The Pellucid Perspective - March 2017 - 2


GROWING
THE GAME

To grow the game, start simple:
10 guidelines vs. 34 rules
By Jim Koppenhaver

I

had the pleasure of being invited to address the NGCOA
members at this year's Golf Business Conference as part
of their annual business meeting. Jay Karen, when we first
started talking about this, outlined that he wanted to do a series
of what he called "Hot Topics" which would be short, provocative discussions on things owner/operators could go out and do
tomorrow at their facility to attract golfers, grow revenue or operate more cost-efficiently. Never one to back down from a challenge, I suggested that I'd like to talk to them about advancing
and advocating the concept of recreational golf at the grass roots
level. He agreed to give me a swing at that, not knowing exactly
what I meant by recreational golf and why I felt this could be an
interesting and impactful idea.
In a somewhat ironic and timely way, just weeks after I had
given an impassioned pitch to the owner/operators on why we
needed to make an easier and simpler "on ramp to golf " (simpler
and easier to get into, enjoy and understand, importantly in that
order), the USGA announced their changes to the Rules of Golf
which are accompanied by fanfare and with considerable coverage by everyone touching golf and their requisite "thumbs up/
thumbs down" votes. Given that I don't even know what each
of the 34 rules of golf cover, I'm going to skip weighing in on
the pros and cons of the changes and will leave that to Editorin-Chief Jim Dunlap who addresses elsewhere in this edition
the good, bad and indifferent both in the rule modifications and
where we are on the relevancy scale vs. the golf and general consumer of 2017. What I'm going to suggest is that, while the
USGA is making their way, tiny steps and year-by-years, to the
modern era with modifications to the Rules of Golf, we ought
to have an "on ramp" for new golfers that shields them from this
aspect of golf until they're ready for the complexity and nuances
of full compliance, conforming equipment, etc., and all the other
"don'ts" that comprise the Rules of Golf.
So what exactly am I suggesting? Well, what I proposed
to those owner/operators is that our initial task to encouraging non-golfers to try our sport (at their facility) or to get the
existing golfers/customers back out more frequently, is to offer
a simpler, more friendly welcoming statement. This builds off
a point that Stuart Lindsay made in our '16 State of the Industry report where he showed pictures on the first tee of several
courses outlining the rules for play. The audience agreed that,
for a non-golfer or generally law-abiding citizens out there, the
list of "Don'ts" was pretty long and intimidating. Talk about a
buzz kill on the first tee, particularly for the Millennials whose
only previous exposure was likely TopGolf and there pretty
much anything goes except injuring other people or destroying
property. I proposed considering giving equal billing on the 1st
tee to the concept of recreational vs. competitive golf. So, in

2 The Pellucid Perspective

addition to their existing signs for the rules of play, they would
post a sign of equal size and font, the below 10 guidelines for
recreational play:
* Safety first, observe the basics ("It's all fun until some		
	
one gets hurt...")
* Have fun!
* Keep up with group in front
* Play "gently on the land"
* Respect your "neighbors" on the course (music, language 		
	etc.)
* Wear what's comfortable but not embarrassing (for you 		
	
or others)
* Games encouraged (handicapping, match play, 			
	
scramble, etc.)
* Use whatever equipment, whatever stroke you like
* Scoring optional
* Technology welcome (but not to the detriment of 		
		keeping pace)
First, note the absence of the "don'ts." Everything in the
guidelines is positioned as the encouraged behavior, not what
they can't do. Notice there's no discussion about red/white stakes
or what's playable or unplayable. I believe that logical people if
they hit a ball in the water will just figure out that it's not coming
back, they can't play it in there and they'll drop wherever they
think they should (for the people who like a challenge they'll
drop on this side of the hazard and have another go, for everyone
else they'll likely drop where they won't hit it in the water again).
I use the keep pace guideline to cover all the situations like "how
many strokes should I take before I pick up?" etc. For questions
around improving one's lie or trying to hit out of a stymied position, in most cases a logical person will move that ball unless
they've previously been exposed to the sinful nature of that act
from exposure to the traditional/competitive golfer.
Not surprisingly, after my talk, I had more than a few traditionalists come up and ask the logical, obvious questions:
* Why do we need two sets of rules? Answer, we don't, these 	
are recreational golf guidelines, we only have one set of rules 		
and those apply to the golfers and playing events which 		
choose to impose them upon themselves or their events
* How will these people ever become "real golfers" if we coddle
them this way? Answer, I would anticipate that some number
of people introduced to the game through these guidelines will
increase in skill and want to further tes their skills. At that point
they will "graduate" into competitive golf and imposing the full
rules, playing with conforming equipment, etc. on themselves as
part of their graduation
* Are you suggesting non-conforming golf equipment? Answer, I'm suggesting that someone ought to use the technology
March 2017
https://www.pellucidcorp.com/reports/state-of-the-industry-report https://www.pellucidcorp.com/reports/state-of-the-industry-report
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - March 2017
