The final putts have been made.
PGA Tour players have scattered across the land to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones.
Trophies for the major championships are in the possession of Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka and Francesco Molinari.
Tiger Woods is back, at least, he did enough to make everyone believe his is.
With 2018 drawing to a close, let’s take a moment to contemplate the state of our game at different levels and what the future might hold.
The Rich Get Richer:
All you need to do is look at the PGA Tour. It’s the ultimate business model. The Tour gets fat-cat corporations to pay the players. The players aren’t even employees of The Tour, they’re independent contractors. The Tour convinces tens of thousands of people to pay to work at its tournaments. Not only do those “volunteers” take off from work, they pay hard-earned dollars to buy those silly tournament uniforms at retail prices. Then look at the PGA Tour’s tax return. It’s a not-for-profit that is making profit out the ying-yang — to the tune of $2 billion (with a “B”) in gross revenues. That was a couple of years ago. That number has gone up, way up.
The Tour keeps finding ways to leverage itself and turn up the money-making machine. It likes to fancy itself as giving oodles of money to charity but it is actually the local groups at tour stops who do all the heavy lifting when it comes to raising those charity dollars.
Add it all up and the PGA Tour is the ultimate example of how the rich are getting richer, much richer and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight. Tiger Woods re-emerged to save future television rights negotiations, of course The Tour will tell the networks that El Tigre has at least four of five more good years in him. P.T. Barnum would be proud.
The Poor Cousin:
The outlook isn’t as rosy for the European Tour, the poor, overseas cousin of the PGA Tour. The European Tour just finished courting Rory McIlroy to make sure that their highest-profile player stays a member of that tour. It appears they accomplished that. Their tournament purses continue to be chump change when compared to the PGA Tour. Such is life abroad. The European Tour barely manages to break even financially and totally depends on revenues from its share of the Ryder Cup to keep itself afloat. It’s safe — for now.
PGA Of America:
The fairly wealthy nephew of the PGA Tour. Following the lead of its uncle, the PGA Of America went out and cut itself one helluva relocation deal. Seems Frisco, Texas will welcome the PGA with open arms and will build a super complex around it, complete with two world-class golf courses that someone else will pay for. In return, the PGA Of America will bring its major championship to the grounds. Add Ryder Cup revenues and you wonder why they continue to increase the dues that the poor club pros have to fork out to belong to the organization.
LPGA:
This is a world-wide tour. It is being taken over by players from Asia, the American presence out there continues to dwindle. Lexi Thompson is the only American in the Top 10 in world rankings, checking in at No. 5. There are some decent up-and-coming Americans but the fact is there are probably 20-30 Asian players we’ve never heard about who can beat our best college players. Good news for women’s golf is they’re beginning to find a little more money. But when you stack it up against men’s golf — it’s definitely the poor younger sister of the PGA Tour.
College Golf:
College players are so much better in this day and age than they were 10 years ago. The players are bigger, stronger and their skill level creates a competitive atmosphere where the top players can go out and get on the Web.com Tour and go to The Show in a year. The outlook is strong.
Junior Golf:
Sadly, golf continues to be a country club sport. The First Tee isn’t designed to create players or even kids who will go on to play recreational golf. Most go through the program, pick up some life lessons and hope to get into college. Most won’t have the means to play golf later in life, they’ll be finding ways to pay off student loans instead.
The leagues like the AJGA are expensive. Mom and Dad better have deep pockets for kids to compete on that circuit. Most who make it to the professional level come from families with money but we are seeing the rise of the blue collar talent in some cases — Tony Finau is the poster guy for that.
The national Drive-Chip-Putt finals at Augusta National, the Sunday before the Masters, have given youngsters something to work at.
Recreational Golf:
As long as equipment prices stay high and prices to play good courses stay high, recreational golf rounds will struggle. The game has been afflicted by slow play and there’s no better example than the PGA Tour and the U.S. Open. Five hour rounds are the curse of the golf world and too often they’re the rule rather than the exception. Throw in the cost of living, the cost of raising children and recreational golf is taking a hit.
Golf entertainment venues like Top Golf will pull people away from on-course experiences. Music, drinks and everyone thrashing at targets on a non-intimidating netted range, is now the wave of the present and future.
Yes, the rich are getting richer and as for the recreational game itself, well, it is struggling.
And that’s a shame.
12 Comments
baxter cepeda
As a First Tee coach, I can tell you with certainty the organization is bringing recreational golfers and creating some of the best competitors and pros for the future.
My oldest is going to Augusta in January for dcp, an amazing motivator, but really for experienced competitors more than anything. For most kids the DCp experience lasts about 5 minutes annually. Still its always cute and reassuring seeing beginners crying after round 1; passion for golf gives me chills.
But First Tee is there week after week for families at less than 10$ a class. Our program, which had gone away a couple of years, is growing like crazy. The golf course I work at is quite affordable and they are allowing kids to play free with a parent.
Recently the municipals started allowing kids to play free. Of course many kids are not ready for the golf course, but in time they will be. Still, we are seeing more and more dads out there with their little ones.
Free golf for kids who are ready for the course is something that should be standard, second nature, in golf when possible. And not just with a paying adult.
