There has been a lot of recent discussion about the game of golf losing golfers. There have been many theories about why this seems to be happening. In my opinion, this is a natural ebb and flow that has been exaggerated and misunderstood. Let’s explore some of these issues.
The National Golf Foundation (NGF) numbers are showing a net loss of golfers in America compared to a decade ago. However, what is hidden in this statistic is that the NGF numbers were greatly inflated by counting “very” occasional golfers who play only a few outings a year. In the past, these golfers were lumped into the avid golfer category. This grossly inflates the numbers. For example, if you ask random people if they have played golf, many will say yes, albeit this could be a driving range experience or hacking it around once with college buddies.
Another often-heard argument is that the game needs Tour players to make it popular. The game is bigger than any one golfer. Great and dominant professional golfers come along every so often, and golfing lore has had many of them: Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris, Harry Vardon, The Great Triumphant, Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and on and on. There are too many to list. Some created more interest than others, but none were bigger than the game. The game of golf has and will continue to march on regardless of who is at the top of the PGA Tour leaderboard. To build the Tour or a golf industry around one great player is folly. All glory is fleeting. The sun rises and a new day comes, or in this case, a new golfer takes his place.
There were too many high-end golf courses built when the inflated golfer numbers where at their prime a few years ago. Anyone who is in the golf industry knows that golf courses are very expensive to operate. When the economy was truly roaring, many investors thought that a new high-end golf course development was a sure shot at a good return. What they didn’t calculate were the heavy expenses of construction and maintaining a golf facility. The days of mediocre, small-town “goat ranches” are a thing of the past. With the construction of the newer courses, the agronomic course conditions rapidly improved. The public got a penchant for good, fast greens and grass in the fairways. High expectations for top course conditions became the norm. This comes at a cost: higher dues and green fees, and higher input costs to maintain the new expectations. Older courses with mediocre agronomic conditions fell by the wayside as they couldn’t keep up with “the new TPC course” down the road. However, the newer-constructed courses have also struggled to balance high maintenance expectations and profitability.
The transformation of our society has also played a role in the golf industry. Today, everyone is on the go. We live in a much more instantaneous society than a few decades back. In the old days, a typical golfing dad would spend all day on Saturday at the local country club playing golf and cards with the his colleagues. In most golf clubs today, those days are gone. Dad is more likely spending the day at soccer games and other family engagements. Many golf facilities failed to keep up with changing family patterns. Instead of making their facility more family friendly, many clubs fell by the wayside of nostalgia. They failed to be innovative in their marketing. Many facilities neglected to promote golf to ladies and kids. In my opinion, golf should also be marketed as a fun, athletic and healthy family activity. The health industry is one of the fastest, most consistently growing industry in the USA. Why not tap into this resource?
The cost of participation and material is quite expensive compared to other sports and activities. Some of this blame can be placed on the industry’s greed such as the never-ending quest to put out new golf equipment. Greens fees are often too high for beginners or people with less disposable income. We need more user-friendly golf facilities for entry-level players. The game has to be more accessible and family friendly. I like the idea of 6- and 9-hole golf courses that are inviting to all golfers.
All in all, I think the game is still strong and in a good place. Can it be stronger or better? Of course, but the key is not to place the future of the game in world-class Tour players or high-tech equipment advances. This only results in superficial and inflated numbers of players, not avid lifetime golfers. The real key in growing the game is to make golf more accessible and family friendly. This can be achieved by simple instruction and creative ideas incorporating the wants and needs of today’s families. Golf instructors, share your passion, for you are the true gatekeepers of the future of the game!
Words similar to these were once written about Ben Hogan’s legs after his near-fatal crash in Texas. Arnold Palmer was a hero to everyone in the golf world. There have been tons of tributes, all richly deserved. Like many young lads, he is the man who got me interested in golf. I remember watching the Masters with my dad when Arnold rolled in a putt on 17 that propelled him to a win in 1958 or 1960. I can’t remember which, but does it really matter? I instantly became one of his army. I regaled in his victories and agonized in his defeats.
