Posts tagged USGA

There have been a lot of ideas tossed around on how the governing bodies of golf in the United States can make golf more enjoyable for the average player while making the game more attractive to younger players.

The obvious answer has been to speed up the pace of play. No one wants to sit around and wait to hit shot after shot, wasting upwards of 4½ hours on a course when the actual play of the round takes maybe three hours. Speeding up the pace of play is all fine and good, but how do we go about doing that?

Two ideas that have risen to the forefront of the argument, one brought about by Jack Nicklaus and the other by Barney Adams, the founder of Adams Golf.

In Jack’s case, he believes the best way for golf to appeal to younger players as well as speed up the game for the average hacker would be to shorten golf courses to a more do-able 12-hole track.

As for Mr. Adams, his idea has gained a little more traction than the Golden Bear’s. Adams has become the spokesman for “Tee It Forward,” a new initiative whose goal “is to help golfers have more fun on the course and enhance their overall performance by playing from a set of tees best suited to their abilities.”

For Tee It Forward, PlayGolfAmerica.com has adopted the idea to try and make the game less daunting for average golfers. The PGA of America and USGA have given their support and hope that golf facilities nationwide will incorporate the initiative from July 5-17 on a trial basis.

As stated above, the Tee It Forward plan employs exactly what the name implies, if you play the back tees, then move up to the middle tees and so on. They even supplied a chart based on driving distance that tells you what yardage you should be playing from.

While both of these suggestions are a step in the right direction; meaning they’re better than simply saying, “pick up the pace”; neither one of them will hold any water when it comes to the majority of golfers across the country or even kids just learning the game.

The reason is simple on the surface, but more complex as you dig deeper into it: everyday players want to measure themselves up against the professionals.

On the topic of Mr. Nicklaus’ idea about a 12-hole course, a couple of problems arise. First of all, most, if not all golf courses that are worth their weight in Pentas are built in the traditional 18-hole layout. As you all know (being readers of a golf blog, my assumption is that you all golf, or understand the game in some capacity), after playing the front nine of a course, you make the turn and head back out before finishing back near the clubhouse on the 18th hole.

Therein lies the first problem with the 12-hole golf course. If you were to play only 12 holes, you would be stuck out in the middle of the course when you finished. The obvious way around that would be to play something like holes 1-9 and then finish on 16-18, but that would cause quite the logjam for those players who played the full 18 holes. No one likes when someone randomly pulls in front of them on a tee and plays away.

The only way for this to work would be for entire courses to agree to the 12-hole idea. A front six and back six and nothing else.

It’s not practical. For a game with so much tradition, it seems almost impossible to shorten the course.

I remember playing junior golf where they would let us play three holes, five holes or nine depending on our age and I HATED it. I play nine or 18 with my dad every other time I’m out there, why can’t I do it in the league, I would think. And what does it mean when you come back in and say you shot a 15 or 24 or something like that. It has no comparison to anything you can see not only on the professional level, but what your older siblings or parents are doing.

“Dad, I shot a 15. What did you shoot?” … “75.” … “Oh.”

It distances us from the spirit and integrity of the game.

Clearly, the Tee It Forward initiative has the best chance to stick, if only for the fact that it is only asking players to move forward a tee. However, that is exactly what makes this idea doomed to fail as well.

Golfers are a proud bunch. We brag about not only our scores, but how far we hit a 7-iron. Golf is a game of one-upsmanship. We’re told all that matters is you vs. the course, but it really is you vs. your brother, your friend, your dad. Even if your goal is to break 70, 80 or 90, you still feel like you’re cheating if you move up from your normal tee.

Add into the equation that most golfers think they hit the ball 275 or 250 on average, whatever the case may be. More often than not, they’re lying to themselves, which only adds to the problem.

And for every golfer who is willing to swallow his pride and move up a tee box, there’s 10 others who think that this is the way I’ve been playing forever, there’s no point in doing it now.

Even more to that point, what do you think the likelihood is of a middle-aged man who plays from the middle tees moving up to play the same tees as his wife?

Ain’t gonna happen.

For the true golfer, their quest is to beat something or someone, whether it be a score or a guy that has routinely beat you into the ground. Moving up cheapens that challenge in a sense.

“I finally shot a 79 because I played from the white tees instead of the blue.” … “The only reason I beat Tom was because he was playing the course 500 yards longer than me.” … et cetera, et cetera.

In short, golf is a proud man’s game. It’s a game that people are more likely to give up in old age rather than move up to the ladies tees because they can’t score as well from the tees they’re used to playing.

When it comes down to it, Play Golf America and the governing bodies need to stick to something and ride it out. However, with the state of the game as it is and courses closing far more than they are opening, it’s tough to do.

And with the pride that comes with being a golfer, good luck trying to get people to move up a tee.