Golf’s Reset: An Occasional Series Considering What Values Need Changing And Which Are Worth Saving

The COVID-19 pandemic has already changed lives, fortunes and our future. Exactly how the world returns post-virus to some form of normalcy anyone’s guess both in scale and timing. But in our small world of golf, we already knew certain values were evolving before this. The pandemic seems poised to expedite changing attitudes while forcing a reconsideration of other ideals.

Over the coming weeks, as golf courses reopen and potentially millions seek solace by teeing it up at facilities that never closed, the sport may be a viable recreational option in a function-deprived world.  

The word “opportunity” suggests anything about this pandemic is a good thing. It is not. Still, every sector of the world will evolve from this and golfers will recognize chance to highlight golf’s benefits and the need to rethink elements which have not evolved for the good of the sport.  

Some of the ideas I’m going to toss out will be as first world as they come (bunker rakes), certain topics will offend (pro golfers are not bigger than the game), while other matters (green speeds) will hopefully seem like sensible improvements to pursue.  Others will (again, hopefully) be built off suggestions from you after I ease into this topic in still-sensitive times.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on here or Twitter or via email, perhaps with some follow-up thoughts share here based on your remarks or polling.

The Shack Show Podcast With Guest David Owen

One of my goals for the Shack Show is to talk to interesting folks after news breaks. Clearly these are not days where the golf news warrants conversations based on news, but today’s word on Marion Hollins finally joining the World Golf Hall of Fame provided a fine excuse to chat with David Owen.

A New Yorker staff writer since 1991, Owen has written about a wide array of topics outside of golf. But it’s his work for Golf Digest and as a book author we value. His officially sanctioned The Making of The Masters remains an underrated work in the pantheon of important sports books, with Owen ably handling the warts-and-all information uncovered in club archives with the obvious desire to portray the club’s founders in a positive light.

In researching that book, Owen knew little about Marion Hollins but after much research, helped explain her small, but incredible role in shaping Augusta National.

We also discussed where golf will land after the COVID-19 pandemic, David’s buddies trip to Wales that’s been cancelled and the joys of discovering lesser-known links courses.

David’s site of blog posts and articles is MyUsualGame.com. You can find some incredible writing there on a wide array of topics, including the best of links golf.

Here is the GolfDigest.com story, Back Roads Scotland, that we discussed during the show. David has also posted photos and more insights about these gems on his site.

As for the Shack Show, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, but for some guidance, here is the Apple podcasts option and below, the iHeart embed.

COVID-19: 48%: U.S. Golf Course Closure Rate Declines A Bit

From 44% last week, with a margin of error of +/-3%, the National Golf Foundation’s surveying suggests a sizeable number of courses remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings reflect the at-times uncertain nature of golf operations in states like Texas and New York, where recent amendments to executive orders specified that golf is a non-essential business.

While the governor of Texas, which has the fifth-most courses in the country, last week said golf was a non-essential business, he later clarified that they can continue to allow play provided they maintain safe distancing practices and adhere to adjusted operational guidelines prescribed the CDC.

In the Northeast, New York’s various golf associations said last week that the state’s recent “non-essential” advisory didn’t affect non-commercial recreation activities — an interpretation that would potentially pertain to hundreds of private clubs in the region.

Mike Clayton: "All the fun of the unfair"

Generally when golf has had a pause caused by wars, the sport has used the times as an opportunity to consider its playing values. Sometimes the sport moved in a better direction (after WWI), and other times in ways that aged as well as a Robert Trent Jones runway tee.

As we consider what will happen to some of the trends and shifting values, Mike Clayton reminds us that somehow, some way, golf grew when it was far more unfair than anyone today could ever know. That made it fun and who knows, our idea of fun may radically change in this bizarre time.

Either way, check out his piece for Golf Australia.

I loved this:

What changed was the introduction of the concept of “fairness” and the idea formulated primarily by Americans and adopted largely by Australians (and most others) that you had to be able to see where you were going. The notion of the “blind shot” was seen as somehow silly, poor design and something to be avoided by course architects at all costs.

Bunkers in the middle of fairways came to be viewed as poor hazards catching “perfect” drives. Yet if the measure of a perfect shot is its position in relation to the one following how could a drive into a bunker possibly be seen as perfect?

That two players could hit almost the same shot and come up with two quite different results also was seen as being unfair and the result has been a sanitisation of the original game. Architectural quirks, the luck of the bounce and multiple ways of playing a shot and a hole make the game unpredictable and offend the “predictable” crowd.

