Ten years ago, if a person were to mention the PGA Tour and NASCAR in the same sentence, you could be pretty sure the person was sipping too much 12-year-old scotch in the clubhouse or had ingested a bad combination of Milwaukee’s Best and gasoline fumes. Today, however, is a completely different era. Instead of the turned up collars of golf fans looking down on the blue collars of racing fans, the two sports have more in common than fans of either sport might think.
For starters, the most obvious similarity is coming next year when the PGA Tour adopts the FedEx Cup, which is a season-long competition for points that qualify the players for a shot at the title at the end of the year. If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then NASCAR should be flattered. The wildly popular Chase for the Championship started a few years ago has generated more fan interest throughout the season and guaranteed the most popular drivers will be on hand every week. This is obviously the hope that Commissioner Tim Finchem has for the Tour. From there, the comparisons aren’t quite as glaring, but when a guy named Bubba is near the top of the tour in driving distance, and Tiger Woods’ caddy is sporting a Valvoline logo, that comparison has to be made. Add that to the fact that these are two of the remaining sports in which the participants are paid based on their performance and you have the perfect combination for generating fan interest.
If you haven’t noticed, in the past few years, the NASCAR drivers have become more like the audience they are trying to attract. If you took the drivers and the golfers and put them all in suits and ties, it would be difficult to determine who does what. There are always going to be the NASCAR drivers who fit the old stereotypes. They will talk with accents, wear shirts with no sleeves and take offense to Jeff Foxworthy jokes. Likewise, there will always be golfers who will never set foot in a clubhouse that doesn’t have mouthwash in the bathroom, but these are becoming the exception rather than the rule.
I can hear Tiger Woods now after finishing his round. “I was getting a little loose there when I made the turn, but I have to give credit to Hank Haney, Stevie Williams and the rest of this Buick, Nike, American Express team. They all did a heck of a job, and I was able to get it straightened out and hold off the Callaway and Ford guys.”
If you still have your doubts about the similarities of the sports, just go to a PGA tour event and sit in the stands of the par 3 on the back nine next to the beer stand. Count the number of times you hear, “You da man!” or ,”Get in the hole.” Then find the NASCAR event closest to you and see if that same kind of guy isn’t there cheering on his favorite driver. It’s a new era, and those of us who are fans of both sports are in for a great ride.
Blaine Pinkerton is a technical representative for Green Velvet Sod Farms in Dayton, Ohio. He can be reached at blaine@greenvelvet.com.
