A tournament as famous for the annual debate about whether it grows the game or not as it is for its 16th hole. (Well maybe not quite as famous but still an annual focus).

In the interests of transparency, I’m not a fan of what the Phoenix Open offers but what follows isn’t really about the Phoenix Open.

It’s about ‘growing the game’ and professional golf’s role in that endeavour, a vexed question I’ve spent more time than is healthy trying to figure out.

It seems clear that what we see on TV has some impact on people wanting to try the game.

A 14-year-old Nick Faldo had never had any interaction with golf before he watched Jack Nicklaus finish second at the 1971 Masters and we all know what he went on to do.

But I’m going to suggest that has more to do with Faldo than it does Nicklaus.

To explain.

The deeds of professional golfers may convince a certain number of new people to try the game each year but it doesn’t keep them playing.

For that, they already need to be ‘golfers’ who are unknowingly waiting to discover – or be discovered by – the game.

Golf has survived for the best part of 600 years on a fairly simple mathematical equation: for every 100 people who try the game a percentage (unknown) will love it and become lifelong players, another percentage (also unknown) will hate the game and never want to play it again and a third group (the rest) will be somewhere in the middle.

How people are motivated to have that first experience is much less important than the experience itself.

“As it has done for centuries, golf will sell itself to those who are open to buying. The trick is to get clubs in people’s hands and let them try it.”

But most important of all is whether the person is already ‘wired’ to be a golfer.

For every Nick Faldo there are thousands of others who tried and hated golf after the 1971 Masters and thousands more who tried and became lifelong players.

So to circle back to the Phoenix Open and whether or not it ‘grows the game’.

There is no correct answer, of course, but overall you would have to think ‘yes – but no more or less than any other professional tournament’.

One only has to watch the coverage and see the social media posts from TPC Scottsdale to know that for the bulk of those attending, golf is secondary.

There’s nothing wrong with that but it is hardly a shining example of ‘growing the game’.

Prior to the pandemic there was much hand wringing in the industry about falling participation numbers and ways to redress that.

Everything from ‘big hole golf’ to ‘foot golf’ was on the table but in reality, the answer is not some form of gimmick, be it the Phoenix Open or an oversized hole.

The answer is, and always has been, the game itself.

As it has done for centuries, golf will sell itself to those who are open to buying. The trick is to get clubs in people’s hands and let them try it.

After that, the maths will take care of itself.