The Flavors of Golf on Full Display

The calendar says we’re still in the first week of 2024 and if the last few days are any indication of what to expect, we’re in for a wild ride covering a sport that is in search of a new image.

Golf — the game itself — hasn’t been immune to change, either. News of a golf ball rollback and other rule changes shook the sport in late 2023, only to be upstaged (depending on your fandom) by news of Jon Rahm switching tours to join LIV Golf shortly after. Divisiveness reigned supreme throughout the sport, each side looking for “mini wins” for their biases and arguments at every opportunity. “Exhausting” may have been the word most used to describe golf since 2021.

What has 2024 offered to golf fans thus far? Welp…

Rory McIlroy appeared on a soccer podcast — aptly named Stick to Football — and offered new, softer thoughts on LIV Golf, how the PGA TOUR has “survived” over the years, and even his original judgement of players switching tours. Those of us who actually took the time to listen to the interview understand that Rory offered objective, in-depth reasoning on his evolved thought process around the current state of men’s pro golf. For the social media bros who only went off a headline — like Greg Norman — you would have thought Rory made a tearful proclamation of wrongdoing and misjudgment. Others went as far as to suggest a “complete U-turn” by McIlroy, which is lazy at best and misleading at worst.

You can listen to the episode below:

Simultaneously, a blogger was on a personal quest to make a hole-in-one on a golf simulator that resulted in a marathon livestream session culminating in 2,627 shots over 37+ hours. We’ve seen this type of content before, but this one captured the attention of far more people than I would have ever imagined, including the likes of PGA TOUR players, professional athletes from other sports, and mainstream public figures. Since I have the mind of an old codger for such things, I poo-pooed the stunt while being equally amazed at how many people embraced it.

The dichotomy of these two examples is obvious since one has nothing to do with the other, aside from the fact that golf is at their foundation. But we’re golf fans on the internet and we’ve perfected the ability to find relationships where they don’t exist, our social media character limits our only barrier. The content must be produced! Give people what they want!

Are other sports having these types of conversations, too? Are baseball fans debating the legitimacy of home runs being hit on simulators, or the launch conditions of metal bats in college versus pine in the majors? Was professional basketball more competitive before the advent of the three-point shot?

This is where, I believe, golf’s ridiculousness reigns supreme. I mean that as a compliment.

Where else can we debate the merits of content like what we saw this week, aside from other hot-button topics like religion or politics? It feels like we all want to debate something collectively and need an outlet that appears safe on the surface, is completely unique to every individual who partakes, and has been around for over a century. The sheer volume of different golf flavors has never been more apparent than right now.

In a few weeks I’ll be returning to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando to meet with brands and partners of GU and learn about even more flavors of this game. As with previous visits to the Show, there will be an underlying buzz of topics to serve as ice breakers to conversations with industry-minded colleagues we see once a year. However this year already feels different because the game itself feels different. These are not topics we’ve discussed in the past on such a grand scale and with the backdrop of “how are we gonna sell this stuff to golfers?”

Perhaps that’s the point. What worked for us yesterday won’t tomorrow. Golf has remained stagnant to some degree over the years in terms of what is offered to the casual player. Yes, the COVID boom introduced more players to this great game than ever before, but it feels like a healthy dose of disruption has blown in with them. We now think of more names and topics when we hear the word “golf,” which feels like a move in the right direction if we care about sustainability. Tiger could only get us so far, just as Jack and Arnold before him.

Amid the flurry of LIV, golf balls, simulators, artificial intelligence and crowded tee-sheets, the biggest shift in golf will be its very definition. Hogan’s famous quote regarding golf’s biggest battlefield may no longer be between our ears, but rather devoid of any boundaries, let alone within the confines of 18 holes.

The Absurdity of Men's Professional Golf

While this week was milder in comparison to the drama from the previous week, men’s professional golf remains in a state of chaos. Jon Rahm’s defection to LIV Golf was but another turning point in the future of the PGA TOUR and reignited the frustrations of whiny pro golfers everywhere.

When news broke that a cadre of PGA TOUR players (deemed the “mules” by golf media) sent a memo via legal representation to the PGA TOUR Policy Board, the jokes almost wrote themselves. The list of players included the likes of James Hahn, Grayson Murray, Lanto Griffin, and other barely recognizable names who you may have heard of only because of their propensity to complain. These players demanded more transparency in any ongoing negotiations by the TOUR with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to which they felt entitled due to their membership status.

As much as I laugh at those names, they aren’t wrong.

These past fews months have felt like we all snuck into a corporation and managed to eavesdrop on water cooler conversations among dissatisfied employees. What we heard at TOUR player press conferences suddenly conflicted with decisions by that player later on, as was the case with Rahm. Clearly a star in every sense of the word, Rahm was made to look like a disgruntled staffer who accepted a job offer from a competitor just to “stick it to the man.” His pledges of fealty to Jay Monahan’s PGA TOUR up and vanished.

It’s difficult to not sit back and wonder who these players truly are despite the words they say. Is anything real anymore? Can anyone be believed?

