Can't We Do Anything Right?

Last week  I wrote about the US Open golf championship. Well, the USGA, just as they have many times before, messed up a great tournament. Shinnecock Hills is a magnificent old course. But, like many old courses, it was not designed to play with fast greens. Seaside means wind. In Europe, where they have many such courses, they sensibly keep the greens slow. The USGA has a strange obsession with super fast greens and to get that they shave the grass and double roll them to pack the sand. Sand is another issue. It requires  much water to keep grass alive. On top of that, they use a grass called poa annua. It is not a true grass and, as the day passes, it grows and becomes bumpy. and the sun and wind make it dry and crusty. They could use fescue or Bermuda, but for reasons I have never heard explained, they don't. They should/
In short, the greens become hard and way too fast and the last groups are putting on something  resembling cauliflower, with the wind blowing the ball all over the place. You can manage that on nice flat greens, but, like many old courses, Shinneccok's greens are full of odd angles and slopes.  The course becomes unplayable. Yeah , you can play a round, but it is not a test of skills, as the USGA claims. It is more a survival test.  The USGA has a history of this and is rapidly losing all credibility.
On top of that, we had Phil Mickelson acting like a spoiled brat. He missed a putt and ran across the green and whacked the moving ball to keep it from rolling off the green. Yes, it was a frustrating day, but no one else acted like a petulant child. He insulted a game that has made him millions of dollars. Them making matters worse, claimed he knew what he was doing and the 2 stroke penalty was better that having the ball go off the green. Nonsense. He likely would have made an 8. but that beats a 10. He did get that 2 stroke penalty, but he could  and should have been DQed.
Why all this fuss over golf, The golf is not the point. We Americans have developed an obsession with power and speed and either we back off that to a reasonable degree or we will lose many grand old traditions, like golf at classic courses. Plus, we have grown to tolerate stupid displays of selfish, childish behavior, especially by celebrities. I love golf, but many of its  stars are becoming spoiled purulent kids, and that is an insult to kids everywhere. What is true for athletes is true for many other citizens. Last week, Robert Diniro went off on a profanity laced, public condemnation of the President, There are still some of us, probably many of us, who find that offensive, but he will go on making countless dollars and spewing venom
We do not need pro athletes and we do not need big name performers. We may enjoy them, but we don't need them. On the other hand, they need us and they need to realize that. No audience, no money. I remember when golf pros got 20000 for winning a tournament, sometimes less. WE all thought that 20000 for 4 days work was huge money. Now, they get around a million. They have no right to get stupidly angry and no right to ever just go out and use a tournament to warm up for one of the major events and many admit that they do just that. The fans deserve better for the large sum they pay for tickets.. Football players should respect the Country, baseball players shoud learn the basics of the game ( they make many errors that in the past would not have been tolerated by managers and team owners), basketball players should learn that they need to do more than run and slam the ball, and entertainers should be overjoyed that folks pay their hard earned money to watch their antics.
This is all symptomatic of the problems we have in this Country. Americans have grown comfortable with the  mediocre. the inane and the downright insulting.If we cannoy even put on a golf tournament, how can we get down to solving problems and making America great again. Because, let's face it, President Trump is right. We lost our greatness and mast make up our minds to get it back.