[MCirba]

Is there a more pretentious, patronizing term for an audience of spectators at a sporting event anywhere?


It doesn't even have the charm of being anachronistic because until recently no one would be self-importantly haughty enough to come up with such an idiotic term.


Thank you.  That feels better.

[John Kavanaugh]

Beats deplorables. But seriously, I feel for anyone who doesn't love everything about this tournament unconditionally. If only work, marriage and faith had something that brings such a sense of renewal that the Masters gives to golf every spring.

[Terry Lavin]

Then there’s the second cut.

[Ian Galbraith]

Is there a more pretentious, patronizing term for an audience of spectators at a sporting event anywhere?


It doesn't even have the charm of being anachronistic because until recently no one would be self-importantly haughty enough to come up with such an idiotic term.


Thank you.  That feels better.

More than the organisers wishing to call their spectators patrons, what grates is the slavish adoption of this silly term by all the media bods. Scared to lose their accreditation for next year I perhaps. 

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Dear Mr. Cirba,

You are hereby forever banned from the grounds of Augusta National Golf Club as a guest of a member or as a patron of The Masters Tournament.


Fred Ridley, Chairman
Augusta National Golf Club

[Jon Wiggett]

Its just the old fashioned way of saying customer Mike. I have no problem with the word or it being used. I will give you the point that the organiser's insistence on it's use comes across as been a bit silly though.

[MClutterbuck]

patron
ˈpeɪtr(ə)n/Submit
noun
1.
a person who gives financial or other support to a person, organization, or cause.
2.
a customer of a shop, restaurant, etc., especially a regular one.

"Especially a regular one" ... Do they want to emphasize in 1 word the privilege badge holders have in being able to return year after year?

[Bill Gayne]

Is there a more pretentious, patronizing term for an audience of spectators at a sporting event anywhere?

"Hello friends" and today's "welcome friends." You can go to Vineyard Vines and buy the "Hello Friends" line of clothing. There's no logical reason I should care about Jim Nantz's cliched greeting.


I'm good with "patrons" and would even put it on the like side.

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike -
I understand: they can take the boy out of the 60s, but they can't take the 60s out of the boy.
But I suppose it's not so much what "patrons" are as what they're not.
They're not "fans", which is merely a ghastly abbreviation away from "fanatics".
They're not "guests", and thus are definitionally unable to overstay their welcome.
They're not "customers", what with the tawdry profit-motive the word implies, and the messiness involved in "consuming" anything save for a crust-less sandwich wedge.
"Ticket-holders" have the nasty habit of standing on the rights and privileges conferred to them upon purchase of said ticket -- and this, of course, can't possibly be allowed.
And, despite what Jim Nantz might suggest in moments of poetic licence, they're certainly not "friends" -- a presumptuous and uncouth brand of familiarity that the founding fathers would've frowned upon, vigourously.
In short, we must let the Jimmy Roberts of the world continue to intone the word "patron" -- our only satisfaction in knowing that our grandchildren, watching the broadcasts in some 2040 version of you-tube, will snicker and roll their eyes at the conceit.
     
 
 

[Jim Nugent]

To ANGC they are like patrons of the arts. 

[corey miller]

Have they always been "patrons"?


I am still working on the NFL imposed mandate that the media call "exhibition" games "pre-season" as if that makes them more meaningful. 

[Bill Gayne]

I was told today that "Dilly Dilly" is verboten at the Masters.

[Greg Smith]

Heck, the Masters is SUPPOSED to be pretentious!  If there isn't allowed to be pretension within the grounds of Augusta National, just where can it exist anywhere else on planet Earth?

I say let er rip and just let the pretensions flow.  I actually kind of like the over the top elitism in this day and age of political correctness and egalitarianism.

The day I get to be a patron at the Masters is by definition a great day.   It's the last place to hide from democracy run amok.

[Kalen Braley]

Heck, the Masters is SUPPOSED to be pretentious!  If there isn't allowed to be pretension within the grounds of Augusta National, just where can it exist anywhere else on planet Earth?

I say let er rip and just let the pretensions flow.  I actually kind of like the over the top elitism in this day and age of political correctness and egalitarianism.

The day I get to be a patron at the Masters is by definition a great day.   It's the last place to hide from democracy run amok.

Greg,


That's just terrific.  The 2018 Masters, co-hosted by Kim Jung un and Vlad Putin...cause democracy is overrated!


Perfect!!

[Joe Hancock]

I’m with Bill G.. I’ll gladly hear the term “patron” by whomever vs. shouts of “you da man” or “mashed potatoes”, which really seems to be the cause and effect here. The behavior by the “patrons” is unmatched in golf, in the most positive sense.


Thank you, Masters Commitees past, present and future.

[Ira Fishman]

Patron is patronizing elitism. And we wonder why more Americans do not play golf. I really enjoy the Masters for the golf, but all the rest reeks of the Lost Cause and not in a positive way.


Ira

[Ronald Montesano]

They are mispronouncing it. they mean to say "patron" as in the tequila. Every one of them is a tequila.

[mike_beene]

You can dress this up all you want, but the image of Verne Lunquist hosting a local game show called Bowling for Dollars ruins the whole thing. I pull for him to say things like today's Dustin Thomas. He may be the only guest at Patrick Reeds victory party.

[Ken Moum]

According to Golf Digest:


The use of the word traces to Clifford Roberts, Augusta National’s co-founder with Bobby Jones, who sought to distinguish spectators at the Masters because he saw them as more than butts in seats, but consumers of an experience—no different than regular patrons of a restaurant or an opera.[/size]“Roberts really did feel that it was the spectators who made the Masters possible—hence patrons,” says David Owen, author of the definitive history of Augusta National, The Making Of The Masters. “He wanted to remind everyone involved in the tournament that the focus had to be on constantly improving the experience for the people watching.”[/color]

[Eric Smith]

If I started taking piano lessons I reckon the first song I’d try to learn is the CBS Sports Masters theme. Just so I could vape to it and post the video on the JC Likes Men WhatsApp thread.


The whole schmeer is what makes it unique in the world of golf.


It does annoy me that Peter Kostis says  “judge” more than Porterhouse.


A 63 from Tommy Fleetwood could go a long way today.


Harbour Town weather looks perfect next weekend.

[Tom_Doak]

I was told today that "Dilly Dilly" is verboten at the Masters.

I'd read that at the start of the week, but I read another article today that says it's not so ... it's just Budweiser leveraging its ad campaign for more free attention.

[Greg Beaulieu]

I've been churning through the Youtube archive of Masters final rounds and have not encountered the first year that "patrons" was used so far. To date I'm through 1990 with zero patrons, lots of "crowds" and "galleries" though.

[Ian Galbraith]

and in a similar vein when did they start so religiously referring to the venue as "Augusta National" rather than just Augusta..one word too many in most sentences.

[Dan Kelly]

I heard a new one (to me) this week: “tournament practice area.”


Really, I don’t much care if they are called patrons or galleries or crowds. I don’t care if it is rough or second cut.


The only thing that bugs me is that the club apparently enforces its language dictates. Do they really think these announcers are gonna be disrespectful, if they are allowed to speak freely?

[BHoover]

I heard a grandstand or bleachers referred to as a “patron observation area”.

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