Digital Delivery Update

It turns out that this topic proved way more controversial than was intended! I was just commenting on the efficiencies (or not) of print delivery and how in 2012 there is a better way. I have heard from many people on both sides of the fence and a healthy debate is alway a good thing!
Well, guess what arrived this morning - my copy of Golfweek dated August 10th with Keegan Bradley's win at the Bridgestone - admit it, you can't even remember that event! Enough said!

Digital Delivery in Golf

My copy of GolfWeek magazine arrived today and I read that Rory McIlroy won The PGA Championship! Yes, that's right, 2 weeks after his wonderful victory the old style printed confirmation came through my mail box. Don't get me wrong, the writing in the magazine is solid and I admit it feels good to read something printed with ink on actual paper...but 2 weeks! Either they need to find a better distribution agent or go 100% digital.
When golf industry veteran Jim Nugent started his digital publication, Global Golf Post (GGP), a few years ago he had his doubters. I was not one of them and the well written comprehensive digital magazine lands in my inbox punctually on a Monday morning and to my mind is really hitting its stride now. The worldwide professional and amateur coverage is first class. Did I mention that is also free! I would happily pay for it and I have no knowledge of how the ad supported model is working in their business plan.
The old printed paper weekly model is at death's door and knocking, whether the older golf audience like it or not. It's called the future.
BTW - I have no affiliation with GGP. I just like it when things work and deliver on the premise. If you haven't signed up for GGP yet, you can do so here.

It's Official - Sunday's Red Shirt Has a New Owner (and the CBS coverage was once again awful!)

Maybe the time has finally come for Tiger to choose a new wardrobe for his Sunday play at the Majors. With Rory's conscious decision to wear a red shirt on Sunday he was trying to make a point. And he did so emphatically with a magnificent 8 shot victory. Two Majors for a 23 year old is an amazing accomplishment.

Not that too many people saw it, as the numbers were once again down with the dreadful CBS coverage. Sure the Olympics distracted many potential viewers, but it was really the wicked combo of the PGA of America and CBS and their awful production that dropped the ball. Ads and Fall show previews every few minutes, lack of full leader boards and too much Tiger (even though he was out of the event). The PGA continues to believe they have the strongest field in golf, which is just plain wrong. With twenty club professionals (all missing the cut) are we supposed to believe those guys are better than Tour pros ranked in the low 100s in the Official World Golf Rankings - I don't think so. Until the television coverage and field improves, the PGA will continue to be ranked a distant fourth in the Majors ranking list.

3 Golf Success Stories in a Tough Economy - and they are all Made in America.

The golf business is going through some tough times right now. Rounds played are down, participation is down, private golf courses are going public, golf led real estate developments are being mothballed. okay, okay, we get it - enough bad news - tell us some good news! Well, here are 3 terrific golf products that have come to the market in the last couple of years that are making inroads across the board, both with new players and avid players looking for innovation in our great game.


Kentwool Socks

How do you reinvent socks? Good question and one I don't actually know the answer too. But I do know these guys are making awesome golf socks in South Carolina. And they seem to be on a roll.
If there is one thing you need when playing golf, it's comfortable feet. Yes, of course shoes are important, but don't underestimate your socks. Why on earth would you buy an expensive pair of shoes and then neglect what comes into contact with the shoes, namely your feet! I recently discovered Kentwool socks and they are unbelievable. They transform the feeling of walking and the natural fibers and wicking material used keep your feet confortable and dry. Matt Kuchar and Bubba endorse the product, (which is nice) but take my word for it and try Kentwools.
Read More Here

Stitch Golf

A couple of golf industry veterans (though they won't thank me for that!) have re-created classic golf headcovers. Available in wool and leather these beautifully produced covers will last a lifetime and with simple, clean designs you will find a set to match your golf bag with no problem. Once again, these are Made in America (spot the trend) and available on line as well as in pro shops and off course retailers. I was just in Manhattan and saw them in New York Golf Center on West 35th Street.
Read More Here

Tin Cup

Tin Cup has been a big success since its introduction in 2010 and like many ideas it is simple and solves a unique challenge golfers have - i.e how do they effectively mark their ball as suggested in the rules of golf. It solves the problem with pizazz and allows customization of a golf ball in unique and easy way. Just put the stainless steel stencil on the ball and using a fine point sharpie, fill in the gaps! Above is the Union Jack version and there are over 100 including colleges.
Full disclosure - Tin Cup is one of our clients and we have been fortunate to help with the growth over the last couple of years. Tin Cup is now in over 1,000 leading golf retailers.
Read More Here

The Olympics and Golf

As many of you will know, Golf makes a reappearance in the Olympic Games in 2016. The course, yet to be built, is being designed by a wonderful architect, Gil Hanse and I'm sure his design will be fitting for an event of this magnitude. Challenges are plentiful as the land ownership of the golf course property seems still to be in dispute and getting a golf course built in Brazil will be more of a challenge than in some countries, what with permitting, machinery, staff and more. That said, it should get done and with a 4 year time frame (right now) there is plenty of time. The format is yet to be confirmed and one can only hope the governing bodies try and do something other than a 72 hole, 4 day format - but I doubt it!

