Shout out to the PGA of America for coming out against the golf ball rollback (“A Few Extra Holes,” January 27, GGP). The PGA Tour and a couple of others have done the same. The PGA of America states the obvious that no recreational golfer wants to hit the ball shorter and no, these same golfers are not overwhelming traditional courses with the new balls and clubs. In fact, we find the game as difficult as ever but possibly a little more fun.
The USGA and the R&A are the current and traditional rulemakers for the game, but I have come to feel that they only care about the pros and elite amateurs. If they want to be the arbiters of the game then be the supporters of 99.9 percent of the golfers in the world and tell the tour to take care of their own. You know, like the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL and every other professional sport in existence.
I have come to the conclusion that neither the USGA nor the R&A give a rat’s patoot about me or the 99 percent.
Blaine Walker
St. Paul, Minnesota
Your column (“PGA Tour: Play more to the crowd,” January 27, GGP) raises important issues for the decline in professional golf viewership. However, you left out the No. 1 single most important factor causing the decline: commercials. They are nuisances to golf fans – irritating and ruin the experience. We all recognize that the tour has to generate revenue, but there has to be a better model. As you are so insightful on these matters, why shy away from addressing this issue? Coupled with slow play, commercials are driving fans away from TV viewing.
Stephen Courtney
Tucson, Arizona
Insert LIV Golf into the professional game. Add Strategic Sports Group into the mix with their $3 billion investment into the “nonprofit” entity PGA Tour (Enterprises) and only now does the media bleat about slow play (“PGA Tour: Play more to the crowd,” January 27, GGP)?
Give me a break. Slow play has been the bane of the modern men’s professional game since the arrival of J.W. Nicklaus. What have the Great & Good done about it? Zip, zero, nada. At every juncture, they’ve shied away from giving the dawdlers serious grief with stroke penalties to be added to their score.
I guarantee if this was mandatory on all players, even/especially the big names (I’m looking at you, Langer and Cantlay), slow play would disappear like Keyser Soze. And don’t get me started about the LPGA and slow play.
David Morris
Bristol, England
What a refreshing perspective (“On target,” January 27, GGP) – many thanks for publishing it.
My dad used to get ’round in his four-ball in three hours, 15 minutes (60 years ago, I sometimes caddied). But even amongst the reasonably fit and competent golfers at my clubs (yes, I’m lucky to belong to two), four hours seems to be “par” for a round, and it’s often a bit longer.
As for my occasional forays abroad I often find I’m losing the will to live, following five-hour groups.
I had not previously seen darts as the inspiration. I had, though, invoked a comparison with show jumping, against the clock, with shot penalties added to your gross score for failure to complete within a prescribed time. Now how about trialling that in some tour events, to set an example?
Peter Newman
Weybridge, Surrey, England
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