Let's make golf fun for the masses
The idea of golf dying has always intrigued me. Notwithstanding that it has been around for 600 years and is played worldwide, the idea that something that personal to those who play it and the passion it exudes could just move to oblivion doesn't add up.
Case in point: is the same thing being said about NASCAR? NO. Why? Because people drive cars. It is something they have a personal relationship with. But NASCAR has an advantage that golf has lost; teens learn to drive on a car they can handle. They then take that feeling of "mastering' driving to a degree that allows them to enjoy the fact that in this spectator sport, these guys drive 400 miles in 3 hours at 150 MPH. It also adds the thrill of the competition at the high speed and the inevitable crash that borders on someone possibly dying. There are many people that find it boring. But the advantage it has over golf is that their audience practices on a vehicle that doesn't go as fast or isn't in as much danger. But they are able to experience it at a lower level so they can enjoy the high level of entertainment.
Now take golf over the last 30 years. Where has the new audience been able to learn to play golf? Well how about all the championship courses that were built to appease the investors not the learning public. Where are the "first cars" a.k.a. learner courses? You know the 9-hole and executive courses that have been abandoned by the investors who want a return. How is a newbie to golf supposed to learn their love for the sport if they play courses that are so hard that it's no fun? Imagine your 16 year-old first learning in a Ferrari at 130 MPH. How long would it take before that 16 year-old gives up for fear of his life? It's not enjoyable.
Well, neither is golf for a newbie on a 6800-yard course designed for a single handicap. As Geoff Shackleford stated in 2016,
"There is no second coming of Tiger Woods. There is no burgeoning generation of children longing to play a four-hour game filled with nitpicky, self-policing rules. There is no city in the U.S. willing to trade density and tax ratables for divots and rough. If golf has little to offer this country but televised shots of manicured greens and galleries and living rooms of cranky, aging diehards, then it should prepare to take a seat beside horse racing among U.S. sports antiques."
What makes that comparison so intriguing is if you can imagine teaching your kids about riding a horse and first putting them on a bucking bronco. How long would it take? Equestrian is in the same boat because the horse farms are disappearing and the places to learn the love of the sport are also disappearing.
So I would like to pose an experiment: Let's build short courses that are fun. Forget all the other crap about how golfers have a sadistic side to them where they enjoy pain and depression. Let's build some courses indoor and outdoor that gives golfers, new and experienced, a chance to shoot a good score in an easy way. Let's start by showing them they are good at this sport and it can be very rewarding for the inner self. In 2017, Kai Sato of Inc. Magazine gave this insight about golf's future:
"Innovation Enabling Growth
New and innovative offerings are poised to grow the golf industry as a whole, increasing ways to experience the game. Such offerings expand the total market size for golf, as participants still require golf equipment, even if they aren't playing on traditional courses. With a wide range of leading technologies and immersive experiences, here are just three examples:
Trackman is a data capturing device that has become a mainstay on the PGA Tour, at golf clubs, and even in some households across the United States. Never before have golfers been able to access such vast amounts of information about their swings, which helps them improve and score better.
TopGolf raced to a billion-dollar enterprise by allowing people to experience golf in a new way. By re-inventing the driving range, the entertainment company allows avid golfers and complete novices to enjoy the game together, along with their favorite food and beverages. Most recently, the company introduced the TopGolf Tour, where a field of national competitors vies for a $50,000 prize.
The Major Series of Putting (MSOP) could be yet another way of expanding golf (despite a quirky name). Backed by the billionaire founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, MSOP claims to be the "biggest putting competition in history," promising "millions in prize money." Time will tell as the inaugural championships won't take place until late 2017, but it's another way of growing the game of golf."
So now here we are in 2020 and what are the results? Not only has golf not disappeared, but it has thrived because it is still a fun game that takes you through a personal roller coaster ride of emotions that you share with others going through their roller coaster ride. More short courses are being built and are seeing a jump in their play times. More equipment is being sold. More players are taking to the ranges to learn. Everything has its cycles. Golf is on its uptick now.
Yes, 2020 has been an awful year with this pandemic and the U.S. elections turning so disappointingly nasty. The human race seems more on edge with increasing violence and uncertainty.
But then there is golf to save us and this generation is recognizing it. So let the teachers teach. Let friends teach their friends the interest in the game, and let’s get together and make golf what it’s supposed to be…Game Of Learning Friendship.
So fear not golfers and its bustling enterprises, golf will be around for years to come. But let's give the new generation a chance by offering new products to learn the game on. It's important that we allow them to have fun at the beginning. It will translate down the road.
