Over the Green

Year two of TEE IT FORWARD

Last year Barney Adams pushed the idea golfers play from tees that are too long for their ability and should move up a set, at least. According to Adams, founder of Adams Golf and golf industry iconoclast, that would mean they could, “…be hitting eight-irons and wedges into par fours like the pros…not fairway woods.”

In other words the 99.99 percent of golfers who do not make their living on the links are playing for recreation and recreation is supposed to be fun. It’s undeniably more fun to play holes of a length you have a chance of reaching with a couple of good shots rather than par-4s that require a driver, then a 3-wood, then a 9-iron and maybe another iron since the 9-iron missed the green.
MORE…

The King and the Mouse
The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS) and Arnold Palmer Golf Management have signed a 20-year agreement to have the King’s company mange and promote Walt Disney World’s five golf courses located at the suburban Orlando, Fla. resort. Disney’s deal with Palmer takes the Mouse completely out of the very competitive central Florida golf market substituting an ongoing lease payment from Palmer Golf.

Disney has had a long standing business strategy of leasing hotel, restaurant and concession locations to outside companies. As part of the lease agreements lessees are contractually required to provide services and products meeting standards set by Disney.

As part of the new deal over the next two years Palmer and his course architects will take on a renovation of the Disney’s Palm course.

Arnold Palmer Golf Management, based in Addison, Texas, is owned by Century Golf Partners and the Disney courses will be added to the 70 private clubs in its portfolio. They will be promoted within the Palmer Golf network with a website and in the “Kingdom Magazine” published by the company.

Walt Disney World, which attracts about 50 million visitors per year, has been pulling back from operating golf courses at the resort since it became apparent there were too many courses and too few golfers in the Orlando area. The first move in implementing that policy was back in 2007 the well regarded Eagle Pines course (Pete Dye 1992) was closed. The land is now a residential development that upon build-out will have 450 multiple-million dollar homes.

The Waldorf Astoria hotel also operates a golf course on Disney property, a Rees Jones design opened in 2010.

The PGA Tour’s Children’s Miracle Network Hospital Classic played on Walt Disney World’s Palm and Magnolia courses for 41 years, is part of the Tour’s Fall Finish. There is no word what affect if any the deal with Palmer Golf will have on the Tour stop though Palmer does already have a Tour event annually at his nearby Bay Hill golf course, the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Golfsmith to South Korea
Golf retailer Golfsmith International will open retail outlets in the fastest growing golf market in the world, South Korea in partnership with GOLFZON Co. which specializes in indoor golf simulators.

Golfsmith says profits from this venture will be reinvested back into retail operations in the United States.

The majority of golf in South Korea is played on indoor simulators and GOLFZON with 4,000 screen commands 84% of the market. Plans are for GOLFZON to operate Golfsmith stores at the simulator locations.

Tiger’s moves
Tiger Woods has moved to his new $54.5 million home built on the ocean on Jupiter Island, Fla. and reports in the Palm Beach Post say his company ETW Corp. will move as well.

Woods lived formerly in the Isleworth development outside Orlando and according to public records he has not sold his home there. ETW Corp. will occupy space in an office building formerly the headquarters of Greg Norman’s companies.

Let’s see…golf participation is down, the number of rounds played is down, golf clubs are closing every week and of course equipment sales are “challenging.”
Not a pretty picture but let’s look at some hard numbers that were covered only in passing by the golf media…if they were covered at all.

According to the National Golf Foundation in 2010 about 9% of Americans over age six played at least one round of golf – 80% were men. More than one-third of golfers are over 50, 58% live in households making more than $75,000 per year while almost 80% have gone to college – maybe not graduated but attended. Nothing new here as we have always known, golfers tend to be better educated make more money and male (I like to think better looking too).

A big problem is though new people are beginning to play each year their numbers are exceeded by those quitting or playing less.

In another NGF report the number of rounds played in 2010 compared with 2009 was lower by 2.3%. Weather and certainly the business slump are cited as causes plus many of those surveyed said they didn’t have the time, but these reasons are nothing new since it became apparent the “Big Bang” was not going to happen. You may remember a decade ago this was the predicted surge of people who would flock to the game following in Tiger Woods’ footsteps. Not only wasn’t there a surge, the number of participants and consequently the number of rounds played has been steadily declining.

Particularly hard hit in 2010 were the Pacific Northwest and South Atlantic regions, each losing 4.3%. On the bright side though, rounds played in Pittsburgh and Hartford were up substantially; too bad both don’t have longer seasons.

NGF says in 2010, 107 courses were closed (46 were opened for a net loss of 61), the fifth year in row of more closings than openings and in five years there are 220 fewer. The total number of golf facilities in the U.S. at the end of 2010 was 15,890 which are 167 less than the all-time high of 16,057 in 2004.

