How many times have you heard this wise crack at the 19th hole? A golf buddy boasts of shooting 74 and then a big-mouth at the bar roars, “What’d you play 15 holes?” It’s a ball-buster quip, but Mr. 74 will surely be filling his wallet with fresh cash, not from an ATM.
A few weeks before the Bruins were busy winning the Stanley Cup, and Whitey Bulger was a free man living comfortably in California, the estimateable Tim Geary believed that 18 holes was too many, and the powers that be in golf should cut back. Obviously, Geary’s dependence on steroids is affecting his thinking, but you can read his trash-talk on the opposite page.
This debate surfaces because two of the biggest names in golf (Jack Nicklaus & Greg Norman) both endorse an experiment to reduce the number of holes on a golf course. The goal: reduce time spent playing, keep players from quitting and to try to invite newcomers to participate. According to the National Golf Association, the total number of people who play has declined since 2000, dropping under an estimated high of 26 million. Over the past decade the game is in a recession and the No. 1 problem is time. Surveys show that the sport has become too time-consuming and men, particularly, won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore. More troubling to the United States Golf Association and golf boosters is the fact that core golfers, or those who play 25 times a year, is also off by about a third, to about 4.6 million.
The disappearance of golfers is part of a broader decline in outdoor activities – including tennis, swimming, hiking, biking and downhill skiing – according to a number of recreational industry studies. Golf, a sport of long-term participants, has always seemed to exist in a world above the fray of shifting demographics. Not anymore.
The prolonged slump has defied the adage, “Once a golfer, always a golfer.” Three million golfers quit each year, the Tiger-Boom is DOA and campaigns like “First Tee” and “Tee it Forward” are not bringing many new players into the fold. Factors other than time that keep the game stagnant: too expensive, two jobs, real wages not going up, pensions going away, corporate cutbacks in country club memberships and other doom and gloom stuff. When the ship is sinking, it’s time to get creative and that is what Nicklaus, Norman and Geary are endorsing, but I disagree. Between 1990 and 2003, developers built more than 3,000 new courses in the US, bringing the total to about 16,000. Several hundred have closed, mostly in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and South Carolina. None of these courses were 12 or 16 hole projects. The solution that proposes that golf courses be only 12 holes, 14 holes or 16 holes is halfbaked!
Yes, it will take less time to play, but tradition is being tossed. Why appease a small segment of the golf population for the sake of the long-honored custom of 18 hole matches? I can’t imagine a $5 nassau that is 16 holes, and hate the idea. Who knows what affect it would have on the USGA handicap system? Sandbaggers would have to cheat that much harder to beat the system. And, I don’t care to associate or see the game recruit knuckleheads who follow NASCAR, Mixed Martial Arts or Texas Hold ‘Em. Enthusiasts of women’s volley ball are welcome!
Jack, Greg and Tim listen up. Your idea of reducing the number of holes on the golf course in order to increase the game’s popularity is lame! I like more the idea of posting my best 16 scores of 18! That way I could be a scratch golfer instead of scratch talker!
Tom Gorman is frequently accused of being a scratch talker, and would need to post 14 scores of 18 to be a scratch golfer.
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