Rules of Golf, according to Taylor Made-Adidas

Good counsel is to “count to ten” whenever one reacts with emotion.  On this piece, I have done so.  Golf’s health and growth have usually been linked to the economy, and the current times are no exception.  This moves me to recent comments by Taylor Made-Adidas Golf president and CEO Mark King.  To summarize his main point–Golf isn’t growing because it’s too hard.  His solutions include, but are not limited to

1–expanding the hole’s width from 4 1/4 inches in diameter to 15 inches.

2–permit players to toss their golf balls out of bunkers.

3–develop a set of rules and conditions for championship golf, then another for recreational players.

4–influence the top players to tell the rest of the golf world, “this is golf, too.  It’s OK.”

5–have club pros strongly encourage their golfers to endorse 15-inch holes and really short courses.

Most golfers play the game the way they please, so why should it be codified?  They already don’t hole out, take relief not in accordance with the Rules, put down another ball anywhere after a lost ball, etc.  These actions don’t make them bad people.  However, writing Rules that permit a golfer to do whatever he wants and whenever he wants isn’t writing rules.  It’s approving what is already being done.

Players in the late 30’s on what was the forerunner of the PGA Tour lobbied for the hole being double the size that it was.  The committee went along for one week.  End of experiment.    How would a facility decided which hole diameter to use?  Jungle golf is one thing.  Two different sized holes is quite another.

I agree with Mr. King that new courses built in the last twenty years are too difficult, with severe greens, numerous bunkers and water hazards.  That’s a design problem, not a Rules of Golf problem.  One of the game’s economic ironies is that straight forward, basic, playable and inexpensively priced courses are the ones with the most financial problems.

Among the game’s charms are its challenge and the integrity associated with golf.  Nobody who cares about the game want to lose either of those elements.

When discussions about two different set of rules, one for championship golf, the other for recreational play, in a system, a significant number of golfers want to play the same game as their heroes with the same equipment.  If a great round, hole, or stroke takes place, there is more satisfaction among average golfers for that experience.  Why?  They”re playing the same game.

King obviously believes the game’s difficulty affects the bottom line.  I prefer former USGA Executive Director David Fay’s analysis.  In explaining why golf will always be a niche sport, never to be a mainstream one, but one could say the same about hockey, Fay said–golf takes a lot of time to play, it’s expensive, and difficult to learn.   We can do something about the first two, but not necessarily the final point–the game is hard to learn.

I wish Mr. King the best of luck with Taylor Made-Adidas.  The game and business needs deeper and more rational thinking about the issues he surfaces.