The Pellucid Perspective - August 2016 - (Page 16)

THE LAST WORD A golden opportunity for golf? We'll see. C olumnists typically dread writing about an event that hasn't taken place yet, but will have by the time their columns appear. I was in that situation late last week as I penned a "golf in the Olympics" column, but due to a slight delay in this issue's production, I got a mulligan. I have to confess that the reality of golf 's Olympic return after 112 years overcame my initial skepticism. Given our sport's previous history in the Games, the battle to the finish by two former major winners and world top 10 players, the well-received Gil Hanse/Amy Alcott course design, the large if camera-happy crowds and the wall-to-wall coverage by the Golf Channel and its parent NBC was all the more remarkable. If, as some predict after the flood of negative RSVPs from many of the game's top players, golf 's Olympic return is shortlived, it won't be the first time. After debuting in 1900 and returning in 1904, the golf competition was essentially cancelled for lack of interest in 1908 when there was conflict over the qualification process and all the local competitors decided to pass en masse. Perhaps it's indicative that the woman who won the 1900 women's gold medal (with a 47 for 9 holes), Margaret Abbott, reportedly thought she was playing in the Paris women's amateur tournament and never realized she'd won an Olympic gold medal before she died. Another try to include golf in 1920 was met with the same lack of enthusiasm and never got off the ground. Which brings us to 2016 and another chance in 2020. After that, who knows? It's hard to say what the PGA Tour star turnout will be like when the 2020 Games take place in Tokyo, although we can rest assured that there will be more than a few golf courses up and running there when the Olympics return, unlike Rio. Attracting non-golfer viewer interest is always a challenge for TV, especially when other Olympic events (or NFL games) are taking place on network TV. Golf, after all, is hardly repeated bursts of heart-stopping exertion like swimming, track and field, gymnastics or a host of other Olympic events. In terms of pace, it's akin to curling 16 The Pellucid Perspective in the Winter Olympics, and we all know how we hang onto the edge of our seats to see the next throw of the stone, or whatever it's called. The format is essentially the same as most PGA Tour events during what is now a year-round season, so whether Henrik Stenson holds a 1-stroke lead over Bubba Watson after two days of competition is hardly as meaningful as, say, Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecki moving on in a qualifying heat in the 200-meter freestyle swim. (Or, perhaps, the results of the post-event drug tests). I'd be the last person to deny that golf doesn't fit into the Olympic games based on some of the skills it tests and the time commitment, discipline, hand-eye coordination and precision it requires to excel at it. On the other hand, there's some validity in the point that several people have made that perhaps sports in which the Olympics don't represent the pinnacle of their participants' success shouldn't be part of the Games. As much as some golfing Olympians will wax patriotic about the pride of representing their country, I guarantee that virtually every one of them would trade that Olympic medal for one of golf 's major championships if, unlike Rose and Stenson, they don't already have one. Puff out your chest and say "I won a medal in the Rio Olympics" and the response (somewhat negated by the Rose v. Stenson duel) might have been, "That's great, who did you beat?" That's a question no winner of a major - hell, even the Players, FedEx or a WGC event - will ever have to answer. Warning sign or no big deal Undoubtedly, given the non-golf media's tendency to pander to the majority who have no connection with or affinity for the game, there will be yet another barrage of stories heralding the decline, if not the death of golf following the announcement that Nike is abandoning the equipment side of their golf business, and major brick and mortar retailer Golfsmith is going the bankruptcy and/or sale route. In an interview with NGCOA Executive Director Jay Karen printed earlier in this issue, Karen speculated that the Nike decision may have been either a conscious brand decision ("If we can't be #1 in a category, we won't be in it") or due to a trend among consumers to hold onto their pricey equipment longer. I tend to agree more with the latter conclusion, for two reasons. One, it's been as obvious as Jim Furyk's hairline for many years that Nike was never going to be a major player in equipment. When they made their initial move into clubs and balls, some pundits warned, "Look out for Nike" based upon the company's vast resources and demonstrated marketing expertise in shoes and apparel for every sport. For some reason, despite locking down Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie, Rory McIlroy and other of the sport's top players to endorsement deals, Nike clubs never made all that much of a splash. I agree with Karen's supposition that consumers may be hanging onto their equipment a bit longer, but I think the reason is not so much the cost (although that's always a factor), but the fact that the curtain hiding the Great and Mysterious Oz of miraculous technology has been pulled back or, more to the point, been capped by the lords of the USGA and R&A. In recent years, the annual or semi-annual equipment line launch claims of "Longer, more forgiving, longer MOI," etc. have begun to fall on deaf or disbelieving customer ears. Most golfers understand that current equipment has pushed the regulatory limits as far as it can in terms of COR and other technology. They've figured out that this year's model is probably not markedly different from last year's, certainly not in terms of what it will do for their game. They've also figured out product pricing cycles - today's $500 driver is tomorrow's $299 street price driver. Is the exit of Nike and the downfall of Golfsmith a mortal blow to golf? Not even close. Golfers will always need equipment, and they'll need a place to buy it. If those equipment purchases come less frequently, or if more take place online, the manufacturer and retail businesses will adjust, no doubt with varied success, but adjust nevertheless. As that fabulous British foursome sang, "Obladi, Oblada, life -Jim Dunlap goes on." August 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - August 2016

Toc
Jay Karen's NGCOA agenda: A movable feast
RIP Nike golf equipment
Are there Darwin Awards in gold?
Golf (isn't dead) - It's alive and kicking
Golf weather impact: July down slightly; June utilization gains
Steel City market not black, but not gold either
A golden opportunity for golf? Maybe not.

The Pellucid Perspective - August 2016