ESPN Golf

Sport is a lot like comedy. Timing is everything. The difference in baseball between being a great relief pitcher with 40 saves and an ordinary hurler with 40 saves is when you get the saves. Blow a big game and no one remembers how many you saved earlier in the year. Close out a couple World Series games and everyone forgets the contest against the Milwaukee Brewers you blew in May.

In golf, the difference between choking and simply hitting a poor shot is also a matter of timing. A missed three-footer on No. 6 on Thursday is just a bad stroke. A missed three-footer on the final hole Sunday afternoon is a choke. Just ask Heath Slocum -- or Boo Weekley.

Weekley missed from 39 inches on the 72nd hole at the Honda Classic, kicking away victory and eventually losing in a playoff. Slocum missed from 46 inches Sunday at the PODS Championship, squandering an opportunity to force a playoff with Mark Calcavecchia, who moments earlier had missed from not much longer.

Now, the fact that Weekley and Slocum played on the same team at Milton High School in Florida is probably little more than a coincidence -- unless the Milton coach actually had them practice missing three-footers. What it does display, once again, is the importance of timing. That's what got them in the same school at the same time. And now they will be forever linked by the short putts they missed on the final hole of a PGA Tour event -- putts that combined were not as long as one Shaquille O'Neal.

Golf as a sport has benefited from the fortuitous timing of having a squeaky-clean image at a time when other sports are being hammered by horrific headlines. The game has picked up new fans tired of the some old grumbling by players in the team sports about how they are having a difficult time getting by on the millions they make. Sometimes it makes you wonder how long the good luck will last.

Admittedly, there was an instant when the latest sports steroid scandal broke with an Orlando dateline that the heart skipped a beat. Since Mickey's hometown is also the address of about a zillion golfers who like the warm weather and lack of a state income tax the thought crossed the mind that perhaps the seemingly never-ending scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs was hitting professional golf. But how could that be? The game is too clean.

And then there was the startling wake-up call Monday morning when logging onto the computer produced a Yahoo home page with the headline: "Golfer Investigated" followed by the teaser: "PGA player Arjun Atwal may have been in a high-speed street race that led to a fatal crash." Again, it was with an Orlando dateline and whispers circulated that drag racing in fast, expensive cars had become a diversion for some tour players.

What's going on here? Suddenly, the most marketable attribute professional golf has in the crowded claw for the sports dollar -- its squeaky-clean image -- is being tested.

Certainly, that is an overstatement. While the names of baseball player Gary Matthews Jr. and former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield surfaced in the latest steroid story, no golfer has been connected to the investigation. And not only is the Atwal situation in the early stages of investigation, but even if the worst-case scenario plays out he is just one of hundreds who play golf professionally. Still, there is reason to pause with concern.

The fact that riches have come to the game of golf slower than to the team sports may be a financial embarrassment to golf, but it also puts the sport in a rather unique position: It can learn from the mistakes of other sports.

The negative headlines that follow baseball, basketball, football and, just last week, hockey with a brutal stick-to-the-head incident, have largely been absent in pro golf. But diligence -- and appreciation for what they have -- will be needed on the part of players to keep that pristine image shiny.

Any company looking for a wise place to put its endorsement dollars has to love golf. If there is such a thing as a no-risk investment in sports, it is the game with the smallest ball. No strikes. No lockouts. No trades. No arrogant, over-paid superstars squeezing the last nickel out of the fans by charging for autographs. And, John Daly being the exception that proves the rule, no bad headlines.

But there is a scary feeling hanging in the air that professional golfers are about five minutes -- and just a few million dollars -- away from becoming major league baseball players, who may lead the world in being boorish, spoiled rich guys playing a child's game. Golf is still a game that gives back impressively through its charities, and it still has athletes who are among the most accessible in sports. But vigilance -- and a sense of appreciation for how good they have it -- is required to maintain that image.

We like to place golf on a moral high ground and boast that it is the only sport in which competitors call penalties on themselves. While that's true, we also know that cheating has happened. It is not enough to brag about the game's image. A diligent effort is needed to protect it. No matter what the facts are in the Atwal case it should stand as a wake-up call to all involved in the game.

The headlines about golf are almost always about golf -- not unfortunate off-course activities. But the image of the game, the marketability of its athletes, is only as strong as the next bad headline. The riches of the team sports are finally catching up to golf. Let's hope that the bad behavior of the players does not follow.

Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine.