“The Year of Living Dangerously”
Dangerously, you say? Why dangerously?
Golf, in general, is no longer as fun as it used to be.
Allow me to elaborate…
The Golf Culture
Let’s begin at the personal level. I no longer have as much fun playing the game as I used to. At the top of that list is the pace of play, followed by the lack of proper etiquette displayed by the general public. They either don’t know the rules of etiquette or they simply don’t care. It is mostly the “new golfer”, but even many of those who are long-time players play slower than necessary or appropriate, and with little regard to the rules of etiquette. It’s frustrating because it does no good to tell them. They simply view you as the problem.
Technology
Technology has made it so much easier than even a few years ago, and certainly much easier than when I began playing the game in the 1970s. Driver heads are now made out of exotic metals and are so large that you can literally put the earlier persimmon driver heads inside the head of a current driver. And the technology inside today’s driver heads is there to correct even the worst golf swings. What’s the point of playing golf if we can swing any way we wish and still watch the ball go far and straight?
This graphic from the 2002 Masters speaks volumes about the problem. After seeing Phil Mickelson hit a 355-yard bomb on the 11th hole in the 2001 Masters, followed by a 97-yard pitch shot to the green on one of the most intimidating holes at Augusta National, Chairman Hootie Johnson decreed they would be toughening up several of the holes. Here are the changes:
And that was in 2002!! The situation is even worse today, as Augusta National recently lengthened a few of the holes even more.
I’m longer today, at 76 years of age, than I was at 26 years old. True story. I never play a round without hitting at least one 300-yard drive, and usually more than one. I used to work out regularly, but not anymore, and yet I’m hitting the ball farther now than ever before. I’m not longer because I am stronger. It’s obviously the technology.
And the problem isn’t just the ball, it’s also those big-headed drivers that allow us to swing HARD with reckless abandon. But, again, at 76, I don’t swing hard because I can’t swing hard – I could break something! – and yet I’m still hitting the ball farther…and straighter. Sorry, that’s not the game I fell in love with.
They’re now doing the same thing with irons as with drivers. For the most part, they’re not even irons anymore, just miniature drivers, as they, too, are hollow shells filled with swing-correcting technology tucked inside and a trampoline for a clubface. It’s how elite players are hitting 5-irons 220 yards. It’s not just the ball, folks.
As for the ball in 2023, the USGA and R&A finally did something, and yet the tour professionals, their agents, the tour operators, equipment manufacturers, and even the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) bitched and moaned and whined as though their world was coming to an end. Yet, all we will see is a rollback of 10-15 yards for the best players in the world when over the past few decades, the ball has gone 2-3 times that distance. What a bunch of spoiled brats. As for the rest of us, we will see a negligible reduction in distance if any at all, and in each case, we’re not going to see any rollback for several years. Here’s an idea for you whiners: buy a couple hundred dozen balls, store them in your closet, and keep playing the current ball until your golfing days are over. Just don’t bother to play in any competitions. You might also want to keep your mouth shut about it with your regular foursome. 😊
To repeat, the ball goes too damn far. Exhibit A: Rory McIlroy hit Driver, 7-iron over the green on a 600-yard par 5 at the Scottish Open this year. I don’t care how windy it was, that is too damn far.
The Cost to Play
When I started playing the game, green fees were negligible, and equipment was affordable. A new, top brand, putter was around $15-$25 and a full set of irons was a couple hundred bucks. I recently bought a new PING putter that cost $450. Sure, it was a milled putter from their PuttLab, but come on! Four hundred fifty dollars?? Yes, I could have bought a putter for less, but there is nothing worth playing today that is less than $150. A full set of irons today will set you back at least $1,000, and probably $1,200-$1,500 or more, and a new driver starts – starts – at $500, when a top brand driver used to be around $100-$150. The profit margins on today’s drivers are huge, so I don’t want to hear the equipment companies tell me it’s all about their costs. The clubs are being manufactured in places like China at very low cost. It’s greed, plain and simple.
Today, green fees are off the charts at most courses. I remember paying $65 to play Pebble Beach and complaining that it was too damn much. Yep, I’m that old. Today, it costs over $500 plus a mandatory caddie fee of $100 and you can’t get a guaranteed tee time unless you book a room at the Lodge for another $1,500 or more per night. These prices aren’t the exclusive province of Pebble Beach. Green fees are way up and rising at courses across the country and around the world.