People need to know they can take their kids to a course and it will be free. Its one thing for Dad to pay for himself, its a whole other thing paying for two, three, four keiki day after day. But in time those kids will be able to pay for themselves.
Golf needs time to sell itself to the next generation. This cannot be done costing blue collar families so much.
Happy Holidays Tom
Tom Edrington
Baxter, thanks for all your good work. OBW, I didn’t know Augusta National was open in January. The problem I see is that the next generation will have some tough economic times in front of them. Golf needs to become more available, as you have stated. Merry Christmas to you and yours and best wishes to all the juniors you help at the First Tee!
snowman0157
Yep.. the PGA tour as a non-profit is a joke; they should be paying taxes. Junior golf remains a sport overwhelming for the well-to-do… it’s become so competitive now at earlier ages with the AJGA and local events that only the eel-off can really afford to have their kids seriously involved. The First-tee seems like a PR thing to me; I see kids on saturdays at my local munis chipping to cones, etc; never see any younger kids actually playing golf.. it’s a shame. When I was a kid in row 60s-70s, there were dozens of kids that hung out and played golf at my local muni. Now, mostly old men like me and 30-40 somethings squeezing in a quick 5 hour round whenever they can.
Tom Edrington
Snowman, you are spot-on…..it was estimated that Tiger Woods’ junior/amateur schedule cost about $100,000 and Earl Woods certainly didn’t have that kind of money, whispers were that IMG helped fund it, hence he signed immediately with that firm when he turned pro and Earl was given a cushy job with the firm that didn’t require him to do anything but collect a paycheck…..yes, our game is in jeopardy, for sure.
larry260
Article is 100% correct, public golf (in California) for sure is on its last legs…. Courses are being closed every month because the land is worth more then any profit you can make running a golf course. Even private clubs are under super pressure because younger people just do not have the fees to join them.. Yes there is a good group of players over 50 that keep some courses doing a day or two worth of good business during the week…but the need for full courses on higher green fee weekends is starting to suffer. And amen to the words on First tee type programs….you can count on at least 75% or more of the kids at public courses giving it up the first time they have to pay their own green fees or a bucket of balls for that matter.
Tom Edrington
Larry: Great to hear from you, glad someone else recognizes the crisis out there, not sure what the landscape will look like 10 years from now…..obw, they are trying to purchase and plow under a course up the way from me, they want to build more houses….
RM
Good insights. The truth is that golf has probably the steepest (and likely the most frustrating) learning curve of any sport. I’ve played many, many sports and golf is by far the most difficult to even get to the point where you are capable of playing and thinking strategically – playing some form of golf, as opposed to hacking and trying to survive.
I feel like there has to somehow be a business model that incorporates the Top Golf experience with an actual, non-intimidating course that would encourage folks to actually move off the nets and the party experience, and get out on a course and bang a ball around
The sport needs an infusion of young people to embrace it. But these are busy folks with a gazillion other recreation options and little inclination to deal with quaint traditions and a steep learning curve. Couple this with the high cost of access and equipment, and the fact that instead of being more accessible and less rigorous, new courses are getting longer. Hey, can’t everyone stripe 275-300 yard drives in the fairway? I mean, Rory and DJ do it, why shouldn’t typical golfers?
Throw in for good measure a prevailing attitude (an undercurrent, but it’s still there with some) that unless you are a single digit handicap, you kinda basically suck. .
What could go wrong? Why aren’t people and women coming out in droves to be part of that?
Oh well… just some random thoughts. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Tom. And thanks for this site!
Tom Edrington
RM: Thanks for checking in, I’ve long been a believer in short courses, love par three courses, there is a great one in Jupiter I used to play often, I could play 18 in two hours and really sharpens wedge and short game plus some longer holes, up to five and six irons….I believe the time factor works against the game, too many tough courses and TOO MANY PEOPLE PLAY FROM THE WRONG TEES…..love when high handicappers think they should play the blue tees and are guaranteed a five-plus hour round. Our game is in trouble, for sure. Many of my friends who are PGA professionals have whispered to me that the First Tee is primarily an after-school baby-sitting service…
RM
Amen to playing from the wrong tees. IMHO, unless you are hitting most of the greens in regulation from where you are playing, you really shouldn’t be moving further back (unless the course is uncrowded and the extra time you will take isn’t a concern).
I also enjoy short courses and par threes for the reasons you stated. But I find a number of folks disdain them, seemingly feeling they aren’t a test of “real golf”, and that if they carve out the time, they simply want to be on a full size course. Oh, well.
Tom Edrington
Amen RM, Amen.
baxter cepeda
Ill add one thing:
Look at all the free basketball and tennis courts, baseball and football fields, which go neglected year round in this country.
Golf seems to get more participation from adults than almost any sport, and they pay for it. The biggest problem for golf is the same problem all sports suffer from:
Laziness.
America needs to get outside again. Thats the losing battle.
Tom Edrington
Baxter: That is what I really loved about Scotland……everyone walks over there, when we played North Berwick on the weekend, entire families were out walking, including elderly grandparents…..golf is a walking sport over there….love that.