Golf Take Note: NASCAR's 90-Minute iRacing Series Yields Ideas For Major Change

The LA Times’ venerable sports business writer David Wharton considers NASCAR’s return Sunday—an hour after live golf begins at Seminole—and the recent iRacing invitational series’ impact. (For those from a more experienced demographic, that’s the video game deal.)

While golf was not able to muster up anything like the iRacing series due to various issues and a concern about perception, Wharton notes that NASCAR’s continued concerns about fandom remains a major focus. As noted here, they’ve already instituted efforts to make the racing more strategic again by slowing down cars and ratings have improved.

But post iRacing, they reported attracting new fans who had not watched a real race. The length of races and an open mind to more variety of track settings in a fan-free world, was also noticed.

The success of the 90-minute iRacing broadcasts has reinforced an already existing push for shorter Cup Series events.

“I don’t think we need all those four-hour races,” said Myers, a long-time motorsports fan. “It’s hard to ask a family guy to carve out that much time on a Sunday.”

Shifting away from traditional, oval tracks — at least some of the time — could counteract NASCAR’s reputation as a “left-turn league.”

More road courses, popular in the past, could help. So could the occasional dirt track and street circuits akin to the Long Beach Grand Prix. NASCAR has planned a first-ever doubleheader with IndyCar later in the year.

“It really is about the fans,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps said recently. “We need to make sure we are putting on compelling racing and having full grandstands when we do that.”

Another thing about the iRacing series — it helped personalize a sport born of moonshine runners and larger-than-life personas. Fans saw drivers’ faces normally obscured by helmets and window nets. They listened to favorites talk strategy and crack jokes.

Wharton goes on to note other elements, but should NASCAR put into practice shorter races and more variety of approaches, the lessons for golf could be both tangible and backed up with real data.

Just off the top of my head, the upcoming exhibitions at Seminole and Medalist probably should have been nine holes, and without large gatherings of fans, might the professional game reemerge looking at more “boutique” or remote venues for tournaments?

PGA Tour Rolls Out Testing Plans: Quick Results From Local Labs And No Disclosure Who Tests Positive

The PGA Tour officials charged with getting operations going are in a no-win situation as COVID-19 offers new surprises and different understandings each day. That said, the testing and protocol rollout for select media highlighted potential flaws, starting with the oddity of a player receiving a positive virus test while in contention.

From Luke Kerr-Dineen’s Golf.com on what happens with a positive:

If the test comes back positive, that player is immediately escorted off site, withdrawn from the event and given a last-place payout.

It doesn’t matter if that player is leading the event, is largely asymptomatic, is in last place or somewhere in between; you test positive, you’re out. It’s a smart but tough new rule, the kind required in the current landscape. A sign of the times would be a scenario where the leader of the event could be withdrawn from the contest for safety concerns, rewarded with a last-place check and a 10-day quarantine.

The Tour, for its part, said that it wouldn’t disclose the identity of any player who does test positive.

But as Pat Perez told Mark Cannizzaro of the New York Post, it’s hard to see that scenario playing out. He made the remarks in his overall statement suggesting the return is happening too soon.

“Let’s say I leave Scottsdale [his home] and I don’t have that virus and I get to Dallas and I’ve got it?’’ he said. “The Tour’s going to have a real problem with me if that happens. Let’s say a guy gets tested on Tuesday and he tests positive when he comes back on Thursday. Is he [disqualified]?

“And, are you telling me that if Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy or another big name that drives our tour is leading entering Sunday, you’re going to DQ him if he tests positive? I dare you. There’ll be a [bleeping] riot.’’

GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall noted that “ambiguity remains” about many of the planned elements, including how many positive cases at an event would be cause for a stoppage.

What remains unclear is what number of positive tests constitute a critical mass for the Tour. A single test would not be enough to deter the tournament from continuing, said senior vice president of tournament administration Andy Levinson, and there’s not a specific number of positive tests the tour has in mind that would enact a cancellation.

Not ambiguous is the PGA Tour’s plan to use local labs in each city to check nasal swabs for the virus, highlighting how cumbersome it is right now to run a testing operation for 400 of the expected 1100 or so on site while moving from city to city.