An optimist might look at all these courses being converted to other uses or simply abandoned as “pruning the supply.” The theory is as long as the number of courses falls faster than the number of rounds being played the courses remaining should see increases.

The golf industry is striving mightily to find fixes for this ever shrinking universe. Golf 20/20, Get Golf Ready, The First Tee and Play Golf America are just a few of the programs in place to bring new golfers in and get those have dropped out, back. So the golf industry is not a pretty picture but we can hope all the attention being paid to increasing play and players will soon have better results.

Former technical director of the USGA, Frank Thomas, told me several years ago the average golfer is deluding himself about how far he hits his tee shots. When asked, most will answer a typical blast travels in the 225-yard (or better!) range.

Thomas however had done a study which showed the average was under 200-yards so, aside from the potential ego inflation benefits from not being truthful with himself or his fellow linksters, our average weekend warrior sets himself up for several hours of frustration, interminable playing times and possible financial loss. This is presumably why a club professional of my acquaintance says many of his lessons are not so much in swing mechanics but anger management.

A few months ago another solon of the game, Barney Adams, suggested one of the ways to attack the no-growth problem golf faces was to make the game more fun. No, not with bikinied caddy girls or windmills on par-3s, but by shortening the time spent and letting the average hacker do his hacking thing but still have a good time.

Among Adams suggestions was to have everyone play a shorter course or if you normally play from 7000-yards, move up to say 6700. Adams assumed the average drive was between 205- and 230-yards (different than the Thomas study but the principle is the same) and therefore some 70-yards shorter than elite players such as those on the PGA Tour. This means with 14 non-par-3 holes in a round the average players is giving up at least 70 times 14 or roughly 1000-yards not counting the distance advantage pros have with their iron play.

Put another way it’s like the pros attempting to play an 8000-yard course each week. Ridiculous you say? But, that what recreational players are doing almost every round.

Now in what may be a minor miracle golf’s two premier organizations, the USGA and the PGA of America (who don’t see eye to eye very often), are cooperating in a program named Tee it Forward and pushing for all golfers to try a shorter set of tees based on the distance they drive the ball. The request is only for a limited time, July 5 through July 17, and is meant to serve as an experiment for golfers to use tees more suited for their game and ability.

As the press release put it, “With TEE IT FORWARD, golfers can potentially speed up play and have more fun by utilizing tees that provide the greatest playability and enjoyment.”

There’s even a chart showing guidelines for 18-hole yardage:
Driver Distance Recommended 18 Hole Yardages
PGA Tour Pro……7,600 – 7,900
300………………..7,150 – 7,400
275………………..6,700 – 6,900
250………………..6,200 – 6,400
225………………..5,800 – 6,000
200………………..5,200 – 5,400
175………………..4,400 – 4,600
150………………..3,500 – 3,700
125………………..2,800 – 3,000
100………………..2,100 – 2,300

This seems like a neat idea and definitely worth a try.
Who knows it night catch on because its makes golf faster and more fun.

Every golfer has been in the situation of being in a strange town, wanting to play but not knowing what courses are nearby or anything about them, much less basic information such as how to contact a good course.

Golf Minnesota magazine has neatly solved this pesky problem with a smartphone app (either Android or Apple) covering golfing Meccas such as Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and California plus of course Minnesota. Other states are also available and more are being added all the time. MORE…

Discounts drive online tee time services
It’s hard to imagine this was a surprise to anyone but almost two-thirds of the golfers who use third party tee time online tee time services do so because they think they can get a discount. A National Golf Foundation survey of 500 core golfers in December found 40 percent use third-party reservations systems often (14 percent) or sometimes (26 percent).

The sobering stat though is roughly only 5 percent of all tee times are booked through third-party services.

As usually happens the customer, in this case golfer, will drive this business. A safe assumption though it soon will look like the airlines booking industry. Not only can’t you tell the players without a program but think of long lines to get patted down on the first tee.

Bridgestone-Love those balls
Bridgestone decided to get serious in the ball business three years ago with its very aggressive program to fit golfers to the proper Bridgestone balls and get them away from whatever other brand they were playing. Of course since Acushnet’s Titleist and Pinnacle brands have about 60 percent of the market growth for anybody in the ball business was going to be at someone’s expense, presumably Titleist’s.

Bridgestone is now rightly tooting their horn citing information from Golf Datatech, who tracks this kind of thing, since 2008 Bridgestone marketshare has risen over 50 percent to 11.5 percent of the money spent in on- and off-course retailers.

Of course this couldn’t have been possible if they weren’t making very good golf balls plus they were able to sign Davis Love III probably because the long time Titleist staffer saw a better deal and really good product.