I do wonder if deprived the game will golfers be able to laugh at themselves more because they’re just so happy to be out playing?

State Of The Game Episode 104: What Will Become Of The European Tour?

As we recorded, Paul McGinley’s warning of lower purses and other issues with golf’s hoped-for return was on our State of the Game minds. Since then the ominous news from European Tour Chief Keith Pelley to his players surfaced in this James Corrigan Telegraph story. Namely, smaller purses and way fewer tournament build-out perks.

So professional golf on hold for the foreseeable future we explore what the pro game might look like on the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we consider whether the European Tour can survive the current crisis and if not will it the PGA Tour or the Premier Golf League become its savior?

To flesh this out, we are joined by sports business expert Richard Gillis on Episode 104 of State of the Game. Embedded below or wherever you get your pods.

For more from Gillis, check out his excellent Unofficial Partner podcast and blog covering global sports.

NGF's Updated COVID-19 Survey: 44% Of U.S. Courses Open, Older Golfers Support Play Restrictions

The National Golf Foundation has updated its COVID-19 survey page for the week of April 6-12, 2020.

Since the various graphs and data pieces posted cannot be hyperlinked, I’ve grabbed a couple of note.

For starters, it’s an older demographic that is okay with golf courses closing to play during the pandemic.

The south is home to most golf course openings:

McGinley: Playing Rescheduled Tournaments Dates Is Unlikely

Longtime player, broadcaster, winning Ryder Cup captain and European Tour board director Paul McGinley took to SkySports.com to prepare us for the worst. The newly rescheduled fall 2020 majors and PGA Tour events look unlikely.

I continue to try to be positive but, deep down, most of us would probably agree it is unlikely.

The R&A has probably done the shrewdest thing and cancelled The 149th Open until July 2021, but what of the other majors and the Ryder Cup?

The very early talks on the lifting of lockdown are revealing some of the realities we are likely to face. Government regulations are expected to continue to restrict and monitor large gatherings of people as we come out. Strict social distancing guidelines are likely to endure for a while yet.

As we begin to become accustomed to our own new rules of social engagement, many are likely to continue to be reticent to gather in large groups at least in the short term. With this in mind, it seems probable then that the playing of any big sporting event will, if and when played, be either behind closed doors, or even where players and those involved will have been quarantined and tested before play commences.

McGinley also appears to be sending a signal to players: the European Tour is going to adapt, and so will your expectations for purse growth whenever play resumes.

These are unique times. The world is likely to be a changed place when we come through this pandemic and if sport has to reinvent itself in the short term let us all prepare to embrace that for what it is. The financial models that all sports are based on can readjust.

"Venue entry changed dramatically after 9/11; a similar shift may be coming"

The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan explores the future of sporting events when fans can return and considers what hurdles there may be to attendance.

For anyone putting on an event, some of the notions are surely daunting and while professional golf may not face some of the seating issues other leagues will be forced to consider. But admittance will likely lead to a new kind of security featuring thermal cameras, digital certification and other measures that will likely require significant investment.

From Kaplan’s item (not behind The Athletic’s normal paywall):

“Whether it’s a digital certificate or a wristband, that typically sounds really bad, but this has actually been done before,” said Mark Miller, CEO of TicketSocket, an event management and ticketing platform that works with sporting events, food and beer festivals, races and obstacle runs. “Certain kinds of events you have had to have had a health check … to provide certain records because otherwise, you were a liability.”

Miller is referring not to fans, but participants in endurance contests, whether for Spartan races or marathons. But the concept of liability is similar. A marathon organizer does not want to let physically unfit competitors into the race. Now, does a team or event want a sick fan who could infect others?

There are of course complicated logistical and privacy issues. How and when do fans buying tickets send over their medical proof? And what if they don’t want to? Surely there are medical and personal privacy laws that come into play, though in a post-pandemic world such laws might come under scrutiny.

Royal Dornoch After A Light Dusting Of Snow And A Glimpse Of The Remodeled 7th Hole

There wasn’t any golf at Royal Dornoch a couple of days ago for another reason beyond COVID-19. But it’s still somehow soothing to see one of golf’s best views from the 7th hole looking down on the links as the birds chirp and the gorse blooms. The clip by noted golf photographer Matthew Harris, was posted by Royal Dornoch.

And for architecture buffs, the very last portion gives a glimpse of the remodeled 7th hole, positioned closer to the ridgeline.

