Is The Golf Industry Ready To Build On Its Unexpected Boost?

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Former PGA of America President Ted Bishop isn’t sure as a course operator and in part one of his look offers some super thoughts.

From his Morning Read piece quoting Barney Adams:

Adams added: “The question now becomes, How can the industry keep these people? Frankly, I don’t know. I think cheapening the game with gimmicks is short-sighted and will not work. Whatever can be done to establish the purity and essence of golf will keep a significant percentage. When the bars open, normalcy returns. Industry people need to be extremely vigilant and see what works.”

As a golf professional and an operator, I need help in figuring out how to capitalize on this unprecedented surge in golf, and right now the industry is not providing it.

Your local golf pro is on the front line. In my conversations with many around the country, the sentiment is the same: 2020 was a bizarre year. It caught everyone off guard. COVID-19 protocols forced operations to change on the fly. Tee-time pressure and course access became huge challenges at public and private facilities. Outings, weddings, parties and large gatherings were lost, leaving courses to replace those revenues with membership sales, green/guest fees and golf car rentals. Golf became a business built on volume in 2020, and no one saw that coming.

While the volume idea sounds amazing given declines in play, Bishop goes on to touch on the issues that raises for courses and those built to survive on a variety of revenue sources. Check out the piece and part two when it arrives.

NYC Cites Lack Of Major Events Lured To Ferry Point In Terminating Management Deal

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While other contracts with the Trump Organization were cancelled over the Capitol insurrection, New York City’s announcement related to Trump Golf Links Ferry Point specifically cited a contractual issue. Namely, the failure to lure major events (it’s not clear if that means majors or just significant tournaments).

The PGA recently cancelled the 2022 PGA Championship at a Trump golf course.  In its contract with the Trump Organization to run Ferry Point Golf Course, the City called for a championship level golf course that would attract major championship events.

 The termination process for each location is detailed in each of the City agreements. The Carousel is currently closed and termination will be effective 25 days after the City’s termination notice is delivered. The Agreement for the Wollman and Lasker Rinks terminates after 30 days written notice. The process for terminating the Ferry Point Golf Course is more detailed and is expected to take a number of months.

According to GolfDigest.com’s Joel Beall, the Trump Organization will be fighting back and asking for lost revenues.

Eric Trump, son of President Trump and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, challenged the city’s decision in a statement to New York media outlets.

"Yet another example of Mayor de Blasio’s blatant disregard for the facts. The City of New York has no legal right to end our contracts and if they elect to proceed, they will owe The Trump Organization over $30 million," the statement said. "This is nothing more than political discrimination, an attempt to infringe on the first amendment and we plan to fight vigorously."

According to the Washington Post’s David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O’Connell, the course lost money again last year in Trump filings.

The course opened in 2015, but has failed to meet the Trump Organization’s profit projections: In the year ended in March 2020, the course lost more than $670,000, according to filings with the city.

In the most recent state rankings from Golf Digest and Golf, Trump Ferry Point did not crack the top 25 and top 30 in either listing. Granted, it’s the toughest neighborhood in America for great architecture, but given the interest in hosting major events and the dramatic site, it’s clear the course has not been a hit with panelists.

The course website remains up as of now, with quite the video montage of the clubhouse opening ceremony featuring Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Jack Nicklaus.

Today In Much Needed Distractionary Content: Cookie Jar Golf Takes Us To Musselburgh, East Lothian

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As the classy purveyors at Cookie Jar Golf understate in their description for the latest video, “The game of golf owes a lot to this little stretch of East Lothian linksland. “

Longtime readers know of my affinity for Musselburgh and the entire East Lothian region for its incredible variety of links and importance in fostering the game.

This could not have landed at a better time for those seeking much needed distractionary content. Video one focuses on Musselburgh, the second is a longer piece on their fall trip to East Lothian. Enjoy!

Sports Will Be Watching: Augusta To Welcome Back A Limited Number Of Patrons

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Just a quick glance at today’s news and the sports world is still struggling with various pandemic related issues. The NBA is teetering on the brink of disaster with its non-bubble season. I’ll pause here to let you feign surprise.