The Tour’s Andy Levinson from the transcript of the press session:

Our testing group includes all of our players and caddies, and as I mentioned earlier, some other select personnel that have to be in close proximity with them. That number on average weekly will be around 400. As the mayor of Fort Worth was quoted earlier this week in saying they have facilitated conversations for us with UTSW, who have laboratories throughout the area, and we are confident that we'll be able to conduct our testing in a manner that is not taking away from the community. We will be providing our own supplies and sourcing all of that, as well.

For the results, we know we can get results back immediately on the questionnaire and thermal screenings. In most communities, PCR test results take anywhere from one to three days, but what we're really focusing on is identifying local laboratories who aren't overly burdened with community testing or may not currently be community testing at all at this time, and trying to decrease that turnaround time to a matter of hours instead of a matter of days, and as we've said, we wouldn't do this with local laboratories, if, again, we were taking resources away from the community.

I’m sure there are local labs not burdened somwhere in the United States, but given the third day in a row of over 1000 new cases in Texas driven mostly by outbreaks in jails, the first market may have some backlogs on the test-results front.

The week two tournament is in Hilton Head, where he closest lab is reportedly in Charlotte.

On the optics front, if PGA Tour players, caddies, officials and others get priority over locals, it could be disastrous. And even if labs are not strained, the visuals of players getting tested and moved to the front of the line is not great. Especially if it’s so they can play a practice round. That could easily make national or international news and backfire on the event sponsor.

The Shack Show Episode 10 With Guest Joe Beditz, National Golf Foundation CEO

The National Golf Foundation’s research is generally for private business and organizations, but since March 31 the organization has been putting out weekly figures on the state of golf. The data culled from extensive surveying by the NGF staff has been posted and summarized by CEO Joe Beditz.

Particularly impressive has been Beditz’s willingness to navigate the difficult task of encouraging the return to the safe confines of a golf course while reiterating the delicate balance for golf should the industry defy local ordinances. His guidance, combined with the data provided by the NGF to inform understanding of where things stand, will some day be looked back upon as having helped the golf industry remain centered and forward-looking through these uncertain times.

This is all my nice way of saying why it was high time to have another Shack Show with Beditz as this week’s guest. We chatted about the research effort among other topics.

Here is the book, Culture By Design, referenced later in the show by Beditz.

The Apple Podcast link to Episode 10.

And the iHeart embed below if you want to listen here:

NGF: 91% Of U.S. Open Courses Open, Golfers Still Want Their Distancing In And Outdoors

The latest edition of the National Golf Foundation’s weekly survey and research once again provides interesting data for those on the business side.

CEO Joe Beditz continues to take a refreshingly honest and cautionary tone in reminding readers that the spot has a “yellow light” to reopen that could turn red very quickly with the perception of lax behavior and rules. Country clubs, in particular, are on their radar as struggling to discipline members.

Golf has been given the go-ahead because it’s considered a relatively safe activity when social distancing is maintained and other precautions are followed. But make no mistake, what has been given can be taken away. It’s now up to both golf course operators and golfers to keep golf open. Bad behavior will get noticed, and possibly recorded on a smart phone. One course in Florida was recently shut down by the local sheriff’s department for flagrant safety violations.
 
This isn’t just the beer cooler crowd we’re talking about. Many private club boards are struggling with disciplinary decisions concerning members who refuse to follow the rules.
 
This is why NGF is sending a message this week to golf courses around the country, encouraging operators to follow the excellent guidance that’s been provided by leading golf associations, and reminding golfers that it’s up to them whether golf courses continue to remain open for play.

Of note in this week’s findings, goflers were asked about comfort levels with shopping indoors (wisely and understandably not great) meaning more troubles for in-person golf retailers. And this was a good sign that most golfers are appreciating the perks of being outside while recognizing physical distancing:

Golf Values Reset: Rekindling The Early Days Of "Play It As It Lies"

With new rules and regulations during the COVID-19, golfers are flocking to courses and based on social media, enjoying their golf more than ever. Even with all sorts of safety precautions stripping away elements thought essential to enjoyment of the game, it turns out the mere privilege of being outside, getting exercise and hitting the ball has brought priorities into focus.

Play it as it lies has been under fire some time. Golfers get to touch their ball too much, particularly on the greens. (Though magically, for a short, dark period in the early 2000s would mysteriously leave it down to provide a backstop for competitors even when playing for millions of dollars. Go figure.)