I never actually met him in person, but there are two times that he touched my life. The first was when I was in college at the University of Miami in the late ’60s. I was fortunate to go and watch him play at Doral. Can’t remember how he played that day, but getting up close enough to watch him strike the ball was quite a feat. The army was always four or five deep. I went ahead two holes so I could get a spot directly facing where he would tee it up. As he waited for the group in front to clear, he looked me directly in the eye and winked. I gave him a nod like he was my best friend and I was there to cheer him on. Then like a flash he was gone. I’ve never forgotten the moment.
My next encounter was when I started the United States Professional Hickory Golf Championship in 2010. I had the audacity to send Mr. Palmer an invitation to play in the event since it was a tribute to the history of our game, knowing his fondness for its heritage. I figured, what the heck, never expecting anything. A few days later an envelope arrived from his office. Inside was a personal letter from Arnold thanking me for the invitation but telling me that he would be in California and would be unable to play. He did offer to send some memorabilia to help raise funds for the charity the tournament was supporting.
This is the man he was and why he was so beloved. If more high-profile people were like him, the world would be a better place.
We see it happen on the PGA Tour all the time: a player leaves a golf teaching professional for another teacher. There can be a number of reasons, such as the player is not improving, there is a difference on what direction the player should go, or the player feels that it is time for a fresh start. As a golf teaching professional, how do you handle this decision? When is it time to make a change?
Some teachers take it very personal to the point where they hope the student doesn’t have the same caliber of success. On the other hand, there are a number of teachers who will do everything they can to make the transition a positive one. I once heard of a top teacher who would send his former student’s old swing videos to the new teacher in efforts to set that student up for success.
Sometimes change is a good thing, even if it hurts our feelings. We need to wish our students well and let them know we will be there if they ever want to talk or work together again. As a professional, it is not in anyone’s best interest to “put down” the other instructor or their methods. Many eyes are on you during these times; you can easily lose students if your attitude is poor.
Rory McIlory recently left Dave Stockton, his long time putting coach, for Phil Kenyon. This was not blown up in the media like some of the other major teaching changes because all parties were professional. Rory needed a change, plain and simple. I am sure that Stockton was very happy when Rory won the Deutsche Bank Championship a few weeks ago.
There are times when change is needed; it’s part of life. Do what’s right for you and your students. It should all work out in the end.
On a popular website I was browsing, there was a voting question on the captain’s Ryder Cup picks. The choice was which person to leave off among Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, J.B. Holmes, Matt Kuchar, or Jim Furyk. When you place your vote the results are posted, and although close, the man out was Furyk. He would seem to be the logical choice, not having won a tournament for some time in spite of recently shooting the lowest score ever recorded at a PGA Tour event. In world rankings, he is lower than the others, also. If I were the captain, however, he is the guy I would want on my team.
So the logical question – why discard Bubba? He certainly would get the gallery hopped up. My main reason is the course. Hazeltine National is an Open course, narrow fairways, heavy rough and mature trees. I don’t think it favors Bubba off the tee. Yes, he played well at the Olympics, but that was a wide-open course. At the Ryder Cup, we will need balls in the fairway, and Furyk can certainly do that. We will especially need accuracy off the tee in foursome play, an area where the U.S. team is woeful.
I have nothing against Bubba; I just think this course is not suited to his game, and Furyk seems to play well on these types of courses. So he got my vote and Bubba didn’t. In any event, whoever the choice, I anticipate an exciting match, another up-and-down to the wire finish.
Many times, my students talk to me about their inability to score well on the course. They feel like they strike the ball on the range at a level that would suggest low scores. I take this opportunity to point out the differences between tour pros and everyone else.
Tour pros are willing to assess a situation and make the correct decision, based on all of the given circumstances. For instance, in terms of the short game, the pros, the most talented players on the planet, select a club and shot that seems easy to them. They don’t want to use their considerable talent playing hard shots. Instead, they try to play a shot that they are likely to execute 98% of the time.
When chipping up a hill, the most accomplished short game players will select a club that allows them to use a small swing and promotes a consistent roll up the slope. Younger players will grab a lofted club that is designed to spin and stop quickly, a club that fights their intent.
