Got something to say? Tell Golf Australia magazine

THE MOST ADVANCED YET
Our “Letter of the Month” winner will receive one dozen NEW Titleist NXT Extreme and one dozen NEW Titleist NXT Tour golf balls.

Send your letters to The Editor, Golf Australia Magazine 55 Chandos Street St Leonards NSW 2065 or email to golf@wolseleymedia.com.au

LETTER OF THE MONTH

THE GAME I LOVE IS IN TROUBLE

Golf is in trouble. The most recent Sweeney Sports report confirmed our worse fears – the proportion of people watching golf on television has dropped from 42 percent in 1990-91 to 19 percent.

Public interest in the game has dropped from 31 percent to 23 percent in one year and only 14 percent play golf. Are the alarm bells ringing yet?

I love golf. I have three coaches, hundreds of golf books and magazines, all the latest gear and I would drill a third nostril if I thought it would lower my handicap. But watch golf on TV? Are you kidding?

If you’re lucky I might tape a major and fast forward through the endless hours of expressionless robots (aka professional golfers) lining up putts from multiple angles, standing around throwing grass in the air, practice swing after practice swing,
changing clubs, then struggling to make par on tricked-up golf courses. Then, at the
presentation, the winner tells us how much fun he or she had!

Well, here’s the news. We, the viewers who pay your wages, we’re not having fun. If you want us back, we don’t need another Greg Norman. Rather, like other sports, cricket for example, the professional game needs to change. Here are some ideas:

1. A 10-second shot clock should be running. No shot in the 10 seconds results in a one-shot penalty.

2. No practice swings. One-shot penalty for each one you take.

3. Putts can only be read from the line directly behind your ball.

4. Crowds can make as much noise as they want whenever they want, including, and especially, when Phil Mickelson has a super quick downhill six-footer to win the Masters. After all, do kids really want to go to a sporting event where they have to be quiet?

5. Limit players to carrying a metalwood, two irons, a wedge and a putter. I bet the winning scores won’t change much, but we will see real golf shots like Seve used to hit.

6. Four days for a golf tournament? Wake me up for the last few holes!

7. No caddies – carry your clubs like the rest of us.

8. Let’s see Skins games where the pros put in their own money, like the rest of us. If people see that the game is exciting on television, they might just take it up.

But while the PGA Tour members make obscene amounts of money boring us to death, will anything change? One feels that the powers that be are fiddling, while
Rome burns.

Simon Milton
Alexandria, NSW

Home