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Norman ready to lead the revolution

By: Golf Shake | Mon 21 Dec 2015


Post by Sports Writer, Derek Clements 


GREG NORMAN is the latest leading figure to wade into the issue of extending the appeal of golf to attract more youngsters to take up the game.

Norman is ready to support moves for radical changes to the sport but, like most of the rest of us, he doesn't yet know what the best way forward is going to be.

"I'm trying to unlock the code," Norman said. "When you take pockets of a lot of golf courses, they're asset rich and cash poor. Financially, many are in a desperate state and facing closure. They want to know how they can get people back in the game.

“I understand that time is one of the big issues, but you can reduce that. For instance, you can play six holes in an hour-and-a-half, 12 holes in three hours.

"If they want to play in cut-off jeans and a T-shirt at a public facility, then let them do it," Norman said. "If they want to go on the course with a skateboard, let them go. If they want to put an iPod in their ears or play music, let them go. Why not take a look at it? That’s all I ask.”

It is fair to say that greenkeepers around the world would be horrified at the prospect of youngsters racing down fairways and across greens on skateboards, but Norman surely had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he made that suggestion. It is, however, a sign of the times that such proposals are being discussed. What is wrong with letting youngsters take to the course while listening to their favourite music? Are cut-off jeans and T-shirts really such a bad idea if it gets kids involved in the game?

Young Golfers

Surely the main thing is to get them hooked on the game. The matter of suitable dress can be addressed later, as they move from the junior to the senior section of their respective golf clubs. The game must be more forward thinking than it currently is, that's for sure.

LPGA commissioner Mike Whan is blunt when it comes to the need for change. “We need to get over what golf is and was,” he says.

Does any of the following ring any bells with you?

So there you are standing on the 10th tee. Waiting. Again.

“Hey guys, anybody want to guess how long it’s taken us to play nine holes? Well I’m going to tell you anyway – two hours and 35 minutes.” Up ahead, two golfers are looking for a ball in the bushes, while another is searching in the opposite rough. None of them have played provisional balls. In the middle, the fourth member of the group has a mobile phone stuck to his ear. They are all oblivious to you.

You’ve tried the pose – you know the one, where you all stand there with your drivers resting against your waists while you fold your arms and give them the evil eye. It’s a waste of time.

They finally reach the green and take forever to line up their putts. When everybody has holed out, two of them fumble in their back pockets for scorecards and you stand and watch them counting back their shots before finally agreeing that it is a half in eight. The other two return to their golf bags, which they have left at the front of the green. Naturally. It doesn’t matter that the next tee is on the opposite side of the green.

And so it continues during the second nine. It’s been so slow that you even pass a couple of dead bodies along the way! And some tumbleweed blows down the 15th fairway.

On hole after hole you wait, hoping they will wave you through. And they finally do so. On the bloody 18th hole. You can’t even muster the enthusiasm to thank them because you have been on the course for what seems an eternity. Five hours and five minutes. Well it is its own kind of eternity.

You then repair to the clubhouse for a cold beer and one of the fateful four approaches you. “Wasn’t it slow out there boys? We would have waved you through earlier but there was nowhere for you to go.” Whaaaaat? Nowhere to go? You mean apart from the three clear holes in front of you?

It wasn’t meant to be like this. The arrival of Tiger Woods on the scene was supposed to start an explosion of interest in golf, with youngsters all over the world seeking to emulate him. And because he didn’t hang around, the pace of play was supposed to speed up.

So we should have been fighting to get a place on the golf course, but with the consolation that it would only take us three hours to play 18 holes because everybody would emulate the old Tiger and rush round. But it turned out to be wishful thinking.

Instead, golf clubs that haven’t already shut up shop are becoming increasingly concerned about ageing memberships. And if the average age of club members is rising, it follows that the numbers of members is falling.

Much time and thought has been wasted in trying to get to the root of the problem, but the reason seems pretty obvious. We live in a throwaway society, in an age where everything is done in an instant – social media has changed everything. One wonders if the majority of our golf clubs have even heard of Facebook or Twitter. Some have finally cottoned on to that new-fangled contraption called email, but they are few and far between.

So you have to ask yourself why a teenage boy or girl would ever want to go anywhere near a sport in which it is becoming increasingly common for its exponents to take five hours to play 18 holes. And what self-respecting kid would want to dress like a golfer? We are to fashion what Adolf Hitler was to world peace. When you throw in the fact that most senior members look down their noses at teenagers and would never consider waving them through, it is hardly surprising that we have reached a crisis point. The trick is to ensure it becomes a tipping point.

John Daly has the best pre-shot routine in the game – hit it, find it and hit it again. He once played 18 holes in The Open in less than two hours.