Most female players play courses that are too long
Editor’s Note: the following reports on an important and overlooked problem whose solution could just help the game and the business of golf.
By KAREN MORAGHAN

According to the “fairness test” devised by Arthur D. Little and Jann E. Leeming, women golfers are being asked to play courses that are generally more than 1,000 yards too long for them to reach greens in regulation. In a recent posting on their blog, Golf With Women, Little asks the following questions:
How fair is a 5,600-yard course for the average woman?
What would you think if we told you that a 5,600-yard course would be equivalent to an 8,400-yard course for the average man?
How about an 11,200-yard course for Matt Kuchar?
If the average woman should play from 5,600 yards, the average LPGA player should be playing a 9,600-yard course and a good male amateur should play a 10,400-yard course, Little contends.

“That’s how the math works if ‘fair’ is defined as having to hit the same clubs to reach greens in regulation from their respective tees,” Little writes. “This concept is what we define as the ‘fairness test.’ Sorry, Dustin Johnson, you are at 12,320 yards based on your average drive of 308 yards.” MORE…

Editors Note: Barney Adams is an icon in our game. He started Adams Golf and built it into one of the best equipment companies on the basis of his ideas of what golf clubs should do for players. His Tight Lies fairway club made the game more enjoyable for hundreds of thousands of recreational players. This article is an excerpt of a longer piece.

Factoring in the population increase, golf in the US has lost over 25% participation since 1990 and during that period over 3800 new courses were built. Kind of cuts to the chase doesn’t it, things aren’t going so well.

What are the reasons and many are given. At the top of the list is too much time followed by too expensive, not enjoyable, just not in the mainstream of today’s culture. I’ll buy the first reason and I think a general lack of enjoyment manifests itself as too expensive and influences most of the other reasons. If I don’t enjoy something why would I take time and pay money for the experience. In fact under that analysis lays golf’s greatest feature, its challenge. The one great shot, performing when you have to, using all your concentration and skill to perform as well as you know you can. That’s the great beauty of playing the game and why more haven’t left. I don’t want to change this, just make it more realistic. MORE…

Following on the heels of the news the great city of San Francisco has outlawed McDonalds’ Happy Meals the next item in my in-basket was information from the World Golf Foundation (WGF). It seemed to be an interesting juxtaposition of topics; dealing with overweight youngsters living by the Bay and the state of golf in America. I’m not trying to draw any parallels or expound deep philosophical truths. It just struck me as one of those odd bits of life’s randomness.

The WGF does many things to promote the game not of least of which is the industry-wide forum Golf 20/20, Get Golf Ready to develop new players and the We Are Golf program to improve the image and visibility of golf with government and regulatory bodies. MORE…

Random items some of which might even be interesting

Golf Digest Best New Courses in Abeyance
The announcement Golf Digest decided to put off at least until next year the previously annual beauty contest naming the Best New Courses came as no surprise but it certainly is a commentary on the state of the golf. The stats are not pretty with just 42 new courses opening in the U. S. from June 2009 to June 2010 and with the majority of new course construction having been tied to the residential real estate boom, when that went bust new golf courses did also.

SKLZ Hinged Putter
SKLZ which makes a lot of training aids for not just golf but other sports as well has developed an improved Refiner Hinged Training Putter with an Anser style head and a two way adjustable hinge. The idea is that putting stoke flaws will cause the hinge to breakdown giving instant feedback when a poor stroke is made.

Cobra ZL Driver – white as a ghost
Ian Poulter created a bit of a stir last week at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai using a Cobra driver with an all white head and now Cobra (just in time for Christmas) is producing one for the rest of us. Only 500 of the Limited Edition ZL Driver are to be made for sales around the world so the chances of your local muni having a selection in stock, even at the MSRP of $625, are somewhere between slim and none.

Ping forged iron?
Most people don’t realize it but Ping Golf founder Karsten Solheim experimented with forged irons before settling on the cast iron design making him, his company and family a lot of money and a top shelf reputation. So 40 years later after a beta introduction in Japan (club makers know the Japanese love to be early adopters) the forged Anser iron is now available. An offset head, tungsten sole and machined face and grooves are featured in the design. Ping Anser 3-PW irons with stock steel Project X shafts carry a MSRP of $190 per club and are in stores now.

Most popular course name
The National Golf Foundation database of U.S. golf courses produced the statistic; the most popular course name (including ties and excluding The, Golf Course, Country Club, etc.) is Rolling Hills with 33 having that name. You now have ammunition for that after-round showdown but just to ensure you can come out on top the next three on the list are: Riverside (30), Hillcrest (29) and three at 24, Lakeside, Meadowbrook and Lakeview.