Is golf too difficult? Mr. Mark King opens great debate...

I was watching the Golf World show on Sky Sports 2 last night. (Jees I'm loving having Sky Sports these days!)

They had a great interview with the CEO of TaylorMade, Mark King.

He raised a couple of interesting points about where he thinks golf should be in 20 years time. And he talked about one of my pet subjects: the relationship between the pro game and the rest of the 98% of golf.

He says we (as in the industry) need to focus more attention on the 98% of golf and golfers, make the game suit them.

He even talked about making golf holes shorter not longer, and making the equipment easier to use for amatuers. He even half joked about making the hole bigger.

Any of you golfshakers want to weigh in on this?

Do you agree the game should be made easier (with equipment etc) or is Mark King simply wanting to drive profits by shipping more equipment to more golfers (i.e. if it's easier more people will play). 

Would golf even benefit from more participants? 

SSS imho is awfull. Would a simpler course difficulty rating system help players play courses more suited to them? Say a "red, amber, green" system? Red being the most difficult, green being the courses I usually play. With the system being based on actual difficulty rather than simply length. (SSS might be able to run alongside a new system for the purposes of handicapping)

(Case in point:  The extremely tough, tight and undulating Annesley links at Royal County Down is a megre 4708 has an SSS of 65 (Par 66) and the par 72 6419 yards at Down Royal has an SSS of 71 despite being the flattest course in Northern Ireland. In my opinion Annesley links is an amber course and Down Royal a green)

Without wanting to turn this into another thread about SSS, what do you all think of Mark Kings points, and some of my ones?

Great post Ray, how come no one commented ?

Anyone remember Alliminium Shafts?

They never caught on, why?

The Pro's never used them.

Why?

They broke after only a couple of hundered shots.

Because the Pro's don't use something doesn't mean it is usless to 'Joe Public'.

On the same lines, Golf shouldn't be based on the Pro Tours. If more Golfers were realistic with themselves, they would enjoy the Game more.

Thelyth

Golf is apparantly an easy game made difficult by the player...

I certainly can make an easy game look difficult.....