Attending Tournaments
I will never attend a live golf tournament in person again. The crowds are rude as hell, displaying the same lack of decorum they demonstrate when playing with them. And the rudest of the rude are those who enjoy their post-shot competition with fellow nitwits who scream “GET IN THE HOLE!”!! or other innocuous pronouncements at the top of their lungs immediately after impact. Perhaps someone should ask these idiots how a ball gets in the hole with a drive on a 450-yard par 4? But they don’t care. That’s not the point of their yelling. It is to hurry home and watch the recorded tournament to hear themselves. Welcome the “new golfer” to the golfing landscape. Isn’t he a treat? And, yet, the Tour does nothing about these obnoxious disruptors. That alone will keep me away from live golf tournaments.
Televised Golf
I started the year watching only recorded events due to the flood of commercials. I’ve been doing that for a few years, but this year the commercial load went way over the top. I haven’t taken the time to do the math but I’m convinced there is more commercial time than broadcast time on golf telecasts, especially when you count the double-box garbage as commercials. So, I’ve given up watching televised golf tournaments, even recorded broadcasts, due to the annoyance of having to fast-forward through the dozens of commercials and the inordinate time the networks spend broadcasting players putting or walking around on the green doing their ridiculous AimPoint thing.
Perhaps the most annoying thing about the commercials is their content. They are the same commercials over and over and over, ad nauseum. All they are accomplishing by repeating the same commercials is to convince consumers to never buy any of their products or services. I now prefer to watch old classic majors on YouTube (which is what I’m doing as I type this review of the sad state of the game). No commercials, and great golf. Nice.
“Exciting New Features”
Ah, yes, let’s not forget the “walk and talks” that made their way on to the Tours in the last couple of years, and even into the majors. Can you imagine what would happen if a network asked Tiger Woods to do a “walk and talk” during his prime while in contention in a a major? They’d need medical treatment.
Let’s not forget the drunken outdoor parties we now find on at least one par 3 hole in every tournament. The worst of the bunch is the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open. I live in the Phoenix area and have been in that stadium they build every year. Did you know that it’s under various stages of construction/deconstruction throughout the entire year? How’d you like to pay $250 to play the “famous” TPC Stadium Course only to find a small city being built when you arrive at the 16th?
Equally obscene are the cute little announcing platforms they build for “Amanda” at tournament broadcasts by CBS. So, the question, CBS, is: Are you broadcasting a golf tournament or a party?
LIV
Question of the Day: What, really, is LIV? Beyond being the worst thing that has happened to golf in my lifetime, LIV is a hostile takeover of the PGA Tour by Saudi Arabia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. If that isn’t enough to get our Department of Justice and U.S. Congress to investigate them for their systematic acquisition of US assets, I don’t know what it would take to get their attention.
As for the LIV format itself, it’s a carnival, not a competition. Nearly everyone agrees that it isn’t real tournament golf, and yet Jay Monahan was prepared to enter into a partnership with LIV and give credibility to their ridiculous concept. And for what? Money. Which is the only reason any of the defectors went to LIV, giving up any hope of having a legacy in this great game at the end of their career. Those who left for the money don’t give a damn about the game, and I don’t give a damn about them. They’re making compromises regarding the kind of golf they play by choosing to join the LIV Carnival Tour. They know they don’t like it, but they hold their collective noses and spend evenings drinking Saudi champagne and counting their money. So, yes, please just go. You don’t deserve to be remembered as anything but a money player. You won’t be missed.
So, there you have it, 2023: “The Year of Living Dangerously”.
Golf became less fun and more expensive to play, less enjoyable to watch live or on television, and a depressing experience to see it become divided between the legacy players and the money players as it was being attacked by a foreign country’s sovereign wealth fund in a hostile takeover attempt.
Golf is truly at a crossroads.
Will televised golf tournaments be nothing more than a handful of golf shots squeezed in between commercials, party shots, and guys reading putts?
Will live events become nothing more than outdoor drunken parties?
Will Saudi Arabia soon become the owner of the worldwide tours?
Will recreational golfers – especially the “new golfers” – continue to pollute the game with their obnoxious behavior and slow play?
