Writing to Win the Wrong Battle

Golf needs help with a problem that’s not unlike a challenge faced by college football. Despite a popularity that sends television ratings soaring, these sports are in need of more real-world participants. Golf is hurting for more recreational players and Universities that field college football teams need more paying fans in the stands. There are a lot of things going right for golf these days – the Big 4 of Spieth, Day, Fowler, and McIlroy for one example – but a major retailer of golf clubs sees things in a different light. Plus, golf is not immune to today’s controversial environmental issues.

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There are many working parts to the golf industry. As the popularity of the game of golf goes, so goes the viability of a long list of dependent industries, such as:

• Golf course design 
• Golf club, ball and other equipment manufacturing 
• Golf apparel 
• Golf course turf maintenance 
• Domestic and international golf travel brokers 
• And much more! 

Promoting the game of golf is a duty that falls on most, if not all, of these related industries. But one group that I think bears the brunt of this responsibility is golf writers. I’ve been a reader of Golf Digest since my teenage years and I’ve never found the stance taken by golf writers against the game’s “rich men only” label more intriguing than I do today. Recent editions have featured editorials that lambaste the rules of golf, which are dictated by the United States Golf Association (USGA). If you were to believe many of today’s golf writers, the rules of golf are among the leading causes of the decline in amateur golfers. Some of these diatribes are featured in magazines that highlight the latest and greatest golf clubs, which feature prices that can set a player back hundreds of dollars per club. (Don’t get me started on the ever-changing golf club scene.)

We all know that no golf magazine editor in his right mind would pin golf’s decline on their high-paying advertisers. But the attacks on the USGA don’t hold much water. In the March 2016 edition of Golf Digest, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde penned a very nice piece about the joyful benefits of listening to music while playing golf. Mr. Tarde concluded by pointing out such a fun exercise is prohibited due to a USGA rule. Mr. Tarde seemingly argues that most amateurs love bringing their wireless speakers to the course but this rule may prevent them from coming at all, adding to golf’s downward trend.

I don’t like music on the course but I know that day will come when music is not only allowed on the course, carts will include complementary Bluetooth speakers. However, I don’t feel that day will be here anytime soon because there are too many purists like me still out there. I’m curious to learn if Mr. Tarde’s editorial – which I bet was read by a lot of guys equal to and older that my age – generated a tidal wave of negative responses. It had to.

I don’t disagree that golf’s rules are difficult and may have some impact on a person’s decision to pick up the game. But I think that’s a rare instance. Picking on the USGA seems…wrong. But, thinking again how golf writers and so many other dependent industries rely on the game of golf, picking on the USGA seems right. Mr. Tarde and the other writers that place blame on the USGA are writing to essentially save their jobs by bucking the notion that the game of golf is governed by a crotchety group of old, white men. I’d be willing to bet that Mr. Tarde cringes at the sight of a flat-billed trucker hat on today’s PGA Tour stars but if it means gaining another avenue to spread the game, he’ll embrace those stupid hats, music on the course and these ridiculous golf boards.


Golf is the greatest game and one taste turns first-timers into addicts. These cultural injections – Rickie Fowler is winning in high tops, for crying out loud – serve as new ways to embed deeper into a barely-tapped population.

Making this realization about Mr. Tarde was a lesson re-learned that written communication is one of the most powerful tools on the planet. In this day and age, people want to educate themselves before making a decision. Written content made available online is so influencing and so important – no matter if you’re trying to boost sales of your company’s widget or trying to spur interest in a sport so that your job writing about that sport remains needed.