I put my students through a progression drill. We stand about 10 yards off of the green and pitch to a flag that is 15 yards on the green and up a hill slightly (25 total yards). We begin with a 9-iron. I explain to them that their used to be a “starter” set of clubs that had 3-,5-,7-,and 9-irons only in them; no wedges of any kind. You had to figure out ways to make the 9-iron work. I ask them to open the face slightly with the 9-iron and pitch the ball to the flag. It is important to keep the hands soft and your swing smooth. They soon see that the 9-iron is easy to play the shot with. It flies and bites consistently and rolls to the flag in a dependable manner.
Next comes the pitching wedge. They are surprised that the swing that made the 9-iron soft now makes the wedge much softer than normal. The same continues to happen as we progress through the wedges to the most-lofted clubs. This drill takes the violence and unnecessary speed out of our wedge action.
My players also see that more loft does NOT necessarily make the shot easier. I explain to them that, as talented players, one of the worst things they can do to themselves is to be one-dimensional. I want my players to look at a shot and know they have four or five clubs in their bag that they could get close to the hole. Advanced understanding of trajectory and spin makes picking landing spots much easier. I need their eyes, and mind, to be wide open.
I know of at least one major college golf program that charts proximity to the hole on a short shot like this. I ask my students to picture a person standing by the hole with a clipboard. They are charting the proximity to the hole of every shot and are going to give you an average distance, away from the hole, for each club. Now, logic should tell you to take the club that gives you the best average result. That is the smartest shot.
Does the normal student take heed? NO. I know of an instance where a college golf coach took a player out of the starting lineup because he wouldn’t choose the club that was in his best interest. He continued to select shots that were too hard when a simpler option was available.
I put a young student through this exercise and was careful to point out the results. From 25 yards, as I described, he was best with the 9-iron. The pitching wedge and gap wedge were progressively worse. The sand wedge was nearly as good as the 9-iron. The lob wedge was not even used. He said to me, “See, the sand wedge IS the best club.” I replied, “Wait a minute. You hit that sand wedge on EVERY shot under 100 yards. It gets all of your focus. Day after day it is in your hands. You hit the 9-iron for 10 minutes and it performs as well, if not better. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
Good shotmaking, where balls end up next to the hole, is many times the result of good decision making.
Maturity as a player looks like this: You are willing to work on many shots. You become adept at seeing the best shot to play in each situation. Then, you are willing to play the shot with the best club available. You want to use your considerable talent to play a shot that seems easy to you and which you will hardly ever mis-hit.
When we understand that our “go-to club” is any club in the bag that simplifies the shot, we have come a long way on our journey to lower scoring. The best players SEE the right shot, PLAY the right shot and USE THE RIGHT CLUB. That is the formula for “taking it to the course.”
Feel is a part of many sports: hockey, basketball, baseball, and especially golf, to name a few. Also common to each sport is the importance of the right mechanics. When both are executed at a high level, then greatness can be achieved. There are times, though, that the right feel outweighs the importance of mechanics.
Recently at The Open Championship at Royal Troon, Phil Mickelson was in contention from day one. He was driving it well, hitting good iron shots, putting and scrambling like only Phil can. During the last round in the now-famous duel with Henrik Stenson, Mickelson did something very few golfers would ever do, especially during in the hunt of the last round of a major.
Phil normally putts using a “saw”-type grip. He moves his lower hand into the “saw” position prior to stroking his putt. During the last round of the tournament, I noticed Phil using two different grips: a normal, or convention grip, and also the “saw” grip. At first, I thought maybe he was using the normal grip on longer putts only, but during the middle of the round, he made a 12-foot putt using the normal grip. Going back and forth between grips might sound odd to some people, but Phil was very in-tune to his feel that he knew was working. If his practice stroke felt okay with a normal grip, then he stayed with it; if not, he reverted to the “saw” approach. Understanding that his feel was spot-on allowed him to play a great round.
Unfortunately for Phil, he didn’t win the tournament, but it wasn’t from poor play. Stenson played better that day. Teaching your students to trust their feel is an important part of teaching. We need to show our students that there is more than swing mechanics. Golf is a game of feel.