The money involved in this whirlwind of activity is perhaps the most absurd. Amounts rumored to be in the high hundreds of millions of dollars are thrown around with ease, forcing fans of the sport to try and wrap our minds around their meaning. “If someone offered you $500 million to leave your job…” suddenly became a frequent talking point by supporters of LIV, knowing full well that none of us will ever be faced with that decision. These numbers are make-believe, figments of imagination and exaggeration regular folks toss around to make a point.

This is also true for the imaginary world in which Rahm now finds himself. Only in fiction could a world exist where his “star power” is worth anywhere close to the rumored $300-$600 million he’s to receive for joining LIV. Rahm is not this transcendent sports icon recognizable to the world. He knows this to be true, of course, which may have made LIV’s offer even more enticing. He took the money and ran before anyone else would catch on to the charade.

Perhaps the only aspect of men’s pro golf that is more absurd than the rest is our reaction to this mess. We have all naturally taken an “us versus them” stance on any new piece of information, whether it be players joining LIV, players demanding more transparency, or who is rumored to be running either TOUR. We all feel more knowledgable than the next person, ready to debate and poke holes in the opinions of others. To be a fan of pro golf right now is to agree to choosing sides and defending your choice no matter the cost.

I have not been shy to express my biases to any of this news, but what does it matter? It’s clear that these players have fans as an afterthought, making choices only for themselves and their families. This has always been the case and fans are just now catching on. This presents another layer of absurdity in that we should have realized this long ago.

One Fan's Perspective on this Week in Golf

I’m not really sure how we got here.

This has been one of the wildest weeks in golf that I can remember, and it has everything to do with the sheer number of golfers affected. News of Jon Rahm, inarguably one of the best golfers on the planet by any measure, signing with LIV Golf was only overshadowed by the golf ball rollback announcement from the game’s governing bodies. While the latter directly affects but one player, the former impacts every golfer. It’s as dramatic a combination of news golf fans have ever seen in seven days.

Change, of course, has not been reserved to only men’s professional golf. It could be argued that 2019 marked the beginning of massive change in every walk of life for reasons completely unrelated to golf. In the years that followed you’ve seen change everywhere you look, including your neighborhood, social media feeds, news broadcasts, family conversations and even in your workplace. Questions previously reserved for water-cooler conversations are now amplified for all to hear, accuracy and legitimacy be damned.

Everyone suddenly had an audience, most of whom were also locked indoors staring at their screens arguing with one another.

During the pandemic everything was up for debate. Questions about every walk of life abounded. What the hell else did we have to do, besides stir up controversy by closely examining mundane aspects of life we previously took for granted? “You know what… why do we do things this way?”

Golf was no different, both professionally and at the recreational level. While conversations about the PGA TOUR’s business dealings and inquiries about how far the golf ball was flying have been around for years, the “cool thing to do” became finally voicing those concerns on a grand scale.

Or, maybe we just had time to finally think about it.

Suddenly, or at least more loudly, we started hearing about unhappy PGA TOUR players. Then we started hearing more. And more. And more. The only show in town was now being questioned by the game’s elites, leaving fans to wonder: what the hell is going on with that joint?

And here we are.

There is nothing wrong with Jon Rahm signing with LIV Golf. He plays golf for a living — despite his insistence he “doesn’t golf for money” — and it’s entirely his right to make as much money as possible. If the argument stops there, we should all agree.

The golf ball, especially at the pro level, is flying farther on average than ever before. Technology has improved, personal fitness has improved, and many courses have been lengthened to account for this change. If we stop the argument there, we should all agree on those facts.

We all know that life doesn’t operate in a vacuum, either.

As such, everything else that creeps in to either conversation leads to my frustration with golf at this moment. Consider the perspective of Rahm. He chose to remain loyal to the PGAT in 2022, literally brushing off LIV talks as rumor, citing legacy and format as reasons for his “pledged fealty.” Then Jay Monahan has a secret meeting, tells no players, enters into a perceived framework agreement to accept money from the same source he told other players to decline, and slaps the likes of Rahm right in the mouth.

Simultaneously, golf’s governing bodies are rolling back a portion of Rahm’s skillset (he is one of the best drivers of the ball in the game), potentially impacting his livelihood. If you’re him, who just saw your Tour’s leadership betray you financially, and are now being told the tools you use to make a living are also changing… well, I can’t fault him.

While the equipment change will still impact players no matter where they play golf, this is all about issues compounding one another. Followers of the game, myself included, are driven to debate in an attempt to make sense of it all. Such is the new routine.

I’ve not been shy to share my opinions on all of the above in the past. It probably aligns with some of yours while conflicting with others. Regardless, we can all agree that this much change at one time leads to an impression of chaos and disorganization. It doesn’t feel like a natural progression that would have happened anyway, but rather drinking from a firehose due to some arbitrary deadline nobody understands.

How we got to this place in the game isn’t as important as where we will end up. I am hopeful the dust will settle and the game will self-correct, offering the mountain of new golfers a reprieve from blustery debate lead by those of us unable to see past our own noses.