Can Golf Be Too Accommodating?

I was reading an article earlier this year about “growing the game.”  I can’t remember the exact publication, but a simple Google search can bring millions of hits regarding ideas generated by golf experts.

The recent push to grow the game is due to a downturn of participation as reported by the Nation’s golf clubs.  Now, if one had never been exposed to these articles, interviews, and websites, the same person would believe that the sport is actually growing.

The season is nearly year-round in terms of tournaments played, and major networks are devoting valuable weekend prime-time viewing slots for golf.  The “young guns” are easily recognizable to even the casual fan, and there is no shortage of instructional videos available online.

Still, the governing powers have toyed with ideas such as speeding up play by use of clocks, developing new ways in which to play the game (like different card games using the same deck), and making the hole larger (really).

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In trying to add more participants, are we sacrificing the very things that make golf what it is?

I came to golf later in life.  I didn’t play until my children were older and I had more expendable time.  I had no desire before then.  Golf was just something that I never saw myself doing.  I have a baseball and running background, and it seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to get that little ball in that little hole.

When I was younger, I played many sports, but baseball was the constant.  As I hit my mid-to-late 20’s, I started to run road races.  This was before the second running boom, when participation at even local 5K’s was competitive.  Over the course of the last two decades, running purists argue that the sport has become watered-down by mass participation in distance races by those just wanting to simply finish.  There are no qualifying standards for race participation, except for the larger, more prestigious distance runs.

Now, I need to say something here…

I am not condoning exclusivity in golf.  I am by no means a great golfer.  I LOVE the sport, and I try to learn everything I can about it.  It’s beautiful and frustrating at the same time.  It’s the fact that you can strike a ball cleanly one time and catch the perfect flight, but strike it the same way the next time and the ball does something different and unexpected.  A bad run used to ruin my day, and a bad race would ruin my weekend.  I approach golf in a different way — I know I’ll never master the game, but I do my best and try to learn a lesson from every round.

That’s my point.  In an age where everything is easy and we (as a society) make things so approachable and accommodating, we have gotten to the point where we don’t expect participants in sports to reach for certain established standards — we lower those standards to meet the individual.

This “feel good” environment in sports has done more damage than the benefits for which its proponents had hoped.  Trophies for all.  Everyone’s a winner.  It’s an argument that others have championed and argued against, but nothing is being done to change it.  Everyone gets to bat.  Everyone gets to play quarterback.  Is it any wonder that we have a whole generation that has no skills in conflict resolution and adapting to failures?  I never participated in football.  I am a HUGE fan, but I’m not built for it and don’t have the skill set to be successful.  I didn’t expect the game to change for me — if I wasn’t up for it, I found something more suited for my talents.

 
Why should golf change?  It’s a hard sport — a difficult sport.  It shouldn’t be made easier — the participants should practice to get better.  That’s the draw for those who participate.  I don’t want it easy, I want a challenge.  Granted, I like to succeed in my endeavors, but that satisfaction comes from overcoming struggles — not from making things easier.

Still, I really like my mulligans…

Hit ’em long and straight.

Cover Photo via Flickr