The Week That Was, january 11, 2015

     Notice to everyone who makes a living in the U.S. golf business: Despite what you’ve seen, heard, and felt, rumors of the industry’s impending demise have been grossly over-exaggerated. “The fact of the matter is that golf is alive, well, and booming worldwide,” Arnold Palmer writes in an opinion piece published by the Golf Channel, an entity he co-founded. Obviously, the operative word in that sentence is worldwide. To make his case for golf’s health, Palmer notably cites the talents of a golf star from Northern Ireland, “the likely growth of golf in Asia,” and “the global boost that the game is likely to enjoy as a result of golf’s return to the Olympic Games in 2016.” He unfortunately fails to note that the number of rounds played in the United States has been falling for a decade or more and that the number of U.S. golfers has dropped from roughly 30 million in 2005 to about 23 million today. For reasons unknown, Palmer has made recreational golf in our nation an afterthought, which is an odd place to put the engine that drives virtually the entire world of golf.

     Pete Bevacqua, the CEO of the PGA of America, has been appointed as the chairman of the World Golf Foundation, our industry’s ultimate insiders’ group. Since its creation, the WGF has been the major policy-making force in golf, as its board consists of all the big guns: the Royal & Ancient, the United States Golf Association, the PGA Tour, the PGA of America, the European Tour, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, and Augusta National Golf Club. Collectively, these organizations make the rules and set the table for both amateur and professional golf in every nation on the planet. Though it sometimes flies under the radar, the WGF is the power that represents power. Bevacqua succeeds Tim Finchem, who established the WGF in 1994.

     A Greek shipping tycoon has won the rights to build a glitzy mixed-use community, including a golf course, on an abandoned international airport in suburban Athens. Spiro Latsis’ to-be-named community has been described as both “the most ambitious architectural project ever designed in the city” and as “an opportunity to make a quick buck during a crushing economic crisis.” It’ll take shape on 1,482 acres along the waterfront in Elliniko and include houses, schools, two hotels, meeting space, a shopping center, a business park, a marina, a 495-acre central park, a nearly mile-long beach, an aquarium, and various sports attractions, including the golf course. Latsis would also like to build a casino, though local authorities haven’t committed to the idea. Given that the community’s master plan hasn’t yet been fully approved, it’s possible that ground won’t be broken until 2016.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the July 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     After lying low for a couple of months, Ted Bishop has once again taken center stage. In an interview with Golf magazine, the 38th president of the PGA of America discusses his embarrassing dismissal (“I think I got a raw deal”), speculates about dastardly forces that had allied against him (“I might have been naïve about some of what was going on around me”), ponders the U.S. failure in last year’s Ryder Cup (“I think the Europeans are in a cycle right now where they simply have better players”), and pines for the good old days (“When I was growing up in the ’60s, in Indiana . . . people talked about throwing like a girl, running like a girl, and these weren’t meant to be derogatory comments toward women”). Bishop says that he’s ready to move on. Will the golf media please let him?

     Gifts of Gab: It’s taken a while, but opinion-makers are beginning to admit that Top Golf, the popular, fast-growing golf-gaming chain, may be able to offer mainstream golf venues some valuable lessons about drawing crowds. “Golf will survive, as it always does, but there is no doubt it is changed, or should change, to meet more with the lifestyle of young families who prefer fun, friendly golf experiences over excessively challenging and expensive ones,” Michael Hurdzan said in a freshly posted interview at GolfClubAtlas.com. “Just look at how Top Golf is sweeping the nation. Study its appeal and apply some variant of that interpretation to golf courses seems a viable way to reverse this decline in participation.”

     Pseudo-golf sports are beginning to come out of the woodwork. The latest, Smash Golf, is played with a tennis racket and a small rubber ball. Would you believe me if I said the game was invented by Ivan Lendl?