Five Ways to Grow the Game of Golf

“Golf is so boring.” As an avid golfer I’ve heard this way too many times and to be honest, I can’t blame them entirely.  To many, golf is by no means an interesting sport and that’s where the problem lies.  It just doesn’t have its place as a household sport the way baseball, football, hockey, and basketball do.  It’s a sport for some but not for all.  Bottom line, there aren’t enough people playing or watching it. Here are five ways to change that:

5. Add 10 spots to the PGA Tour. 

(PGA Tour)

The PGA Tour is by far the most talented and recognized professional golf tour in the world, with the European Tour resting in a distant second place.  With nine of the top ten golfers in the world regularly playing on the PGA Tour it’s no surprise that golf fans of all ages continue to follow each season as much as they can, whether it be through television or the Tour’s official website.  Golf fans know who their favorites are (more on that in a bit), but they are generally only exposed to the PGA Tour because of its residence in the United States.  There is a large amount of talent overseas that often stays there because second tier tours such as the web.com Tour continue to fuel the new wave of players.  With some exemptions, the PGA Tour generally allows the top 125 earnings leaders to play next season.  I propose an additional ten spots to be established because it would give international players more of a chance to secure a Tour card.  More people internationally would follow their favorite players as they transition from any native tours to the PGA Tour, thereby increasing the PGA Tour’s overall fan base.

4. Make golf more of a team sport.

(Best Golf & Diving)

One of the reasons why the four major sports I listed before are so ingrained in society is because they give us a sense of allegiance to a city or state.  Team sports in general give us a collection of men and/or women to get on board with and root for.  But with golf we don’t have that luxury, at least for the majority of the time.  Sure, the Ryder Cup and President’s Cup (and now the Olympics) have made golf a sport we can get behind our countries for, but for most of the season we see Americans rooting for Rory McIlroy and Australians rooting for Sergio Garcia.  Everyone is a fan of everyone because the talent pool within the PGA Tour is so diverse.  With even just one additional international event every season, there would be more of a fan base following golf out of, if nothing else, sheer national pride.  Team sports have proven to resonate with the public, and if golf had more team events now and then more people would start to follow it more

3. Promote star players.

(Nhat V. Meyer/TNS)

(Getty)

I don’t follow basketball and I know how talented Steph Curry and Lebron James are.  I wonder who, outside of the golf world, knows how talented Paul Casey and Justin Rose are.  The NBA is a star-driven league, there is absolutely no question about it.  With just five men on the court as opposed to nine or eleven, it’s much easier to see who stands out.  Golf shouldn’t have this problem as the focus is almost always on the individual.  The PGA Tour and tours around the world should begin to market their best players in a way that reaches a larger audience so that they may be able to find someone they can get behind.  Much like a loyalty to a football or basketball team gauges interest in participation, a fan base of a certain golfer may begin playing the game as well.

2. Get course pros out of the office.

(PGA)

I had heard of this a while ago, and of course from playing many rounds of golf I have seen it first hand.  Golf course professionals have become relegated to office employees as they handle more things on the administrative side than what their actual job description calls for.  Brandel Chamblee makes a great point that course professionals should be paid more because they are one of the primary sources of recruiting beginners.  Their time should not be spent inside on a computer but rather outside with people who want to get into the game, and consequently need to be taught the proper fundamentals.

1. Introduce golf at an earlier age.

(Bathurst Glen)

This is far and away the most important factor in growing the game.  I was fortunate enough to learn at an extremely young age, but other people I know hadn’t started until they were around my current age of twenty-one, or just slightly younger.  Golf is not a typical sport most children get involved with early on the way baseball and football are.  However, there are established programs such as the PGA Junior League as well as many golf facilities that are family friendly, allowing children to enter into the game at a level that won’t intimidate them.  Today’s children represent the next generation of golfers, and in a golf industry filled with technology and new training methods, we have the power to introduce the game much earlier than in years past.  The sooner they start, the longer they’ll have to play a sport that will last a lifetime.