Here we go again! During the year’s British Open telecast, Johnny Miller, working his first ever Open, spouted out commentary which once again leaves some raising their eyebrows, while others cheer his candor. Some players despise his brutal honestly, some choose to ignore and laugh, while viewers/listeners are offered the option of tuning out or debating his hypotheses. I fall in the latter. There’s nothing like a good debate.
His latest views were directed toward Rory McIlroy’s skin-tight wardrobe’s ability to espouse the benefits of his workout routine, to which we’re all somewhat privy via various social media forums. His comments as follows: “Golf is a game of finesse and touch that requires a certain amount of strength, and Rory has a little too much of the latter.” “I think he overdid the weight room, personally. I don’t think that helped him at all. I think the same thing with Tiger Woods. You just get carried away with wearing the tight shirts and showing off their sort of muscles.”
Okay! Where do I start? We could put Johnny’s comments into context. He’s on live television and there is no script, with the possibility he didn’t think every word through the way a speechwriter preparing a presidential state of the union address would. Johnny Miller is the Donald Trump of television commentators: shoots from the “lip” and sticks to his beliefs, all the while remaining immune to the fallout, if any. Miller is hired for his knowledge of the game and to provide cringe-worthy opinion at times. However, and like Trump, every once in a while he’ll say something people may be thinking but don’t want to verbalize, not always based on fact but opinion and half-truths. This, of course is my opinion, and you the reader are entitled to agree to disagree. I digress.
Where is the truth or the facts in Johnny’s statements? We could start with:
– “Too much strength.” Relatively easy to surmise Johnny didn’t think that one through, but again, it was live television. Nothing wrong with strength…with strength comes stability and speed
– “Golf is a game of finesse and touch that requires a certain amount of strength.” Hard to argue with that statement.
– “I think he overdid the weight room, personally. I don’t think that helped him at all. I think the same thing with Tiger Woods.” This is the most debatable quote. I’m a big believer in stats, as stats seldom lie if the data is accumulated effectively over an extended period of time.
If we look back over Tiger’s career, he led in many statistical categories, with putting and greens in regulation (GIR) being his forte. His average driving distance fell off slightly in terms of ranking as he was always in the top three early in his career. Could this be attributed to his added bulk (muscle) in his torso and biceps? Perhaps, but we’ll never really know, as this was the era of modern equipment changes, so making the comparison proves difficult. We can go on Tiger’s own words in that he gained strength but lost explosive speed from when he was younger. Is it fair to say this is occurring with Rory? If we compare this year to 2014 and a couple of previous years, he has lost distance and ranking in this category. It is known that muscle is heavier; hence, moving a heavy weight as fast as a lighter weight is not so easy. Rory may be strong, but perhaps he’s lost or in the process of losing speed due to his increased bulk, blatantly visible in his upper arms and chest area.
Tiger was not the first professional golfer known for introducing weights and fitness training into golf. As we’re all aware, his predecessor Gary Player owns this title, but of course, Tiger’s superstar status and results forced others to take notice and step up their respective regimens. No doubt every male professional golfer in the world who is capable of earning a good living at the game believes he has the best team of coaches, trainers, etc., providing them with all the tools and expertise to play their best.
Miller believes, along with other golf pundits, Rory and fellow “gym rats” adding bulk are doing themselves and their games a disservice. The belief stems from the fact we have never witnessed great champions in the past built like football linebackers, and for good reason. They also believe such practices are putting themselves at risk for injury.
We may never know or find out for sure why Tiger Woods at 40 years old has been plagued with serious back issues. Are they from lifting heavy weights, or purported injuries suffered while training with Navy Seals? One thing we do know is none other than Ben Hogan hit more balls than anyone, except for perhaps Moe Norman, and never suffered an injury related to golf. His body was lean, flexible and wiry-strong. Was he blessed with these physical attributes? Most definitely. However, Tiger was, as well. Rory, too, has been blessed with great flexibility and explosive speed. Starting a few years ago, he developed his body in the gym to withstand the rigors of professional golf.
The question about Rory overdoing it in the gym now needs to be asked, and this truly was the point of what some claim to be Johnny Miller’s controversial statements. I think the jury can remain out on this one regarding injury. Only time will tell, because some are more prone to hereditary injuries than others.