And Major League Baseball is squabbling with the players union opposed to vaccination, so they’re going to play a full season and hope to welcome back fans asap. I’d expect more but then the Astros still have their 2017 banner hanging in their glorified Costco so…

Maybe that’s why I’m hoping the Lords of Augusta will have something more…anything.

My latest Quadrilateral letter to subscribers and still free as I ween you on this fun new writing format.

Thanks to all who have shown amazing faith in just four days since launching, I’m honored by your trust in my work and in Substack’s delivery.

Also, apologies to subscribers that I referred to the press release today as arriving on Monday. Yes, it was Tuesday, my apologies and the web version reflects that.

Every day feels like a Monday right now.

Masters: Limited Number Of Patrons In 2021, ANWA And Drive, Chip and Putt To Happen

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Plenty of questions to ponder reading between the lines here and I’ve reached out to the Club for any illumination they can provide regarding what will be needed to attend and how they are selecting the lucky few.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fred Ridley, Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced today that the Club intends tolimit attendance at the 85th Masters Tournament, scheduled for April 5-11, 2021. The Tournament will be conducted with similar health and safety standards to those previously instituted in November 2020. With these protocols in place, efforts are being made to include a limited number of patrons, provided it can be done safely.

“Following the successful conduct of the Masters Tournament last November with only essential personnel, we are confident in our ability to responsibly invite a limited number of patrons to Augusta National in April,” Ridley said. “As with the November Masters, we will implement practices and policies that will protect the health and safety of everyone in attendance. Nothing is, or will be, more important than the well-being of all involved. While we are disappointed that we will be unable to accommodate a full complement of patrons this year, we will continue our efforts to ensure that all who purchased tickets from Augusta National will have access in 2022, provided conditions improve.”

In addition, Ridley announced that the Club intends to conduct the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals as scheduled. Both of these competitions also intend to host a small number of patrons. Augusta National is in the process of communicating with all ticket holders of record, and refunds will be issued to those patrons not selected to attend.

Ratings Non-Shocker: NFL Playoffs Relegate PGA Tour To Bottom Of Ratings Barrel

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For your definition of insanity files: the PGA Tour annually tries to play at the same time as NFL playoff games and no one watches. With expanded playoffs in 2021, the NFL added a game each weekend day and the Sentry Tournament Of (Some) Champions stood little chance.

Showbuzzdaily.com reports Sunday’s early coverage drew an average of a million viewers on NBC, but about 40% of those watchers did not head to Golf Channel for the conclusion.

Saturday’s third round coverage was out-rated by Thursday and Friday coverage. It landed in Saturday’s cable listings with a 1 am episode of Dateline and episodes of Ryan’s Mystery Play Date on Nick Jr network. Yikes.

The final round .39 on Golf Channel matched last year’s final round .39, but as the numbers show, the miniscule number from coveted demo is headed in the wrong direction.

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One ray of good news?

Golf on NBC was not the lowest rated sports broadcast on linear TV. Not even close. Sunday’s early coverage drummed both Drone Racing AND Supercross 1Q1!

"A Different Order Of Magnitude" For Trump In Losing Major Championship Ties

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There was no intention to neglect the blog this week for The Quadrilateral but as I mentioned in explaining the newsletter, major championship news happens year-round.

Today I recap Donald Trump’s not-surprising reaction to the PGA and R&A cutting all ties with the outgoing President and also have a lighter note on the 2022 betting race.

Yes, you can get a price on venues decided on by a board of golf professionals. What a world.

Slowing Down Golf Courses Is Not A Distance Debate Solution

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Several sent along Dr. Chamblee’s latest distance elixir, his 43rd pivot on a topic Golf Channel’s lead analyst has adopted to the detriment of his otherwise compelling analysis work. And it hasn’t even brought a certain Massachusetts advertiser back into the fold.

