Viva la tradition

So what’s the deal with airplane food? Oh, no. I jest. I actually enjoy those tiny, cellophane-blanketed sandwiches donning the mystery meat, melted cheese and soggy buns. But I am asking: What’s the deal with the big checks on the PGA Tour?

We’ve all seen Happy Gilmour and his collection of oversized checks filling his backseat (or is it his trunk? I said I’ve seen it. I never said I’ve seen it lately.) What’s the deal with these things and why do we continue to give them out? Where is this oversized bank that cashes them? Do supple Amazonian women smirk gently while they wrap their generous Andre the Giant-esque hands around gigantic pens to help us fill out a deposit slip? Or are they deposited in an ATM somewhere that looks like the Big World in Mario 3 where William “The Fridge” Perry and “The Ninth Wonder of the World” Chyna are the first couple?

Alright, so maybe the big checks are not the most hallowed tradition in the halls of golf, but it still raises one question: What traditions should go and what should stay? Golf is a game in which beauty comes in many forms, tradition being one of them. What traditions do we embrace as a part of the game we all love? And what traditions could we bid adieu to without thinking twice?