Will the cost of golf, both green fees and equipment, continue to rise to unacceptable levels?
Will the game continue to get easier and easier?
Personally, I’m sitting on the sidelines for a while, waiting to see which direction the game is headed.
Head Nut, I agree with most if not everything in your comment. I’m in my 60’s, when I was growing up and playing golf in the ’70’s & ’80’s the Driver was the most difficult club to hit; it is now the easiest.
As in every professional sport, the cause of revenue seems to supersede the integrity of the game of golf. I think this is a natural progression of professionalism in any Sport and in a gilded age that may be headed over a cliff. It seems to me in the case of every pro sport, as the Dollars grow the integrity of the game deteriorates with rule changes to promote scoring and fan interest, introduction of technology to make the game easier (i.e. carbon filament driver heads, hi-tech receiver gloves in football making one-handed catches a norm, offensive players in football being allowed to hold defensive players, hot balls in baseball, carrying the ball deemed dribbling in basketball, etc.)
Also, back in the ’70’s & ’80’s, I recollect the USGA was essentially run by men (i.e. Bill Campbell) who had other professions and who served golf as either volunteers or nominally paid employees. Not the case anymore, I believe the USGA President and other executives are paid big dollars. The USGA and PGA will tell you their focus is to grow the game; I believe the true, perhaps subconscious, motivation is to grow the cut of all on the take. I don’t blame people for wanting to make a good living for themselves and their families; but it matters how you make your money and I know several very wealthy people who seem mostly miserable to me. I’m sorta disappointed in Jordan Spieth for hawking FanDuel. It is my understanding that gambling addiction is a growing problem for young suckers….I hope Jordan rethinks his affiliation w/ bookies. I understand such affiliations were pretty rough on Lefty.
There is an interesting subplot in the movie “Chariots of Fire” about early 20th century animosity toward professionalism in Sports. I also recall stories of early 20th century pro golfers being treated as lower class. I can see how people of that age developed such animosity for professionalism in sports; it may be happening again. I used to play Rugby in the ’80’s when it was officially an Amateur Sport at the highest levels; it’s since been fully pro for many years. Rugby rules have been similarly tweaked such that I can barely stand to watch it anymore. All Sports, including golf, baseball, football, basketball, etc., appear operated under the Casino Management System………..increase the handle, increase the rake. Integrity of the sport ain’t even on the back seat, its in the Uhaul trailer abandoned at a rest stop. Like I said, I believe its a natural progression.
I still love playing golf (even though I suck) and I recently retired to an area in the South where we can play golf 365 days/year (except during & immediately after Cat 5 Hurricanes). I joined a club with 36 holes where there is a Men’s Individual Stableford game (putt em all out) 5 or 6 days per week. Scores are recorded and quotas adjusted after every round, sandbagging is eliminated. Best of all, the normal pace of play is less then 3.5 hours. So, I feel very fortunate.
JR
Jack,
What a wonderful reply. I agree with all that you wrote. I especially like your take on the “Why”. Over time, things don’t always “improve”. Often, they get watered down instead. Look at retail consumer purchasing as just one example. I just bought a new pair of sneakers. Instead of going to the shoe store and asking someone for assistance, I went to Amazon.com, clicked on “Buy Again”, and bought another pair of shoes just like the ones I was replacing. Never spoke to a human, and didn’t need to. In fact, they were delivered today and the Amazon driver didn’t even bother to ring the doorbell. As I was sitting in the living room not more than 10 feet from the front door, he laid them on the porch, went back to his truck, and sent me an email announcing that he had delivered my shoes. Efficient? Yes. Better? It depends on how you feel, I guess. When we go to Taco Bell or McDonald’s they prefer that we use the kiosk. You can literally order lunch and pick it up, sit down and eat it without ever speaking to a single human. Same is true if you have a technical question about the software on your laptop or cell phone. You rarely get to speak to a human. Some would call that progress, but as you stated so well, it is the natural progression of things. Perhaps the best example is Artificial Intelligence (AI). We have designed a brain that will turn out to be orders of magnitude smarter than the human brain. How can that ever be viewed as good?
Looking at it from a golf (and other sports) perspective, it is regression, not progress. The sports become too easy. I lay it at the feet of what I refer to as the human condition. We humans want things easy. But, for me, golf was never intended to be easy nor fair.