This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Golf was in the news again last week, perhaps in part due to the fact that the Tournament Players Club tournament was under way in Florida near the home of the Professional Golf Tour.

The consensus appears to be this:  Pro golf, as we used to know it, is broken.  And the process for fixing it won’t be easy.

Part of the reason is money.  Well, perhaps most of the reason.

I wish this were not true, so the headline in this blog ASKS whether pro golf is broken; it doesn’t posit the answer.

For pro golf, the grasp for money taints the sport because money appears to be THE driver, not the love of the game.

I add quickly that it is inappropriate to offer a huge generalization.  It is likely that some pro golfers still play “for the love of the game.”

Here is a quick summary of the stories last week.

First, the Wall Street Journal carried a story with this under headline:  The Tournament That Became the Biggest Loser in Golf’s Civil War; The Players Championship has an awkward problem — it’s missing a bunch of the world’s best players.

Here is how the story started:

“Ever since the Players Championship first teed off half a century ago, it has been unofficially regarded as golf’s fifth major. The PGA Tour’s flagship event boasts an iconic course, exorbitant prize money, and the promise of the strongest field in all of golf. 

“Except that last part is no longer quite accurate. 

“Among golf’s showcase events, no tournament has been hit harder by the sport’s split.  Most of the top golfers who defected from the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf are still making their way into the major championships.  But not the Players Championship.”

Still, despite the Wall Street Journal story, Data Golf reported that 41 of the world’s top-50 rated golfers competed in the Players, which, to me at least, does not sound bad.  All nine of the missing players had joined the competing organization, LIV.

Second, Golf Digest carried a story under this headline:  Pro golf is broken. How are we going to put it back together?

Editor Jerry Tarde wrote this:

“The first book I remember my father reading was Situation Golf by Arnold Palmer.  The first golf tournament I remember watching was the 1972 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach won by Jack Nicklaus.  

“I’ve been rooting for pro golf my whole life, so take this as a lover’s lament, not the grieving of a cynic:  Pro golf is broken, and I’m worried about how it can be put back together.”

Beyond golf, Tarde says golf’s brokenness shouldn’t be surprising because it follows a familiar pattern.

“Bret Stephens in The New York Times wrote that ‘brokenness has become the defining feature of much of American life: broken families, broken public schools, broken small towns and inner cities, broken universities, broken health care, broken media, broken churches, broken borders, broken government.’”

Why shouldn’t pro golf be broken, too, Tarde asks.

Tarde adds:

“We thought the PGA Tour was invincible until it wasn’t.  We watched every other industry undergo disruption while pro golf only up-ticked continuously.  Tournament prize money increased year after year despite recessions, wars, scandals, pandemics, and all forms of economic turbulence.

“Ever since World War II, pro golf built its foundation on five principles: (1) The top players like Arnie and Jack always put the game above themselves.  (2) Golfers are accountable to their performance — nothing’s guaranteed.  (3) The pro tours are kept in check and balance by the four independent governing bodies controlling the major championships and acting in the best interests of the game.  (4) Pro golf is underpinned by charity; that’s why hundreds of volunteers show up every week to help run the tournaments.  (5) The game’s leaders — not always, but generally — have used the time-honored Masters strategy of leaving money on the table in exchange for control and sustainability.”

It began to break down, Tarde writes, “when suspect morals and unlimited resources tested the first two principles.  Some top players saw themselves as victims of income disparity and thought they were not only entitled to the growing prize money, but it wasn’t enough.  Defections and betrayal followed.”

Still, according to Golf Digest, golf as most of us play it is not doing badly:

•  Rounds played are up 20 per cent since the start of the pandemic (2019), an all-time record at 531 million.

•  More than 90 per cent of golfers expect to play as much or more in 2024.

•  “Green-grass” participation hit 26.6 million last year — the biggest single-year jump since the 2001.

•  On-course participation growth since Covid shows increases in play by youth (up 40 per cent), people of color (up 27 per cent) and women (up 25 per cent).

•  Sixty per cent of the growth since 2019 has been female participation.

•  Latent demand among non-golfers’ interest in taking up the game has hit a record 22.4 million.

•  Alternative forms of the game like Topgolf are up 130 per cent, driving a record number of total golfers to 45 million, and people with this off-course experience are five to six times more interested in playing on-course golf, portending even better news for the game’s future.

So, does golf need to be fixed?  Well, I think pro golf does.

As for regular golf, no.  The statistics above show it is alive and well.