Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2011 - 5

(editor's letter
)
Standing by the Game:
Not for the Weak of Heart
I
t's 1990 and the National Golf Foundation
is forecasting a boom in golfer participation-unprecedented
growth that
would necessitate building a course a day to
keep up with demand. Less than a decade
later, the industry realizes that course supply
is going to outstrip golfer demand. They call
it the " demand gap, " two diverging lines on a
graph that apparently won't intersect without
divine intervention.
Building a course a day led to a demand
gap in the span of less than a decade. In that
same time span, John Daly and Tiger Woods
brought new audiences to the game. TechnolGolf
isn't for the weak, which might be
why less than 10 percent of Americans
play it. And that's okay.
ogy profoundly changed the driver and the
golf ball. Somewhere along the way, Hollywood
stars found it cool to play in the AT&T
Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and mainstream
fashion magazines discovered designs
that looked good on the golf course.
The game was hip, but the business model
was fatally flawed.
Now, yet another decade later, the industry
is dealing with the " gap, " as well as a sustained
economic recession, high unemployment and
unprecedented societal changes that squeeze
leisure time while simultaneously demanding
parental participation in all aspects of their
kids' activities.
Because the business of golf is anemic, the
game is under a microscope.
Stakeholders from manufacturers to the
USGA are willing to embrace change, with
some blaming the game for market conditions
it played no part in creating.
They search for derivatives, thinking that
something that looks like golf will save it,
akin to the skewed logic from a general in a
long-ago lost cause: We had to destroy the
village in order to save it.
Stories in the press are lamenting golf's
alleged shortcomings-it takes too long, it's
too expensive, the rules are too intimidating,
it's too hard, it's no fun. So, they offer remedies:
15-inch cups, cooking oil on driver faces
(less spin equals more yards equals more fun)
and above all, permission to play golf without
consequences.
Create something that looks like golf and
you'll grow participation by getting more
folks to play this new game. You'll also retain
those who leave the game every year. I call this
the hybrid theory, but it's really just another
form of the " two games " paradigm. Let the
elite play by one set of rules while the rest of
us play by another, easier set of rules. Discard
the game's main principles (play the course
as you find it, play your ball as it lies) and replace
them with the mulligan principle: Can't
face a challenge? Take a mulligan.
If this hybrid " grows the game, " then Old
Tom Morris is spinning in his grave.
After his collapse at the Masters, Rory
McIlroy found redemption at the U.S.
Open. He was crowned Tiger's heir apparent
but struggled to make the cut at the Open
and PGA championships. Even Tiger, who
owns 14 majors and 80 tour wins, can't find
his golf mojo.
Golf isn't for the weak, which might be
why less than 10 percent of Americans play it.
And that's okay. Let the other 90 percent play
the hybrid game and get a medal for participating.
Just don't try and pass it off as saving
what we call golf.
See you on the tee.
W.P. Ryan, Editor-in-Chief
www.mngolf.org
Fall 2011 MINNESOTAGOLFER
3
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2011

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