The old guard won't like it but golf has to become more watchable

It's hard to know what the 'Voice of Wimbledon' Dan Maskell would have made of Nick Kyrgios.

What would that late, great of the microphone, a man who found some of Ilie Nastase's antics tiresome and never much warmed to John McEnroe, have said as the surly Aussie served underarm, went toe to toe with a line judge or started swearing at fans. "Oh I say," probably wouldn't have cut it.

And what of John Arlott, confronted by a man in pyjamas switch-hitting a top-edged six over backward point as fireworks went off and dance music pounded out of a PA system.

Arlott was convinced Kerry Packer was dragging the soul out of the game in the 1970s so the chances are he wouldn't have approved. He'd have had something to say about it, and it would doubtless have been both poetic and delivered beautifully in that dulcet Hampshire burr.

Which, in a roundabout way, brings me to Scottsdale, last week's Phoenix Open and specifically the celebrated 16th where, in among the endless highlights, one image stood out.

It was that of tour pro Harry Higgs igniting an already toasted crowd by lifting his shirt as he rejoiced rolling in a par putt, to be trumped seconds later by playing partner Joel Dahmen taking his shirt off completely and waving it around his head lasso-style.

As the deafening roars of approval reverberated around the desert and the army of helpers waded through a pit of discarded beer cans to clear up the mess so the group behind could tee off, I couldn't help but think; how would Peter Alliss have summed that up?

It was a rhetorical question obviously – he'd have absolutely hated it as, seemingly, did many others.

The PGA Tour has threatened to fine Higgs and Dahmen for the stunt and even the BBC, widely accused by those in power of being far too liberal these days, got a bit huffy, a bit establishment about it all.

And the forums, fairly inevitably, were packed full of irate hackers from around the world squealing their disgust at the antics of the American pair, complaining that's not how golf should be played. Which presumably is badly dressed, slowly and with a stuffy regard for rules that none of these people would ever adhere to in their real worlds.

The views of these folk, however, need to be downplayed, now more than ever with the very real threat of a breakaway tour hanging like a bad smell in the air.

They call the Phoenix Open the 'People's Open' for a reason. The very design of the course, and especially the stadium 16th, is theatrical and invites participation. And also, in the Land of the Free, it also means no obvious licensing limitations, either, hence the, ahem, good-natured atmosphere.

The kids pour out of the city, get smashed, watch some golf and are going to have fun, come what may. It's not frowned upon in any way. Surely if it was – which also makes a nonsense of the PGA's decision to possibly dish out fines to Higgs and Dahmen – they simply wouldn't rock up there every year.

What unfolded in Phoenix works in the context of a one-off, in the same way the Ryder Cup works. "I love when people get rowdy. They're cheering you when you hit it tight, and they're booing you when you hit it bad. It almost feels like a real sport," was Brooks Koepka's verdict on Scottsdale. And right now, given the existential threat to the PGA Tour and others, the voices of people like Koepka need to be heard, while the antics of people like Higgs need to go unpunished.

Make no mistake, the idea of a World Tour is not going away, even if Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau have turned their back on the current stunt and even Phil Mickelson, a flagbearer for Greg Norman's much-derided project, has pulled his neck in.

The idea of a World Tour has been around since the 1990s. There has been the threat of division before but heads were banged together, rifts papered over and the world of golf got back to how it was. And effectively took their eye off the ball.

Players were becoming richer and richer, ever more powerful with even greater leverage, and those that sensed an opportunity came back with another brainchild, the Premier Golf League, and now another, the Super Golf League. And if that fails, there will be another, then another no matter what the established tours chuck to the top pros to keep them aboard.

The money offered by the Saudis has been jaw-dropping, apparently anything up to £40m just to sign up. If you were Lee Westwood or Ian Poulter or DJ or Lefty, why on earth wouldn't you be tempted? It would surely take more than an indignant rap from Rory to make them think twice.

Westwood complained that much of the golf being screened these days is boring, without sufficient variety or diversity. He cited the Majors, the Ryder Cup and round one of the World Matchplay as the exceptions to a framework that has gone very stale.

Other sports have found ways to bring in new, younger audiences, especially cricket with its T20 boom, and golf has to become more watchable.

There will be a breakaway of some description at some point, maybe in the very near future, financed doubtless by the Middle East, and with good governance and proper marketing it will flourish. It's not as if they lack the funds to make it work.

Sure, some of the game's rising stars might not fancy it but with all respect to the Hovlands, the Hattons and the Hojgaards, they aren't the box-office, billboard names who would give any breakaway the kudos it needed.

Which is why Phoenix, and its remarkable 16th hole, is the type of battleground upon which the future of golf should be fought. The PGA Tour doesn't need to go all Las Vegas on us and cheapen its product but it needs to acknowledge what works, what doesn't and figure it out fast.

And fining Harry Higgs for one of the best pieces of entertainment you will see on a golf course all year, is not the way to go.

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