefits the game, and on the other side of hurts its historical class tremendously.

These fans should be thrown out. People aren't sold on golf as it is. The general public finds it to be a boring game, and if it wasn't for Tiger Woods, the game would be off limits to the common person. That is not to say there should stay so bland, and people doing exciting things like yelling shouldn't have a place in the game. It should. But it needs to be something more intelligent and exicting than whatever this new trend is. It has no place in the game.