With 'John Daly RIP' post, Robert Thompson proves to be a Classless Canuck; and why does USGA even bother having a blog?

For a while there, some of us around these parts had some giggles poking fun at Robert Thompson, a golf writer in Canada. It was just a little harmless fun, and we’d get a kick out of it because Thompson would get all upset and call us hacks and feel like we were raging some type of anti-Canada crusade.

Honestly, it was all in fun, but seeing Thompson’s latest post, headlined “John Daly, RIP,” I couldn’t help think “Wow, Robert Thompson’s a sick twisted jerk.”

After the “grabby” title, here’s what Thompson had to say:

Made you stop and consider the title, didn’t I.

No big JD isn’t dead — at least not yet. But everyone seems to expect that is the next step.

Wow. Just wow.

Ok, now I’ll admit that I put John Daly and Britney Spears in the same headline once in a naked attempt to get some hits, but I was having a little fun and the post was in the humorous vein.

Thompson’s post, however, is a long-winded “report” on Daly’s breakup with swing coach Butch Harmon, cobbled together via using quotes from AP stories and such. No new ground is covered and all Thompson really leaves us with is his groundbreaking opinion of the fact that he’s sick of John Daly.

Well, the fact is, Daly is sick, and that’s been gone over many times by many people. Sadly, Daly’s struggles may be worsening, and his self-destructive behavior may lead to the inevitable complete self-destruction of a fan favorite. Let’s hope he finds the help he needs.

As for Thompson, he’s proven himself sicker than Daly. Trying to draw in readers with a “John Daly RIP … heh heh, made you look” headline is morbid and classless. Yeah, yeah, you’re sick of Daly’s act, there’s a trite blog post for you. But Thompson took it up a notch with his headline and lead, and proved that he may or may not be a hack, but he’s certainly a jerk.

Why Does The USGA Have a Blog?

In my last post I noted that it had been 47 days since PGA Tour boss Tim Finchem had updated his blog (it’s now 52 days).

At the time, I noted that when you did a Google search for “Tim Finchem’s Blog” (sans quotations” my blog post about his blog came in second. I’ve fallen off, but now two of the top-five Google search results for Tim Finchem’s blog take readers here, to my blog. Basically, Tim Finchem deciding to write a blog is one of the best things to ever happen to me.

Now I find the same thing is true with the USGA’s blog. If you do a Google search of “USGA Blog” two of the top three posts will lead you hear, so you could read me giving a random and totally unprovoked attack on the USGA blog.

And, like Finchem’s blog, they aren’t much for updating it. The last update was Jan. 2, when Ken Klavon wrote:

The New Year, as always, introduces challenges. For instance, how do we do what we do better in 2008? How do we improve upon conducting the best national championships? How do we transcend the brand via the ‘For the good of the game’ mission? How does all this relate to the online efforts? Easy. We continue to tell our story.

Well, 71 days later, we all still anxiously await the USGA blog to give us an update and “transcend the brand.” At this point though, it seems like a new “Indiana Jones” movie is released more often than a blog post from the USGA.

Personally, I don’t even know what the point is with the PGA Tour and USGA having blogs. I’m pretty sure there was some meeting where some old guys at both places sat around saying “These blog things are popular. We need one. Let’s have blogs. But before you post anything, run them by everyone in management and then have the lawyers take a look at them.” Afterwards, all the old guys went into a back room and drank cognac from snifters and cursed the fact that they have to share this world with the common man.

So Tim (or whoever writes his blog) and the guys at the USGA, let me give you a big tip about blogging: The only way you’ll get readers is to update said blog, at least weekly. Otherwise, folks will just figure your hearts aren’t in it and forget about it altogether.

See what a good guy I am? I give this advice knowing full well that if you post more often, less people will come to my blog via Google. But hey, that’s the kinda guy I am.

–WKW