Golf Rap

Whenever I see the commercial I wonder what the point is supposed to be. Are they trying to make golf sound cool? Perhaps they mean to make it appear tough and, I suppose, streetwise, maybe? That is a rather lamentable common theme with sports anymore: we're tough and we want to make sure you know how tough we are. But golf?

What I'm talking about is a commercial for the upcoming Tournament Players Championship on March 9-12. It shows several great golf shots but with RUN DMC's (I'm supposed to capitalize their name, aren't I?) Tricky as the background music. It's, uh, incongruent.

I don't care for rap as a genre but I like Tricky. It's catchy. It's - I mean this quite seriously - a toe tapper. The words aren't offensive. But applied to golf? Rich white guys wearing polo shirts and khakis? On the surface, it's not a fit. It isn't going to make me more likely to watch. But then, while not rich, I am an old white guy (golf's primary audience) who wears polos and khakis. I watch golf naturally. And baseball. Yes, I'm dull.

I really don't see how it might influence anyone else to watch the sport, quite honestly. I don't see who it's supposed to appeal to; it simply seems weird. But perhaps that's just me.