There are also drops, excuses to touch the ball to gauge how it lies or if it’s scuffed too much. And then there is all of that dabbing, touching, extricating and other surgery allowed in the immediate surrounds of the ball. The effect puts a few dents in play it as it lies.

Worse, massive amounts of capital and man hours are expended annually to prevent golfers from having to find a lie that might set in motion a series of ” tragic” events like sixes and sevens. Land has been rearranged to flatten stances, bunker floors have been remodeled to allow for an ideal stance. Even in hazards, where technically no one should not be entitled to any coddling, golfers demand perfection and today’s talented superintendents deliver.

But with the COVID-19 precautions such as unraked bunkers and flagsticks in holes, golfers are reporting normal eastern sunrises and western sunsets despite these pandemic-related “concessions”. Many are enjoying the stripped-down game even more.

So while we’re hiding rakes and treating flagsticks like they are radioactive, why not pretend golf balls are potential virus carriers and return to the days of leaving them down unless absolutely necessary. The backstoppers should be thrilled. The realization that a bad lie now and then is a small price to pay for the privilege of playing in these times of quarantining. We might even be able to shed a few ounces of bloated entitlement bred by exposure to mostly pristine playing opportunities?

While doing some research I popped open Scotland’s Gift-Golf and C.B. Macdonald explained in Chapter I (Introduction to St Andrews) how the early golf he played there as a young visitor was centered around a “code of honor” where “the player must play the ball as it lay.” He ended the first chapter with this longing for American golf to capture the essence of the primal game that hooked him:

So strong was the influence of my associations with St. Andrews that for many years touching the ball in play without penalty was anathema to me, a kind of sacrilegious profanity. The impression of the true old game of golf is indescribable. It was like the dawn or the twilight of a brilliant day. It can only be felt. The charm, the fascination of it all, cannot be conveyed in words.

Would that I could hand on unimpaired the great game as it was my good fortune to know it. The iconoclast and the Bolshevik, knowing nothing of golfing law or golfing sin, may mar its spirit, but I have faith in its supremacy.

Based on the early reactions I’ve heard about unraked bunkers and slower, less refined maintenance, the spirit, the “charm” and “the fascination of it all” is being “felt” again. Maybe with less touching of the ball, more acceptance of playing it as you found it, and scorecards taking on a little less importance, perhaps we can see a return of the primal St Andrews sensations that so enamored Macdonald.

England Can Resume Golf With Household Members, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland Cannot

Elliott Heath reports on the UK Prime Minister’s lifting of some restrictions on recreation, with only England allowing golfers to return as long as they are playing with a household member. The plan begins Wednesday and apparently caught many by surprise.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s quote in Heath’s Golf Monthly report is going to confuse golfers.

“From this Wednesday, we want to encourage people to take more and even unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

“You can sit in the sun in your local park, you can drive to other destinations, you can even play sports but only with members of your own household.”

Governments continue to try ease restrictions and golf seems to be caught in the middle, as Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will not be part of this “unlimited exercise” restriction lift due to continued lockdown orders.

The R&A’s statement and guidelines page, included this:

As a sport we must work together to resume play responsibly as and when the relevant Government determines it is safe to do so. We must ensure that the safety and well being of everyone involved from golfers, to club staff and greenkeepers is maintained at all times. Golf clubs and golfers have observed the lockdown very well and must keep it up and act responsibly as play resumes.

“Golf has never felt so much like a freedom.”

Thanks to reader John for this from Bill Pennington NY Times piece on what golf courses are experiencing now that play has been reopened in all fifty states.

This:

There are more than 16,000 golf courses in America and only a quarter are private clubs. With schools padlocked, fitness centers closed and many parks and playgrounds off limits, golf — with social distancing restrictions — has become a rare outdoor respite that combines exercise, companionship, competition and space.

“With so many things you can’t do right now and so few things you can do,” Withington said, “golf has never felt so much like a freedom.”

Moreover, golf course operators nationwide said they are seeing something new in their client behaviors and demographics: entire families, cooped up at home, are arriving at the first tee to play together; sales of discounted youth golf passes are exploding; and more golfers are walking the course because usually only family members can share a cart.