As I said it is a reappearance, because golf was played in the Olympics in 1900 and 1904 when the Olympics was a different beast all together. The 1900 Games was held in Paris and the 1904 Games was held in the US in St. Louis. Originally, the US Games was awarded to Chicago, but the organizers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis would not accept another international event in the time frame. The exposition organization began to plan its own sports activities, informing the Chicago organizing committee that its own international sports events intended to eclipse the Games, unless they were moved to St. Louis. The founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin, caved and awarded the games to St. Louis. What an amazing story and proof positive that Olympic politics was alive and well, even a hundred years ago!

Glen Echo Country Club (still in existence today) was the venue and 77 golfers from 2 countries (USA and Canada) competed for the medals. The individual winner was George Lyon from Canada who defeated Chandler Egan in a matchplay final, following a 36 hole qualifier.  There was also a team competition that awarded gold, silver and bronze. The winners of all 3 of those medals was the USA! That's right, the only teams competing were American and the winners of the gold medal were 10 guys from The Western Golf Association. Great stuff!

Seeing how the 2016 golf format plays out will be fascinating and we will follow the design and construction with great interest. Once the London Olympics are over on August 12, the golf debate will no doubt begin in earnest. In the meanwhile, Enjoy London!

Appearance Fees in Professional Golf...and Brad Pitt

Many people are getting in a flap about tournaments paying appearance fees to high profile players. The conversation began in earnest again last week with Tiger and Phil both playing (briefly!) in Jim Justice's Greenbrier Classic. Shock, horror, Mr. Justice paid them both to come and play and, as we all know, there is no appearance money paid on the PGA Tour. Every commissioner since the Tour officially began in 1975 has confirmed that this deplorable act never happened on the hallowed turf of PGA Tour events. Really, is that right? So Sam Snead, in 1945, just happened to be in Gulfport the same week as the tournament, opening a car dealership: Luke Donald, wearing an RBC patch plays in each of their events just because he is an RBC ambassador...what a coincidence!

The facts are, using a cinematic reference, if you want Brad Pitt in your movie what do you do? That's right you speak to his agent, send him the script and contractually pay him a large amount of money in the hope that you will get a return on your investment. Professional sports, including golf have been no different since athletes turned professional. If you want the best you pay for the best. In a past life, I used to run the commercial operations for Tour events in Europe and the PGA Tour and I have personal experience of these situations - it's in the budget.

So, all Mr. Justice was doing was the same as every Tournament Director would do (if they had access to similar funds), by paying players who have "draw" and sell tickets, hospitality and 30 second TV units. It's just business - happens on every tour in the world - always has done, always will do. So spare me the "golf is above paying appearance fees" rhetoric and take what you hear from Ponte Vedra with a grain of salt. The Brooks Brothers shirts there know what goes on and have been beneficiaries of this free market for decades.

Golf and Customer Service - De Vere - Oh Dear!

Having just returned from an extended trip to the UK, it gave me the opportunity to see how golf service levels were on the other side of the Pond. You can read about the majority of the trip at Golf Purist here. There was one more round to play with my Dad, brother and nephew before heading home to D.C. and that was at a typical semi private club in the middle of the country. The club, Belton Woods is near Grantham, Lincolnshire and is owned and operated by De Vere Hotels. The round reminded me of the great Seinfeld episode with the rental car - remember the one where Jerry says "You can take the reservation, but you can't hold the reservation". We teed off as planned at 0720 on the Lakes Course and all was proceeding well until our game was rudely interrupted by an officious guy saying "You shouldn't be on this course - your reservation was on the other course". We told him when and on which course the reservation was made and he said and I quote "That's impossible, the tee was blocked off for a competition from 0700". Really, so the 2 groups in front of us were also making it up were they?  I would note we were in position and keeping well in front of the group behind us. So Mr. Obnoxious drove off, clearly not happy. Amazingly, he returned 2 holes later to continue to harang us with the same story and this time was even more vociferous in his defence of the computer booking system (which couldn't possibly be wrong!).