I won’t waste much time highlighting his view that you slow down home runs by raising the infield grass, but that is the case being made to deal with today’s absurd carry distances. But remember, these are back to back sentences as they appeared on GolfChannel.com:

But there is also a graph which shows, quite clearly, players’ increased visits to the fitness van plots the line of the increased yardage gained over the last 40 years. I’d argue that one could also make a graph where the increased driving distance, to some extent, corresponds to the decreased fairway heights, which over the last 30 years have come down from being cut at 3/4 of an inch, to now being cut at 3/16 of an inch.

Yes, you read correctly: he went from players going to fitness vans to get their distance gains “to some extent” corresponding with lowering mowing heights.

Actually, no extent.

There was also a whopper of a misrepresentation that might have been fact-checked if they hadn’t fired most of the editors. Chamblee’s claim of most fairways getting cut at 3/16th of an inch was refuted by the USGA’s Championship Agronomist on Twitter:

This was all really a roundabout way to point out that last weekend’s Sentry Tournament Of Some Champions was hard to watch. The views and whale shots were as spectacular as ever, but Kapalua’s Plantation course was a sponge.

A Coore-Crenshaw design to played on the ground with the ball running had taken on a lot of rain leading up to the tournament, hasn’t played faster after the renovation designed to help it do so, and therefore called on little creativity or shotmaking. It played longer, yes, but it was also tough to find remotely compelling.

Every course plays better firmer and faster. Harvesting rough, slowing down fairways and attempting to mute technology-fueled gains via agronomy is not only a woeful idea, it goes against the very soul of a game built on firm ground.

Does anyone want to sacrifice a core principle of golf to avoid taking 10% of carry away from 1000 golf pros? Trying to watch lush and lifeless Kapalua should give you the answer.

R&A: No Return To Trump Turnberry Any Time Soon

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This has always been the position since Donald Trump’s purchase of Turnberry but post events of 1-6-21 the R&A has codified its stance on what is one of the very best courses in their "rota”.

STATEMENT FROM THE R&A
Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A:

“We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future. We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”

The Replacements: PGA Of America's Best Options For 2022

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Another edition of The Quadrilateral because, as I forewarned back in Saturday night’s first edition, breaking news would warrant extra editions.

With the PGA of America leaving Trump Bedminster, I look at the options for a venue on short notice. It’s not as easy as you think.

The latest edition of The Quadrilateral. It’s free to subscribe. And if you weren’t here for Saturday night’s big rollout, the website FAQ page should answer most questions.

PGA of America President: "It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand"

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In a video sent to the PGA of America membership not long after the organization board voted to terminate its contract with 2022 PGA site Trump Bedminster, Jim Richerson read this statement in a video sent to PGA of America members. (Thanks to all who forwarded.)

The key lines should the hostage be rescued and the video taken down:

“It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand and would put at risk the PGA of America’s ability to deliver our many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission. Our board has thus made the decision to exercise our right to terminate the contract to hold the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster. It was a decision made to ensure the PGA of America and the PGA professionals can continue to lead and grow our great game for decades to come.”

It’s a tad alarming the PGA “brand” was mentioned but we get the drift. Plenty of folks would have suggested the statement was relevant years ago. It took an insurrection attempt against the United States by the sitting president to put them over the edge. This is where we are.

The Trump organization has issued a statement as quoted in this ABCNews story:

"We have had a beautiful partnership with the PGA of America and are incredibly disappointed with their decision," said a spokesperson for The Trump Organization. "This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement. As an organization we have invested many, many millions of dollars in the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster. We will continue to promote the game of golf on every level and remain focused on operating the finest golf courses anywhere in the world."

**CEO Seth Waugh also mentioned the brand and suggested the situation is not of the PGA’s own in comments to AP, as noted here

"We find ourselves in a political situation not of our making," Seth Waugh, the CEO of the PGA of America, said in a telephone interview. "We're fiduciaries for our members, for the game, for our mission and for our brand. And how do we best protect that? Our feeling was given the tragic events of Wednesday that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster. The damage could have been irreparable. The only real course of action was to leave."