“I’m also seeing a lot of people who haven’t played golf in a while,” said Scott Krieger, the head pro and general manager at Broadmoor Golf Course in Portland, Ore. “And more fathers and sons, fathers and daughters and husbands and wives, too.”

What Will Happen To Topgolf After The Pandemic?

Since wisely closing down all of its locations in response to COVID-19, the industry’s one-time darling upstart, Topgolf, has only made news with layoffs and furloughs of facility managers, followed by a big miss in Birmingham where tax incentives were pulled back.

In response to the layoffs, the privately held company expected to someday go the IPO route, issued this statement.

COVID-19 has had a massive impact on our business and has forced us to re-evaluate the way we must operate moving forward. As a result, we unfortunately had to make the difficult decision to eliminate many roles within our organization both at our venues and corporate offices. For a culture such as ours at Topgolf, this has been a time of deep sadness. Looking forward, we have great conviction around emerging with strength and re-opening venues as soon as it is safe to do so.

Adding to their woes, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded some of Topgolf’s ratings. The last line here is not particularly upbeat.

The downgrade of Topgolf’s ratings reflects the impact of the coronavirus outbreak which has disrupted the ability to operate the company’s venues until the spread of the virus subsides. As a result, leverage levels will increase substantially and liquidity will deteriorate for as long as the locations remain closed, according to Moody’s. Even with the re-opening of the venues, operating performance may remain below normal levels due to lower consumer spending arising from weak economic conditions and ongoing social distancing behaviors. Moody’s projects Topgolf will need additional sources of liquidity to avoid a default.

"The industry whiffed during quarantine, but this game is far from over."

With news of the European Tour’s launch of virtual Trackman matches, Adam Schupak of Golfweek (lovingly) takes the golf industry and television business to task for a fairly dreadful response to COVID-19 in a different way: how the sport has handled marketing itself and how its used assets to promote the game.

Granted, it’s asking a lot given the way the coronavirus overtook life and the difficulty of putting out “content” while so much suffering is taking place. On a grander scale, there is also the difficulty of coordinating, meeting and producing, but as he notes, the efforts have been uninspired.

PGA Tour pros from Rory McIlroy to Billy Horschel to Charley Hoffman have promoted Peloton (not even a Tour sponsor!) more than the sport that has brought them fame and fortune. Kudos to NASCAR for pivoting and quickly launching an e-race series so we could see Ian Poulter in his favorite habitat behind the wheel. Why couldn’t the professional golf circuits jump on something similar? Why couldn’t Jordan Spieth just invite a few friends over to the house for a simulator match and ask his wife to film it on his phone? We’d watch.

Finally, the European Tour has hopped on board with the BMW Indoor Invitational, a series of five 18-hole virtual golf tournaments contested using TrackMan. What took so long?

Getting PGA Tour releases?

Seriously, after pointing out that no one needed to see the Big Break XI once, much less again, Schupak points out why it was important for golf to better use the downtime.

This is a time for golf to puff out its chest and remind sports fans why golf is the greatest game of all. Where are the PSA’s promoting the beneficial reasons to play golf?

“We will be launching a campaign in due course with a number of PSAs in a variety of ways to talk about the benefits of golf, and you will begin to see those come out soon,” said Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America.

That’s a start because the golf industry tends to rest on its laurels – being on TV every weekend and having its own channel tends to do that – and doesn’t need to worry about exposure. Now would be a good time for the industry as a whole to actively seek and market to new golfers and support the people in the industry slogging it out and turning on the lights and cutting the grass at 15,000 courses nationwide.

"We need to continue to remind golfers that they’re playing before the biggest gallery of their lives, as well-publicized screwups could turn the yellow lights back to red."

The National Golf Foundation’s weekly and incredibly powerful interactive report has dropped again with more information for the industry. They’ve stepped up impressively in their efforts to highlight what’s going on in the golf business.

The NGF reports 79% of U.S. golf courses are open in some form with 90% projected by May 17.

The latest COVID-19 report also includes looks at the retail sector, consumer spending and how golfers see their income potentially impacted.

As part of the weekly release, NGF CEO Joe Beditz was upbeat about the findings but issued this excellent warning.