Brandt Snedeker takes 13 seconds to play each shot, whether it be a drive, approach shot from thick rough or a 10ft downhill putt. He was timed during the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which he won, and never varied by more than half a second. And yet he took almost six hours to complete each round because he was playing in a tournament alongside so-called Hollywood stars who take an eternity to get back to the clubhouse because they are generally such awful golfers.

Like it or not, we must accept that slow play is killing golf. The tour pros, at whose skills we routinely marvel, must shoulder a huge part of the blame. By the time the likes of Keegan Bradley, Padraig Harrington, Jonathan Byrd and Ben Crane have finally committed themselves to hitting a shot, the viewing public has fallen asleep and their playing partners have steam coming out of their ears..

These guys have pre-shot routines that go on forever. And if something distracts them, they start the entire process all over again. Okay, so you could argue that they are playing for their living and that they face huge amounts of pressure. But while that is true, surely the longer you take, the more time you have for negative thoughts to enter your head.

But here’s the thing. The average golfer watches his favorite pro and is repeatedly told that it is essential for all players to have a pre-shot routine, so he develops one that includes a bit from this player, a bit from that player and a whole lot more from his own mind. Often, these routines will involve six or seven practice swings, performed at speeds ranging from dead slow to blink and you miss it. And when they finally take a slash at the ball, a) the swing they produce looks entirely different from the practice model, and b) they have no energy left.

And then they get on the green. They haven’t a clue how the plumb-bob method works but they have seen the best putters in the world using it – so they do too. Then they get down on their haunches. They stand up, walk towards the hole and get back down to look at it from the other side. Next, they go through whatever elaborate routine happens to be flavor of the month – and then three putt.

These tend to be the same people who leave their clubs at the front of the green and who insist on marking their card while standing by those clubs – blind to the presence of the guys behind who have been waiting on every single shot with increasingly less patience.

Clubs also have a lot to answer for. Asking visitors to produce handicap certificates used to be part and parcel of the experience for non-members – if you ensure that the player has some competence then surely it follows that they are less likely to take forever to play your course. It’s chicken and egg though – golf clubs want as many visitors and golf societies on their courses as possible because it helps to balance the books and keep annual subscriptions down for members.

Golf clubs also seem to be far less fussy than they once were when it comes to new members.

Now let’s get one thing straight – everybody has to start somewhere, but they should have an idea of the basics before stepping onto the first tee. It would be easy enough for every club to ensure that each new member has a session with the professional – this would take the form of a lesson and discussion about golf etiquette. And why not get the club pro to issue a gentle reminder to everybody who comes into his shop: “Enjoy your round, but be aware of the people behind you. If you are holding them up, just wave them through.”

Many clubs post signs around the course, telling players how long it should have taken them to play a set number of holes. The problem is that this is not policed because marshalls are yet another additional cost.

Of course there is a solution – the European Tour and PGA Tour could start penalising their members for slow play, rather than continually “putting them on the clock”, which does nothing to speed up the game. Here’s a sobering thought – since Tim Finchem became commissioner of the PGA Tour, only two players have been penalized for slow play, Glen Day, back in 1995 and, outrageously, 14-year-old Tianlang Guan at the this year’s Masters.

Penalty shots are the only thing that will work, and if the Harringtons of this world suddenly find two shots being added to their score, it is a racing certainty that Tour and club golfers will soon pick up the pace because it would be easy for golf clubs to penalise players for taking too long to complete a medal round.

And we might, just might, get youngsters into the game, trying to become the next Rory McIlroy – one of the fastest players in the game, as it happens.

How to speed golf up:

  • If you hit your drive into the bushes or thick rough, hit a provisional.
  • If a player is out of the hole, he should pick up his ball.
  • Players should be ready to play as soon as it is their turn.
  • The player tending the flag should always be the one whose ball is nearest the hole.
  • If you have been looking for a ball for five minutes, declare it lost and wave through the game behind.
  • Don’t leave your clubs at the front of the green.
  • Don’t stand on the green and mark you card if people are waiting to play.
  • When two players are in a cart, drive to the first ball and drop off the player with his choice of clubs. The second player should proceed in the cart to his ball. After the first player hits his stroke, he should begin walking toward the cart as the second golfer is playing.
  • Begin lining up your putts as soon as you reach the green. Don’t wait until it’s your turn.
  • Don’t ask your playing partners to help you search for a lost ball – unless you are certain there is time for them to do so.
  • On the tee, pay attention to your partners’ drives so you can direct them to it and avoid any searching.
  • When waiting on the tee for the group in front to clear, let the short hitter in your group go ahead and play. He can’t reach the group ahead anyway.
  • When chipping around the green, take the club you’ll be chipping with and your putter.
  • Try playing ready golf, where order of play is based on who’s ready, not on who’s furthest away.
  • Don’t mark the ball if you have putted up to a few inches – hole out; Walk faster!

What do you think? post your thoughts and feedback on the Golfshake Forum: https://forum.golfshake.com/




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