Anyway, thanks De Vere and your rude, inefficient (and incorrect) staff for ruining our golf game. If this is your way of dealing with paying customers, it's little wonder rounds are down! Suggestion of the day - Get a copy of Six Sigma and pass it around!

Slow Play - The curse of the game and 5 culprits

Our 8-man buddy trip is coming up next month to London and Scotland. Finally, I have convinced the boys that London has such great golf that we would be crazy once again to suffer the agonies of Heathrow without the ecstasy of golf in the wonderful heath land to the west and south of the capital of the old country. The classic heather strewn courses are too numerous to mention and we have several of these on our plan - St. Georges Hill, Walton Heath Old, Sunningdale Old. It should be a treat. Then it's off to Scotland for The Old Course, Muirfield, and North Berwick (pictured above).
That all sounds great, but what's the point of this blog, other than to name drop? Well, the point is this, on several days we are playing 36 holes and although the tee times are not set in stone at most British clubs we will have no problem playing 36 holes on these world class courses. Sadly the same cannot be said for many of courses I have encountered in the US where 4 1/2 to 5 hours has become the norm. The reasons are numerous so let's take a look at a few and ponder why the US golfer has slowed to a crawl and yet British golfers simply hit the ball and when it stops, hit it again! Here are 5 of the main culprits.

1. Carts. A dreadful invention and used by able-bodied people who should know better. Golf is a game for walking, not driving. If you have a medical reason, no problem, but kids and anyone who can walk should walk. I see more carts moving sideways or backwards here than I see moving forward! Players driving over to see their opponents ball, or if "cart paths only" are in operation taking one club out to their ball only to return 2 minutes later for another!

2. Electronic devices. Regular readers will know I would like to blow these all up or have a large receptacle by the first tee for them. It would be just like going through the airport and the golf equivalent of the TSA would ask you to dispose of your electronic yardage device - you know it doesn't help anyway and they just add time to the round. "Jerry, you have 167 yards and not 169 yards" (as we thought by looking in a yardage book) - oh, let me take that couple of yards off my 6 iron swing! I don't think so and you took 2 minutes to make your mind up and hit it 130 yards!

3. Watching golf on television. The Brits watch golf too, but for some reason the excruciatingly slow play on the professional tours seems to have had a more negative effect on US amateur golfers than their foreign counterparts. The question is when will the tours actually try and speed up the game and stop pretending that 5 hours is acceptable. Go on, fine someone a shot and see what that does - money won't get it done, but shots will. The American Junior Golf Association has been proactive by introducing a "Pace of Play Program" for their young, aspiring College players - the tours should take a leaf out of the AJGA's book and follow suit, so guys like Webb Simpson, Jonathan Byrd and Ben Crane get a move on!

4. Drinks carts. Don't have 'em in the UK and the only reason they exist in the US is to generate revenue. A noble idea for sure, but just one more thing that holds up play. A bunch of old dudes chatting up the 19-year-old cart girl is no reason to add 15 minutes to the round. Fellas, she is not interested!

5. Keeping score. Stop it now! This is supposed to be fun! If it's inside the leather pick it up and move on. In the UK, 99% of golf is matchplay and it's the major reason that golf keeps moving. I don't need to be waiting 230 yards away watching you putting out for a 7... I'll give you a 6 if you pick it up and get out of the way! Think Chevy Chase in Caddyshack and measure your performance by height!

Bubba - The Natural

Bubba Watson's victory at the Masters was a win for the old school. His self taught, natural way to play golf is refreshing in the world of overwrought swing coaches. He gets up and hits it, then he finds it and hits it again! And as he proved with his shot of the tournament wedge on the second playoff hole, it doesn't really matter to him if it is deep in the trees. (Yes, of course Louis' albatross on the second hole of regular play was majestic, but it was early in the round and the tournament wasn't yet on the line). We were happy to include him a week ago in our picks to win and he did manage to stay with it for 72 holes - actually 74 holes as it turned out. (we were wrong about a European victory, but you can't win them all!) So congratulations to Bubba and his pure talent and natural swing - let's hope it encourages some young people to explore the game with their unique swings and not have it coached out of them.

Phil, Masters Champ and Masters Fan

The opportunity to see "The Big 3" tee off was just too great to miss and along with thousands of other golf fans, 3 time Masters Champion, Phil Mickelson was there. Not only did he get to experience The King, The Golden Bear and The Black Knight hit their tee shots, but once again Phil proved that he is the people's champ...and the Master when it comes to PR. No other green coated players showed up and it was fully 6 hours before Phil teed it up, so he really made the effort and it didn't go unnoticed by the patrons or the members. Good on you Phil!