Golf is the perfect sport for North Carolina

I remember coming to North Carolina, and within two days of moving here we had tickets to the minor league baseball team in town. My wife and I thought this would be fun, so we decided to meet up with some new acquantainces (my wife can make friends in about 5 seconds). Anyway, we got to the game, found our seats, and plopped down. Soon we got a call from the people we were going to meet there, and they were shocked we were in our seats. The direct quote was, "You guys are hard core." This was referring to the fact that we had come to actually watch the game. This was my first introduction to a sporting event in North Carolina, and my first impression is still my impression today.

Let me explain this some. When I moved from Austin to Denver, it was never hard to find sports on the radio. They always boasted being the best sports town in the country. I thought this was a stretch because Austin was a big sports town as well. As a sports fan I was never in want. People loved to talk about, watch, and support their sports teams in both cities. People loved the competition so much so that they were often blinded to their own fanatacism. When I moved to North Carolina I realized that sporting events are not at all about competition - they are about the event. People don't go to watch. People go to socialize. It is a rallying place for a party (drink beer and other alcoholic beverages while trying to make yourself look cool enough to be considered a big fish), and if you can't go then you might as well not even worry about it. An example of this is last seasons NCAA basketball tournament. While never getting any football on the radio, I figured that I would at least be able to get some basketball. Heck this is where Michael Jordan is from (even Wander and Scooty have to know who he is). So Texas was playing in the sweet 16 along with some other teams, and I happened to be driving home from Charlotte. This was no big deal because surely I would be able to listen on the radio. Nope! There were 4 am stations talking about Nascar, and there wasn't even a race going.

This leads me to my post title. Today I had the chance to attend my second PGA tour event in about 5 months. The frist was the Wachovia Challenge (I was big time with free admission and a free tent pass), and today was the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro (not as big time but still free with Carolina BBQ which I will have to write a post about someday). What is interesting is that golf tournaments fit the Carolina sports mentality perfectly. It is all about the even and not about the competition. People go to this stuff to drink beer, eat food, and check out other people. (Checking out other people is another way of saying looking at all the pretty women, of which there happens to be plenty, or at least this is what those I was with were telling me.) Every once and a while people will sneak a peak at the golfers. I saw Daly today who happens to have Hooter's girls follow him around because they sponsor him. I was fortunate enough to be at the green of Hole #10. The green is one heck of a SOB (grammar police ... is it "an SOB" or "a SOB") that has some nice relief to it. I saw some good shots and some not so good ones, but what I really enjoyed was the party. Maybe it is the whole event mentality that makes it hard for my wife to understand why it is so hard to miss a great football game on tv. It is not about the event it is about the competition.