Video: Phil, Spieth Kick Off Golf's Talk Show Season

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I forgot to mention in my Forward Press column on golf's two cutting-edge talk shows that in addition to landing big "gets", the shows were likely to deliver entertaining fodder that most pre-scripted talk shows fail to produce.

Jordan Spieth's part-one sitdown with Feherty was interesting in ways I hadn't quite expected and the subsequent viewer reviews have been glowing for the season debut. (The show also drew a 325,000 avg. and was the second most-watched Feherty premiere ever). You can get a flavor of the first episode from this page of clips. The talk of Tiger has gone viral-ish because of Spieth's claim that players do not respect Tiger's greatness enough. His comments on underestimating Jason Day will appear in part two next Monday, March 14.

And Phil Mickelson was as engaging as expected on the season two debut of Callaway Live. What I didn't expect was the display of acting chops from Phil in this bit:

Bishop Book! PGA Of America Threatens "Judicial Intervention"

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Golf.com's Marika Washchyshyn interviews former PGA of America president Ted Bishop about his upcoming book and as you can imagine, his former organization isn't too thrilled.

From the Q&A on the same day former Bishop friend Pete Bevacqua had his CEO contract renewed through 2021, the ex-PGA president revealed more about the book and this:

I’ve had virtually no contact with the PGA of America since October 2014. I did have a brief conversation with Derek Sprague [Bishop’s successor] in November 2014 and [PGA CEO] Pete Bevacqua in February 2015. Those are the only conversations I had with people "inside" the PGA and they were not related to my book. I have had some conversations with the PGA's outside legal counsel requesting a review of my book before it was published. At one point they threatened "judicial intervention" if I didn't cooperate. I have no plans to let the PGA's outside legal counsel see the book.

NGF: "A slight dip tempered by strong positive indicators"

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The National Golf Foundation says the M's are buying in to something other than Snapping on their phones, so I'll sleep better tonight!

For Immediate Release:

2015 Golf Participation in the U.S. – A slight dip tempered by strong positive indicators

Twenty years after Tiger Woods stepped before a microphone in Milwaukee on Aug. 28, 1996, and with the words “Hello, World,” touched off the most meaningful golf industry growth since Arnold Palmer and President Eisenhower jump-started it 40 years earlier, there are reasons to be confident about the stability of the game. While the latest NGF participation numbers show a slight dip in 2015 to 24.1 million (over the age of 6 who played at least once) from 24.7 million the two previous years, numbers remained strong in several crucial areas: among committed golfers, beginning golfers and in the number of people interested in taking up the game.

While the total drop in golfers from 2014 to 2015 was within the national study’s statistical margin of error, the results do suggest that a slow leak in overall participation persists.

Slow leak?

However, NGF analysis continues to show that attrition is confined mainly to those who never really got into the game.

About 80 percent of all golfers, or 20 million of the 24.1 million, make up a committed base who accounted for 94 percent of all rounds played and equipment spending in 2015. Play among this group drove an overall increase in rounds played of 1.8% versus 2014, as reported by the National Rounds Played Coalition (comprised of NGF, Golf Datatech, PGA of America and NGCOA).

The twenty-somethings like Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Rickie Fowler, Lexi Thompson and teenager Lydia Ko appear to be resonating. Beginners numbered 2.2 million in 2015, which compares favorably to the all-time high of 2.4 million in 2000, at the peak of Woods’ success when he won three major championships. And the biggest group of beginners in 2015 were Millennials.

They like us! They really, really like us!

Interest in playing golf is at an all-time high with an estimated 37 million non-golfers saying they are interested in taking up the game. And roughly 20 percent may already be making their first moves. In addition to the 24 million people who played golf on a golf course last year, another 7 million took part in the game at a driving range, a TopGolf facility or on an indoor golf simulator.

Golf’s overall reach is impressive. An estimated 81 million*, including 62 million non-golfers, watched golf on TV in 2015 while 27 million read about the game in traditional or electronic media. One out of three Americans – about 95 million – played golf on a golf course or alternate venue, watched on TV or read about it in 2015. The interest is there. The challenge is to activate more of the people who are interested in playing, and retain a higher percentage of those who do give golf a try. Getting more beginners to enter the game through structured introduction programs like Get Golf Ready is key to improving retention.

While participation growth remains difficult to achieve, with the recession in the rearview mirror and an exciting new wave of young players in front of us, there are good reasons to be optimistic about future growth if emphasis continues to be placed on converting more beginners into committed golfers.

Or, until President Trump declares a ban on grow the game initiatives to protect its aspirational qualities.

The Donald Plays The Club Championship Card Again!

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He's a closer! He took the Mara-a-Lago Mixed Stableford Four-Ball, Gross Division! Give this man the keys to the White House!

After winning Michigan and further solidifying his Republican nomination lead, Donald Trump peppered his acceptance speech/press conference/product plugfest with multiple golf references: Jack Nicklaus, Adam Scott, the WGC at Doral, Trump International, Trump National, Trump wine, etc...

And though he's mentioned his club championship-winning prowess before, something about the references seems a bit more eye-opening when he's a leading candidate for the White House.

Unfortunately, the ABC video transcript wasn't particularly accurate. And yet so, so fun, starting with its interpretation of Trump:

Hewitt National Golf Club. Jack Nicklaus did this it's a Jack Nicklaus signature course and it's a great great. Resort and place and we have a lot of our members here SC. We love our members. Jack Jack by the way Jack Nicklaus is a special man indeed the special job and yet we have another special man Paul O'Neill of the Yankees can end up all.

And...

And have I won many club championship distraught daughter close. You know believe it or not it's not so different winning is winning you gotta be not easy to a club championships believe me. And I'm not talking about with strokes and Doug it would no strokes but the fact is that. I like to close I like to close things out so until the last person you know get restarted with a field of seven. And now we're down to four. And I really what analysts engines I am not even focused on yet I'm doing well numerous balls and winning.

Kind of like the old Ali G translator!

You'll have a hard time taking your eyes off of this, and I promise, big giggles when he mentioned the major played last week:

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

First Rio Test Event Pictures Surfacing!

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As much as I'd love to be watching the golf played this week in Rio, the Olympic test event is best played in semi-privacy with the big reveal coming this August.

Still, with luminaries assembling in Rio to watch the Strapffs and Barcellos' of the world test out Gil Hanse's Rio Olympic course (Bob Harig explains), we have to at least enjoy the driplets appearing on social media.

From Alexandre Rocha showing the course with a mini-review:



Big stars are racking up major miles!

The one and only Instagram post from Olympic golf Rio. So far:


My chat with Gary Williams on Morning Drive explaining why it's a better scenario not to see the "test event" on TV with stars this week: