Saturday, June 9, 2007

Eavesdropping on the golf course

Looks like the media in Japan just cant seem to get enough of their "shy prince" Ryo Ishikawa.
Recently in a tournament, Tokyo Broadcasting System made a request to place microphones on the participants playing in the same group as Ryo. They even wanted to place the microphones on Ryo's bag. The organisers refused to comply and rightly so.
It seems a helicopter was sent over the golf course when the round was in progress to cover the exploits of Ishikawa. This was done without the permission of the organisers. TBS has apologised for this senseless act but one wonders who came up with such a mindnumbingly dumb idea to send a chopper on a round above the course when there were participants playing in a tournament, trying to finish as high up on the leaderboard as possible so that they could secure a spot in the Japan Amateur championship.

Just recently PGA Tour golfer John Daly had suffered serious shoulder and rib injuries when he had to abort his swing midway through because of the distraction posed by an over enthusiastic photographer. In a sport like golf which requires such high levels of mental alertness one is surprised the young golfers from Japan did not lodge a strong protest against the Broadcasting station even though it may have apologised for it's utterly stupid act.
Although Ryo may have made a wonderful start to his golfing career by winning a professional event at the age of 15 , the media in Japan must tread with care and make sure that they do not unnecessarily overhype Ryo's achievements. No doubt he is fantastic player to watch out for in the future but this sort of attempt to track his every move could prove to be detrimental to his cause

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