Media Bowl Gifts

You can certainly make the case that actually playing the course would aid you in being able to cover the Masters -- or might even lead to a column about playing the course.

 

I usually got free ice cream at the big high-school basketball weekend at the local community college. It was sweet.

 

If you're shallow enough to let a free polo or computer bag sway your coverage, you're in the wrong business.

If you think everyone who accepts swag is automatically less of a writer and is beneath you professionally, well you're just a dick.

 

Playing Augusta National is a once-in-a-lifetime opp. If it affects your coverage in any way, it should make probably make you see what it's like to play it, get a little insight. I know guys who have been covering the Masters for 15+ years and never got picked. And I know a guy who covered his first Masters and was drawn out. Something cool to talk about but it shouldn't really change how you cover the event.

 

The last time I covered the Sugar Bowl (I forget exactly which year it was, but Miami played, with Ken Dorsey as QB and Jeremy Shockey at TE, and they won big), I got a football-leather bound notebook with a little disk in the center that had a calculator on one side and the bowl logo on the other. The disk has long since bitten the dust, but I still use the notebook. There is a line beyond which you should say no to free stuff, but pens, notebooks and t-shirts are perfectly acceptable to my way of thinking.

 

Ah, for the days when hookers were provided.

 

There can only be one writer who fits this description. I will not name him here. ;D

 

LOL, moddie. Calls to mind the classic Lewis Grizzard story about when he was propositioned by a hooker, which goes something like this:

SHE: "For $100, I'll do anything you want."
HE: "Fine, here's $100. I need you to write a column and a sidebar and send it to my editor in 15 minutes."

 

I got drawn my second year. And it certainly changed my coverage, because two weeks later I got out of the biz. I'd been thinking about getting out for awhile, and when I got drawn, the thought occurred to me that there was one less little side-benefit of the sportswriting gig to look forward to. Back then, we were told in no uncertain terms that this would be a one-time-only event.

Two weeks before, I and several others played the TPC at Sawgrass (free, of course). They paired me with some writers from the Boston area who had played the day after the previous year's tournament. When we made the turn, my cart partner asked if they had a lunch buffet for us "like last year." The pro said, sorry, no, not this year. My guy says, "Gee, thanks for nothing!"