PGA TOUR: FCC complaints over profanity are overblown

The PGA TOUR is great at giving fans access to players in competition, perhaps better than anybody else out there. Of course, in the heat of competition, many players don’t have a filter. That’s to be expected, but not according to the FCC complaints the TOUR received this year.

The PGA TOUR continues to see its popularity rise at a meteoric rate. From young superstars taking the game by storm to the access fans are given by outstanding TV coverage, we often feel like we’re between the ropes, no matter where a tournament is being played. But that has also led to a different rise: FCC complaints over cursing being heard on those same broadcasts.

The TOUR received nine – NINE – such complaints in 2018, which is understandable to some degree. After all, there are certain segments of the golf-viewing population that are used to the prim and proper broadcasts of a time that isn’t really that long ago. And while I’m not a prude by just about any definition, I understand the idea that golf is a “clean” sport that should be considered safe family viewing.

But then there’s the reality of the situation, which paints a slightly different (and more realistic) picture. Today’s top players are largely of a younger generation, one which grew up on Tiger Woods instead of Ben Hogan or Arnold Palmer. That’s a generation that has largely shattered the social stigma that golf is a game for stuffy, old men, but along with that has come a loosening of some of the traditional standards of other behavior, as well.

Don’t get it wrong, though. By no means should anybody take Justin Thomas celebrating a victory with an exclamatory F-bomb as disrespect to the game. Nor should Xander Schauffele cursing a poor shot be looked at as the fall of society. After all, they probably learned it from Woods, the curser-in-chief. He alone drew 15 FCC complaints (out of 22 total) for golf broadcasts between 2011 and 2015.

To read some of these complaints, and you definitely should, you’d think we were witnessing some depraved acts of violence on public airwaves. Some of my favorites:

"“I’m sick and tired of not being able to allow my young children to watch golf because of all the golfers’ profanity […] There are either rules/regulations about profanity on TV or there are not. Do your job and put an end to this NOW!”“CBS’ coverage of the Honda Classic playoff turned from great to appalling at the end”(Subject line) “Fleeting Expletive repeated on replay”“On nbc coverage of the PGA tournament that I was watching with my 10 year old son tiger woods yelled F*** I am trying to teach my son golf, and would like to continue watching, but I don’t think I can.”"

To be entirely fair, I do tend to agree with the spirit of the complaints, even if I think they’re a bit excessive. I have a young child of my own, and I do my best to watch my language and the content that’s on around him. But I also expect that if any of these people filing complaints play golf, they’ve been subjected to far worse over a four-hour round – or participated actively themselves.

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Today’s players need to be aware of where they are, but I would stack today’s crop of PGA TOUR pros up against just about anybody else in the sports arena in the area of “decent role models” if I had to. They’re intense competitors who have spent a lifetime honing their craft. And they still have their full range of emotions, especially when the stakes are as high as they are out there.

It certainly would make everyone’s lives easier if these momentary outbursts weren’t quite as easily caught on audio, but I also think the broadcast standard we’ve grown accustomed to would be diminished as well.

Justin Thomas apologized for his colorful language in his post-round interview, and almost every on-air personality apologizes for incidents that are caught. I heard Christian McCaffrey lamenting (mourning, perhaps) the Carolina Panthers‘ loss to the New Orleans Saints on Monday – not a peep from the ESPN crew. I made it through that moment – barely.

Also to the PGA TOUR’s credit is the fact that they do, in fact, fine for these outbursts, although those punishments are essentially never made public. It’s an image thing, and I appreciate that. But these are adults playing for millions of dollars in any given week. To play on a phrase, “–it happens”.

On second thought, we could just come up with a better thesaurus for a plethora of curse words. It would be entertaining, AND make a killing on sales to PGA TOUR players.