Star system: Osaka-Gauff at US Open, then Ryder Cup team at Silverado

Hollywood figured it out almost from the creation of the movies: the star system sells. If that star can also act, or play tennis or golf, so much the better.  

For the person and the business.

It was Labor Day Monday, but the show on TV may have been enough to keep you from the last picnic of summer, Naomi Osaka vs Coco Gauff.

That Osaka, her comeback after childbirth, now a triumphant reality, defeated Gauff, 6-3, 6-2 in their US Open match. Yet, in a way, it was less important—except to the contestants—than the fact that it happened. 

Two of the best and most famous in their activity, grabbing more than a few minutes of TV time.  

The individual sports must have names. Certainly, Osaka and Gauff, each with multiple major championships, have both the name and the game.

As did the surprise entrance for the Procore Championship, September 11th -14th, at Silverado in Napa, the golf tournament that suddenly, with a flurry of top players such as Scottie Scheffler, Zander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, and other members of the US Ryder Cup team, leaped into relevance. It is understood that the Tennis Open, each year in NY, one of the four Grand Slams, will have a great field. But you never know who will enter the PGA events this time of year, after the Tour Championship.

No question. Every guy out there is competent and may be effective. But every guy out there isn’t well known.

The tournaments after the Tour Championship, August 21-24, this year won by Tommy Fleetwood, sometimes seem like add-ons, full of people attempting to gain exemptions or climb from oblivion. 

Many of the games’ well-financed heroes usually wait for the winter and spring to return to tour competition. But this is a Ryder Cup year, the event scheduled September 26-28 at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, and the American team members need to stay sharp. 

A month away from the game wasn’t advisable, so 10 members of the US team are entered in the Procore.

Whether this helps the American squad regain the Cup is unknown, but it certainly won’t hurt them. Although Silverado and Beth Page are very different from each other.

Still, wherever the competition, the idea is to shoot lower than the opponent. And almost always putting has been the difference between the squads, as it is almost every week in tournaments on the U.S. PGA Tour or the European DP Tour. The European team, with players such as Rory McIlroy, Fleetwood, and Justin Rose, is composed of players who primarily play the American Tour and/or reside in the United States.

All that is incidental when the golfers tee it up.

They have earned their spots and their recognition no less so than Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff.

Yes, we are only a few days away from the NFL schedule, but for now, the focus will be on courts and fairways, not the football field.