Winter still lingers this morning as the camera pans from the 5th green,11th green,12th tee,the beach,11th fairway,the North Sea & finally a view down the new 7th on our Championship Course. 📹 Clip by: golflife_matt . . . #winter #scotland #snow #video #flowers #landscape #ocean #beach #weather

281 Likes, 23 Comments - Royal Dornoch (@royal.dornoch) on Instagram: "Winter still lingers this morning as the camera pans from the 5th green,11th green,12th tee,the..."

Golf's First World Distance Debate Seems Silly In A Very Different Way

I opened up Mike Stachura’s Golf Digest story titled, “The distance resistance”, and couldn’t help but notice the editor’s note: “This article appeared in our latest issue, which went to print in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.”

In light of thousands of tragic deaths in just weeks, the specter of a massive economic downturn, and uncertainty about what tomorrow will bring, worrying about driving distance seems so…silly.

But more than the absurdity, reading some pre-March 2020 concerns you feel teh undercurrent of distrust of authorities (even if the R&A and USGA are seen as thinking of golf’s long-term viability). The story also hints at the marketplace’s determination to protect the right to spend $600 to pick up 6-yards, no matter the damage done.

That’s why it was a shrewd editor’s note.

Whenever a form of normalcy returns, the excessive weight given to views on distance will all seem so insignificant. Just as there will be a heightened expectation for authorities and companies to be better prepared in the future, it’s not unreasonable to think a similar sentiment will persist in sports.

While there will always be golfers eager to spend $600 on a driver merely to keep up with someone else, even more will find all of that to be of such secondary importance.

Stachura writes:

That future will be about this push and pull between maintaining a connection to golf’s past and embracing the realities of its future participants. The questions we need to ask now are: Would 400-yard drives at a tour event be a tragedy? Would this signal that golf’s connection with its historic championship venues had been severed? Will the cartoonish swing speeds of today’s long-drive competitors become the standard for tomorrow’s PGA Tour players? Would the bond between golf’s elite players and its paying customers be broken or heightened by extraordinary driving distances?

The days of worrying about the answers already seems long gone.

Shrewd editor’s note.

The “authorities” in all sectors will be expected to do what’s best for the long term good. Including in sports and in golf.

Just a few weeks time, certain values held up as vital to golf’s future now seem trivial, particularly the idea that people play golf to see how far they can hit the ball or watch golf for the distance chases.

Given that every golfer current deprived of golf just wants to be out playing again, how far their drives fly seems like an excess of negligible importance. The short and long term viability of courses was, is and will be all that matters.

NGF Survey Of U.S. Courses And Clubs: Where Golf Is Open For Business, Consumer Confidence And Other Notes

The National Golf Foundation has been busy surveying course owners as well as studying other data to give an update in the U.S. golf industry as of March 31, 2020.

From President Joe Beditz’s letter explaining the effort:

 To begin with, over the course of this past week NGF conducted a telephone poll of just over 1,000 golf courses nationwide to objectively assess the impact of the coronavirus on golf course operations. We’ll continue to poll courses in the weeks ahead so we can track these effects and as we more fully turn our attention to studying the human and business impacts of this pandemic.
 
The findings of our golf facility poll are the centerpiece of a new COVID-19 webpage we’ve created that also provides key data regarding which states have placed restrictions on golf, course operators’ perceptions, consumer research that reveals how playing and purchasing behaviors have been affected, and other interesting information. Click here to see the results of our poll and check out the rest of the site: www.thengfq.com/covid-19

Among the topics covered in the survey research:

—As of March 27, 2020 an estimated 74% of in-season U.S. golf courses remain open despite the coronavirus pandemic.

—Golf rounds were up significantly (+15.2%) thru February.

—Core golfers who were planning on equipment purchases now suggest they'll simply delay. We'll continue to monitor this sentiment.

—Roughly 35% of independent/regional golf retailers remain open.

The one genuinely confounding finding no matter how you feel about whether golf should be played right now: the number of surveyed courses NOT restricting access to confined spaces beyond the 87% for dining areas:

Add Summit Golf Brands To The List Of Small Companies Doing Their Part

GolfDigest.com’s Sam Weinman chats with Summit Golf Brands’ creative director Billy Draddy about their move into N95 masts. The Wisconsin-based manufacturer of Fairway & Greene, Zero Restriction and B. Draddy golfwear designed a prototype mask and has had it approved for emergency-care workers near its Wisconsin plant.

From the Q&A:

Q: So a part of you is busy with that and part is surely paying attention to what’s happening in the world. At what point did you realize you might be able to help?