PGA Of America Searching For Trump Bedminster Replacement

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**Well not long after this went up, the PGA of America board voted to rescind the event and posted this statement on Twitter:

I thought I’d be easing into The Quadrilateral but the beauty of the newsletter format? I could send out news on the PGA Championship and Trump Bedminster.

My reporting is a bit more careful in characterizing the timing and status of the PGA of America’s effort to leave the 2022 PGA site. The situation is still developing, which is news itself for those reading between the lines.

My reporting certainly differs than some fairly oddball recklessness that I note in the item: NJ.com taking a prediction by Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch and making it news.

Signing up to The Quadrilateral is free for now, check out the item here.

In other reporting, Golf.com’s Alan Shipnuck says a few venues have emerged and that Bedminster members aren’t happy, either (Tweet since deleted).

This week in The Quadrilateral I’ll be breaking down these venues and other options that have been mentioned by sources. It’s trickier to find a venue on short notice than you might think.

The Quadrilateral: Majors Will Be This Decade's Superstars

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After the calendar mercifully flipped I mentioned a pivot in coverage in addition to GeoffShackelford.com.

So I present to you, The Quadrilateral.

I started posting random internet items in 2003 on a clunky website before “blog” was a word. There weren’t many others in golf then and fast forward to 2021, even fewer golf newsletters today by one writer. (The Fried Egg started that way but they’ve grown and aren’t we grateful for that?)

As explained on the The Quadrilateral’s About page, I’ve come to love the format after growing attached to the missives from trusted scribes. I’ve been struck by how unencumbered they sounded thanks to a more direct, semi-private connection to readers. Also helping: the visual cleanliness, clickbait-free burden lift, a lack of cookie requests and conflict-free analysis.

I expect to bring the same with a focus on my favorite part of golf tournament coverage: the four men’s majors (and 2021 Ryder Cup).

The newsletter name is from a 1930 reference to Bobby Jones’ grand slam and to kick things off in the inaugural missive, explains why majors will be this decade’s superstars. It’s my explanation why the big four will only get more interesting as the week-to-week pro golf product falls flat.

Subscribing is free and easy thanks to Substack’s design. You’ll get a good sampling of the format and tone over the next month. But as we move closer to the majors expect fewer newsletters available unless you join.

The Quadrilateral is $5 monthly or $49 a year). I’ve also added a Founders option for $150 that will include a one-year subscription for you and a friend.

If you just want a simpler explanation of The Quadrilateral with pretty pictures, I’ve built this standalone website. There you’ll find my explanation for jumping to this format, a FAQ page and the original reference to the quadrilateral.

No questions and you’re ready to start enjoying the majors even more: just go here to subscribe and read the kick-off letter.

What Do We Know About HBO's Tiger Doc Premiering Sunday?

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We know it’s in two parts debuting Sunday January 10 at 6 pm on HBO and HBO Max.

We know Tiger isn’t thrilled about it and did not cooperate (or play in Turner’s The Match 3).

And it’s based on Armen Ketayan and Jeff Benedict’s book.

Ian Casselberry of Awful Announcing on what to expect:

Part 1, which premieres Sunday night (Jan. 10) at 9 p.m. ET, chronicles Woods’ development as a golf prodigy, taking up the game under his father’s tutelage while he was still a toddler. The first 90 minutes follow his rise from amateur star to a professional who changed golf upon winning the 1997 Masters and became a cultural phenomenon.

Ultimately, this opening part of the documentary covers the relationship between Earl Woods and his son, how he practically engineered and conditioned Tiger into becoming a dominant golf machine. Yet being raised with the focus on becoming an all-time great in the sport — and perhaps a transcendent global figure — deprived him of formative experiences in childhood and adolescence.

Woods’s first girlfriend, Dina Parr, is interviewed extensively and arguably the most powerful moments in Part 1 come from home videos she took while they were together, showing Tiger genuinely smiling and having fun with friends rather than pleased with his success on the golf course.