However, he has lost explosive speed compared to 2014. He has also fallen in two important statistical categories in which Tiger never suffered: putting and greens in regulation. Perhaps a little less time in the gym would curtail this trend.
Many discussions have been held regarding Dustin Johnson’s ball moving during the final round of the U.S. Open and the resulting ruling. For those who might not remember the scenario, Dustin was on the green early in his round and prior to addressing the ball, the ball rolled backwards about a one-half of an inch. D.J. called the walking rules official over and informed him of what happened. The official said there was no penalty and they moved on. A few holes later, a few officials came back onto the course to let D.J. know there was a rules violation and that they would visit after the round.
Golf differs from other games in many ways. One of the major differences is that the golfers will call rules infractions on themselves. This doesn’t happen in any other sport. You would never see a basketball player call a timeout to tell the official that he fouled another player. Could you imagine a football game in which an offensive lineman would tell the referee that he held a defensive player? Golf is an anomaly in that regards; we call penalties on ourselves. Always have and always will, because it is a game based on the honor system. I’m not saying that other sports don’t have honor associated with their game, but that they have a (sometimes) neutral third party calling infractions.
When the USGA official asked Dustin if he made the ball move and D.J. said he didn’t, it should have been the end of the story. Period. There was no visible proof that he made the ball move; now the USGA officials are questioning D.J.’s honor and integrity. In my opinion, the USGA tried to make themselves the focal point of the tournament versus the actual tournament itself.
As golf teaching professionals, we lead by example for our students and members. We play with honor and integrity. I’m very honored to be part of a wonderful organization like the USGTF and WGTF. Happy teaching!
To say I am disappointed in the USGA would be an understatement. The Dustin Johnson decision is just the culmination of several abuses of power I feel have originated from the body in recent years. Sometimes, when organizations get so wrapped up in their so-called authority, they can easily lose perspective.
I saw this happen often when I worked in the corporate world. A company or facility would become so enthralled with being recognized as experts in the field that they just brushed aside any new ideas as not worthy of recognition. They just felt they knew best, and if you didn’t like it, too bad. When it comes to golf, rules are important, but they should be cut-and-dried. Play the ball as it lies…out of bounds…stoke and distance.
It is also recognized that players are responsible for adhering to the rules and calling penalties on themselves. Johnson called the official over as soon as he saw that the ball changed position. That shows that he was being responsible to the game. When asked if he felt it moved as a result of his action, he did not believe it to be the case. His playing partner agreed. The official took his word, and that should have been the end of it. The higher-ups at the USGA wouldn’t let it go. They felt that since Dustin did not know what actually caused the ball to move, it must have been him. Even watching it in slow motion, there was no clear evidence that Johnson caused the ball to move. But like the IRS, guilty, because we say so.
Did you ever go to the driving range and place a ball down on a nice area of grass, only to have it move at the top of your backswing? Happens frequently. Sometimes, things happen for no reason other than mere chance. I’m sure that if Johnson thought he had caused the ball to move, he would have said so and accepted the penalty. It should never have gone any further than that. The USGA motto is for the “good of the game.” In my opinion, I don’t see much of that lately with these folks.
Last week I was watching the NCAA Men’s Championship on TV. The tournament format is match play: first team to three wins is the champion. This style of play is always entertaining because of the ups and downs of the match. One player is leading by a few holes, and then the other player makes a comeback. It’s real-life golf drama.
I noticed that I was becoming more and more engaged in the matches, cheering on the great shots and the players’ recovery shots. There were a number of times a player seemed to be out of the hole; one player had an advantage by hitting a good shot to set up a birdie effort, and the other player, who seemed to be out of position, would either make a long putt or even chip-in from off the green. This now forces the player in good position to make his putt to just tie the hole.
Most golfers don’t play a lot of match play. We often grind trying to shoot the lowest score possible. When teaching our students, especially the younger ones, it is important we talk about these “must-make” opportunities. Lead them in drills or games that get them in the right frame of mind to be aggressive on making the shot. You can see that some players thrive in these environments while others don’t.
Playing match play will teach your students the importance of never giving up, as well as providing the opportunity to experience a “flair” for the dramatic. Your students will be more successful, and you will be, too.