A: A week ago Thursday, we got an email through our customer-service department from one of our customers who had suggested that we could make masks for emergency-care workers. I spent the weekend developing a first prototype. We got on a conference call on Monday to discuss, then looped in our Wisconsin warehouse team who would be responsible for executing. I sent my first prototype out to them. Then through our in-house embroidery and heat-sealing machinery developed two prototypes that we then took to the Wisconsin Emergency Management Agency.

Yet another small company with a passion for the sport doing its part. Well done!

In other news, Seamus Golf has reopened their online store after spending the last week focused on mask-making that continues on. Requests can still be made by emergency workers at SeamusGolf.com.

Today In Much-Needed Diviersionary Reading: Bobby Jones' Rarely Seen Ideal 18

Nice spot by Jim Nantz using his April Golf Digest column to share a rarely-seen list of Bobby Jones’ ideal 18 holes. And I’ve verified that unlike other National Golf Review rankings, this one is real!

It’s a peculiar list in the way Jones structured his course and in the holes he chose from St. Andrews, National Golf Links and Pine Valley. But isn’t that the fun of constructing a dream 18 from existing courses?

Anyway, check out how Nantz stumbled on the list and how he got it verified by the great Sid Matthew. As he writes, “Jones’ dream 18 is one of the more exciting modern Jones discoveries.”

In order of surprise/wish I knew more: Jones choosing the 8th at St. Andrews for a par-3, the 10th at National Golf Links and the 4th at Pine Valley. All superb holes but still intriguing those edged out many others or even better holes at those courses.

COVID-19 Shutdown Model: Los Angeles Area Clubs Helping Out Their Caddies

GoFUNDME Page Including two LA area clubs and another in Las vegas helping their caddies

If you’re looking for a little virus-shutdown inspiration, I’d point you to the efforts of Los Angeles’ elite clubs taking care of golf’s ultimate gig economy entrepreneurs and on-course pyschoanalysts: the caddies. You know the pro jocks.

While this seemingly involves a mere effort toward first world-perk sustainability, we all know how caddying pays. Or what the hours are like and who the clients are! So while the effort detailed below only impacts a small number, those with open minds will realize how the efforts in LA may be need to be replicated nationally and internationally. Only the future of one of the world’s oldest professions is at stake.

A profession that has given us some of the game’s greatest players and characters.

The issue simplified: while other golf and country club staff are more likely to be entitled to benefits and official assistance programs during COVID-19 related closures, California labor laws do not allow clubs to offer official assistance. (Independent contractors in the gig economy may struggle to reap any benefits from governmental intervention, a story for another day soon, hopefully.)

Inspired by Wilshire Country Club members Dan Hubbert and Matt Sinnreich (detailed here by GolfDigest.com’s Dave Shedloski), each of the other elite LA clubs has followed suit by taking donations collected by an individual member, or more commonly, using GoFundMe. The idea is to help caddies with their bills while courses are closed.

I’ve heard of strong efforts at Bel-Air and Brentwood. A search of GoFundMe turns up efforts at Lakeside, Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club in addition to the original, Wilshire CC (and Las Vegas’ Southern Highlands).

As of this post the totals with the goal of dispersing emergency financial assistance:

Wilshire CC - $80,090 of a $60,000 goal

Lakeside GC - $54,406 of $60,000 goal

Riviera CC - $95,920 of $100,000 goal

Los Angeles CC - $229,071 of $300,000 goal

Fans of screen and sport will get a kick out of some from Riviera’s donor group. One just signed a nice 2-year $60 million deal. But more vitally, the dollar figures are impressive and hopefully inspire those who can afford to give back in the name of protecting golf’s treasured caddies.

"Country club members, managers step up with good deeds during crisis"

Dave Shedloski at GolfDigest.com checks in on many parts of the United States to find out how country club’s giving back during the COVD-19 crisis.

It’s early still but the immediate creativity and focus on club employees who are out of work is heartening. Just one highlight from the story:

On the other end of the spectrum (and, well, we do mean the other end), the Country Club of Fairfax in Fairfax, Va., is offering free toilet paper in limited quantities to its members, but management is encouraging the members to instead donate $20 per roll to add to an employee relief fund established for the club staff.

In Newtown, Pa., the members of Jericho National Golf Club are taking a different tack. They have requested that their $150 monthly food minimum be given to the club’s employees.

Reassigning employees, or cross-training them, is a plan enacted by many clubs to keep their staffs working—and earning income. This has enabled The Cliffs and Kiawah Island Club in South Carolina, both owned by South Street Partners, to keep their 1,100 seasonal personnel employed.