The Pellucid Perspective - February 2022 - 6

OPINIONS (ARE LIKE
BELLY BUTTONS)
(Lindsay continues from page 5)
and that more Western influence will help improve their understanding
of human rights.
On the other hand, the PGA Tour needs to be careful.
Carte Blanche expulsion will need support from the USGA,
R&A PGA of America and Augusta National who have a
vested interest in how their respective fields will be impacted.
Not to mention that The Open and I might miss Ian Poulter's
fashion color palette.
As for the PGA Show, I actually agree with Acushnet
when they said it would be hard to ask their employees to
participate when their offices in Fairhaven were still closed.
However, I also agree with noted golf writer, Adam Schupak,
who posed the question " Or has the Show outworn its relevance? " ,
USA Today, January 26, 2022
That's a great question. Several of our clients and friends
did not attend due to the absence of some of these major vendors.
Tom Abts didn't enjoy the Show as much as usual. Like
Tom, Jim and I enjoyed the people we did get to see and our
time there was still productive; but we have had to adjust to
stay in contact with those clients that chose not to come. Are
we going to play the victim card and blame the major vendors
for that extra effort? No, but we still missed the personal interaction
- Zoom may be a partial
substitute, but as Neil
Young has said many times, " Live Music is Better " .
I didn't know who Joe Rogan was until Neil Young called
him out. However, I have watched interviews with Dr.
Malone, one the inventors of the genome platform used in 2
of the Covid-19 vaccines. Apparently one of Malone's interviews
with Rogan was what set Mr. Young off. At the risk of
being called a " recreational epidemiologist " (Jason Gay, Wall
Street Journal referring to
(Lindsay continues on page 7)
(Koppenhaver continues from page 5)
they're missing a critical point that players in those leagues
are employees and paid handsomely for " just showing up "
vs. the unique structure and ultimate pay-for-performance
nature of professional golf at the highest levels (reasonable
people are allowed to disagree...)
On the other side of the ledger, several readers and writers
have brought up the fact that the financial backing of
Saudi Arabia on this one amounts to " sportswashing " their
terrible record on human rights. I don't disagree with the
basic principle on this that there could be much more ethical
partners to front this but, hey, aren't we having Olympics in
China like as we speak and there wasn't enough resistance
to that to wad a media, competing nations or individual
Olympians shotgun so we've got to realize that none of these
sports are clothing themselves in virtue or principle at the
end of the day (exception to the World Tennis Association
who did and continues to take a brave stand against China
on the evolving Peng Shuai allegations despite their large
financial interest at stake).
Net on this one is that I think it's good to have some new
ideas, competition for bodies and dollars and some true international
events sprinkled into the golf season which will
make golf more globally known and promoted. Whether
it will spark a revolution or not remains to be seen but the
players will make their own decisions based on " their enlightened
(economic) self- interests " (one of Tim Finchem's
" go to " phrases in the 3 conversations I had with him in the
early 2000s) and we'll see where that lands. The legacy tours
obviously would like this to be a stillborn idea so it's going
to get ugly before it's all over.
PGA Merchandise Show - The big pre-event news surrounding
this year's show was the " pass " by every major golf
equipment manufacturer (resulting in Bridgestone getting
marquis billing for attendees' attention for the first time
ever). So what to think of this? One of my respected colleagues
who's a very successful course owner/operator and
publishes a weekly missive to his customers which he copies
a number of us in the industry on, did his recent missive on
the absence of " big equipment. " His position was that the
working golf professional wants to see reps, celebrities, new
equipment etc., regardless of external circumstances short of
WWIII.
" Your Honor, I object " I counter and here's my
reasons why I think this was a prudent, no-brainer decision
this year for the golf equipment " majors " :
* " The PGA Merchandise Show is a demand generation
event for us, with my supply chain so screwed up and demand
still well exceeding my orders, why would I sign up
(and pay 7-figure money) for more pain? " This is a paraphrase
from one of the major manufacturers in a January
conversation. I don't know that I could have put it better,
more succinctly or more logically
(Koppenhaver continues on page 7)
6 The Pellucid PersPecTive
February 2022
The Pellucid Perspective - February 2022

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