As I’ll continue to say, golf has an opportunity to lead by example, showing it can be played safely and responsibly in the midst of a pandemic. Course owners and operators need to keep following local rules and adjusting to our “new normal.” And we need to continue to remind golfers that they’re playing before the biggest gallery of their lives, as well-publicized screwups could turn the yellow lights back to red.

Golf Fares Well In WaPo Poll On Businesses Americans Are Okay With Re-opening

While a majority still opposed golf courses reopening (59%), the numbers that likely speak to an overall misunderstanding of how the sport works safely or just traditional elitist-sport apathy. But first place is better than most.

Dan Balz and Emily Guskin report the findings for the Washington Post.

Gun stores are next, with 70 percent saying they should not be reopened, followed by barbershops and hair salons (69 percent opposed) and retail shops such as clothing stores (66 percent opposed) and golf courses (59 percent opposed).

Opposition to opening businesses is just about as high in the states that have loosened restrictions so far as states with stricter restrictions. In both sets of states, majorities of residents oppose reopening all eight types of businesses measured in the poll.

The Shack Show With Guest Brett Cyrgalis, Author Of Golf's Holy War

I admire Brett Cyrgalis’ ability to play reporter and open-minded man considering the “Battle for the soul of a game in an age of science”. I did not take that path in The Future of Golf sleep fine at night, but Cyrgalis is trying to do for golf what Moneyball did for baseball, only with stronger consideration for the more traditional approach.

Golf’s Holy War (Avid Reader Press, out May 5, 2020) includes chapters on Tiger Woods and Dualism, Technology for Profit, the Art of Architecture, Hogan and Science in Slidell, Louisiana. In between Cyrgalis, a New York Post writer on the Rangers beat, considers the views of a wide golfing swath to let you decide if the sport has sold its soul to technology.

The Hogan chapter has been posted as an excerpt at GolfDigest.com.

You can buy the book at Amazon (link above) or support independent’s at Bookshop.org, where the price is lower and the profits go to support local bookshops.

I tried to get Cyrgalis to admit he’s a technophobic something or other (sorry Wally, second blog reference this week). No luck, but I do hope episode 9 is still a fruitful use of your time listening to the articulate author.

Please subscribe to the Shack Show wherever you get podcasts!

Here is the Apple show page and embed from iHeart:

Bamberger On Rake-Free Bunkers: "More imperfect, less uniform, as the world is imperfect and not uniform."

The Road Hole bunker in more aesthetically-pleasing times.

Michael Bamberger is one of many writers to take to the links and report back on what new safety-first rules are making the sport better.

I loved this on bunkers:

While we’re at it, golf is better without bunker rakes, as we’re playing now. Faster, for one thing. More primitive. More penal, for being someplace you shouldn’t be. More imperfect, less uniform, as the world is imperfect and not uniform. Pine Valley has no rakes. You’ll never hear somebody there yell at a ball in the air, “Get in the bunker!”

Update: Everything's Just Fine At Prestwick

The Alps and clubhouse

Prestwick has seen it all. The first Open, Old Tom, the Parks, going from 12 to 18 holes, world wars, WW II training, and now global pandemics.

While one of the world’s greatest places will be there again in better times, it’s still great to see in this video show by Prestwick’s gracious golf pro David Fleming. A course that good and looking that well kept needs to be played, but for now this will do…

Tonight’s #prestwicksunset #sunset #prestwickgolfclub #alps #saharabunker @prestwickgc @visitscotland @visitayrshire @ayrshiregolfscotland @scotlandhomeofgolf #narrows #theopen #railway #BIRTHPLACEOFTHEOPEN pic.twitter.com/QM50Ti8Ist

— David Fleming (@prestwickgcpro) May 3, 2020

Pool Flotation Devices Must Not Be In Golf's Future

Accompanying Joe Becker’s San Jose Mercury News story on the “strange” changes golfers will face upon returning to reopened golf courses, not mentioned is the idea used in photos accompanying the story: circumcised pool flotation devices in the cup.

Now, why these, used at “Newport Beach Golf Course” in Orange County down south was chosen for the story, I’m not sure. But I’m am sure that we can do better than the look above. Granted, it could be the shorts. The guy grinding out the two footer as the other looks on like he’s a retired member of the Stasi. Maybe it’s the color that looks like...oh we won’t go there. Either way, no more pool flotation devices…please!