ONE of the reasons rugby traditionalists opposed the switch to professionalism in the mid-1990s was they feared the game would lose its special culture - its for-love-not-money tradition - if players got paid.

At the time, the former Wallabies coach Bob Dwyer tried to allay this fear by citing the example of golf. Few sports were so awash with money at the elite level, he said, yet golf had managed over the years to preserve its strict code of behaviour and spirit of good fellowship.

This is still true. Watch Channel Ten's telecast today of the Australian PGA as closely as you like, and you will not see a golfer behaving badly. Well, if you do see one, it will be a very rare event and, as such, will be a story in itself - like the Bubba Watson-Steve Elkington incident at a New Orleans tournament earlier this year.

Elkington, competing as a veteran, moved while Watson was about to play a stroke, and Watson was irritated enough to complain within microphone range. He said "Damn!" and "Veterans can kiss my ass" - and the golfing world was shocked. Nothing like it had happened in ages.

Afterwards, Watson apologised to TV viewers, radio listeners, tournament organisers, tournament volunteers, caddies, spectators and kids. "I shouldn't have done it," he said. "I consider myself a good person, but you make mistakes."

It could be argued, of course, that golf would attract more TV viewers if golfers did display some aggro - if they glared and snarled at opponents as our cricketers do. Obviously, our cricketers believe that viewers enjoy watching them do this, otherwise they would surely have stopped doing it long ago, given their incomes ultimately depend on their television appeal.

Which raises this interesting question: would golf attract a bigger TV audience if the top players sledged each other as they went around the course? Maybe it would, which is not to say the game would be better off financially. The fact is some sponsors don't like bad behaviour.