The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch sums it up this way:

If you are looking for a comparison to ESPN’s mega-successful “The Last Dance,” look elsewhere. “Tiger” doesn’t have the close to the scope of “The Last Dance,” nor the personal insight from the main subject. But it travels into the darkest areas of Woods’ story far more than “The Last Dance,” which was co-produced by Jordan’s Jump 23 company. It is an attempt — and I’d call it a successful one — to offer a psychological portrait of Woods. The film examines the father-son relationship of Earl Woods and Tiger Woods; the infidelities of both father and son; Tiger Woods’ search for his own identity amid those around him creating identities for him; and, of course, an examination of the greatness of Woods as a golfer.

James Colgan at Golf.com on the producers’ approach:

Heineman and Hamachek (alongside executive producers Alex Gibney, Sam Pollard, Stacey Offman and Richard Perello) instead relied on several thousand hours of archival footage and 50-60 hours of interviews with more than two-dozen subjects. The directors also leaned on Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian’s 2018 Tiger Woods biography (Benedict and Keteyian receive executive producer credits for their contributions to the film).

“There was a constant drive on our part to make sure that even though we didn’t have Tiger, we gave him a voice, and we let the people who knew him well put us inside of his mind,” Hamachek told GOLF.com “What we really wanted to do was reach out almost exclusively to people who knew Tiger and his family intimately.”

The trailer:

Why The "Golf's Biggest Events" Graphic Evokes So Much Outrage

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Given the terrible times you’d think golf fans might be shrug off a silly, poorly-executed graphic.

The current graphic of scorn comes under the banner, Golf’s Biggest Events. In the past it’s been something about Championship Season, Season of Championships, etc. and has been relentless mocked by the younger sophisticates the game theoretically hopes to embrace.

The PGA Tour’s partners at CBS, NBC and Golf Channel all have used the graphic because of exposure to PVDS, currently untreatable by any drug or vaccine.

Ponte Vedra’s Desperation Syndrome has been seen most in VP’s based around greater Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. It generally inflicts males with marketing backgrounds. Scientists looking into the syndrome have found PVDS to most impact those with almost no sense of the game’s history, no interest in anything but PGA Tour, and who have shown an almost irrational belief in The Players and FedExCup Playoffs rising to major championship levels.

PVDS has also been known to be highly contagious in certain sectors. Researchers find that senior level television network executives often labor under the syndrome’s most relentless, bonus-impacting elements. They will even sometimes take to Twitter, as NBC’s prime PGA Tour liaison Tom Knapp did, to defend the madness as viewers point out flaws in the graphic’s logic and execution. (See below.)

(The replies now sleep with the fishes after just one too many replies slamming Golf Channel for ignoring the women’s game, but that’s why we leave browser tabs open.)

Various LPGA players and media shared the tweet and their disdain for the inconsistency (examples here, here, here and here. The most pointed from an LPGA player:

You can still see the offending graphic above and screen captures of the replies below. Obviously, the graphic should have simply said Men’s Biggest Events or something more clever. And the graphic should correctly state the dates of the FedExCup Playoffs, though the inclusion of those playoffs is only to keep the Ponte Vedra red phone from ringing. Few syndrome-free individuals believe they warrant inclusion on the list of championships above and many other smart folks could make a case that the desperation undercuts the cache of certain “biggest” events.

The outrage in a time of strife and pandemic speaks more to the channel’s unexpected new direction for those outside of the thralls of PVDS and who, devoted as viewers, fear for its future.

Just this week, Golf Channel reporter and anchor Lisa Cornwell painted a less than rosy picture of the network’s culture and its recent elimination of females from the channel payrolls in the name of Comcast/NBC Sports cost slashing.

The graphic causes more annoyance than is should due to relentless rollout of the USGA’s “Women Worth Watching” campaign, fueled on and off air by a woefully inorganic Golf Channel rollout.

And finally, these kinds of graphics remind viewers that a successful channel built on catering to many different golf audiences and viewers is fueled by a move to PGA Tour state TV mode that is already tough to watch and increasingly harder to trust.

Now, back to the more serious matters at hand.

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**The people were heard!