Dr. Gary Wiren's Golf Instruction Blog

Between baby boomers and junior programs , relief's in sight for the golf industry

The golf business measured by numbers of players, rounds played, and equipment sold could be generously described as flat. Why the slowdown in the game’s growth and where is it headed?

First of all, the good news… “Baby Boomers” and junior golf programs. Just ask the Social Security System if you want to know how many people are turning 62 years of age (the first opportunity to collect benefits) and you will find that it is happening next year, and there are a lot of them and plenty more coming. That means retirement and more leisure time for golf for a huge group. Golf could be their major leisure activity.

Add to that possibility the emerging junior interest and you have cause for optimism. The First Tee, an instructional program aimed at offering youth a chance to learn the game, now has 202 sites and is aiming at offering golf in the public schools with the goal of reaching 3 1/2 million youngsters in 10 years. It is only one example of many programs aimed at the younger population.

That’s the good news. So what’s not to celebrate at the moment? Declining interest, in my view, centers around four challenges.

1. The increase in the cost of playing golf. Building longer courses to combat the increased length that TOUR PLAYERS hit the ball means more money for land, equipment and staff to maintain it, time to play it (meaning fewer starting spaces available for a green fee), and taxes to own it.

2. The time it takes to play is not only a factor for public facilities (higher green fees) but a huge barrier at the private and resort courses as well. In our fast moving world where the demands on everyone in business have increased means there isn’t as much discretionary leisure even for those wishing to play.

3. The competition from other youth activities impacts not only the kids who are potential future players but it also impacts their parents as well. When you have two children who are in youth sports (baseball, softball, soccer, etc.) and they are playing 90 games a year on a traveling team with mom and dad attending the games rather than out playing golf, you have some real competition.

4. The game of golf is not easy, and when you play it poorly you get discouraged from continuing. Too many courses have been built recently that seem to be trying to get in the Top 100 Most Difficult in America. Getting “beat up” every time you play one of them is not fun. My interpretation of a game requires that it have some element of enjoyability, in other words fun.

So hang in there while we get over this bump-in-the-road until we work harder on making the game more enjoyable for people, whether they be the “Boomers,” “the kids,” or both.

Love it or hate it, golf remains the greatest game ever played

Isn’t golf a captivating enigma? It is a puzzle, a seductive siren, a fickle mistress. One has golfing moments when the spirit is riding on Mt. Everest, only to be followed by moments in the depths of Death Valley. There are fleeting spells when it seems so simple, so easy, then periods when you are sure it is next to impossible. Have you noticed some unusual phenomena associated with the game? The hole size seems to change depending upon the importance of the putt. The presence of a pro while one is teeing off can turn fluid muscles into stone. Balls disappear that were thought by all to have come to a safe rest. What worked perfectly on the range last evening at 7:30 p.m. just completely disappeared by the next morning at 7:30 a.m. prior to teeing off. Your opponent ball hits a cart path and bounces over the trap on the green, while yours hits one and caroms out of bounds. (just think Sergio Garcia) Play on all the outgoing holes is into the wind, but when you turn around the wind direction changes and you are into it again. After a good warm up of your putting stroke on the practice green you find that it is either twice as fast or twice as slow as the greens actually are on the course. There are guys on the driving range who seldom gets their score under three digits yet still think they can tell you what’s wrong with your swing.

Golf can become a love/hate relationship that can both flatter your ego or break your heart. But in the last analysis, test and trial though it seems, it nevertheless remains a game. A game that if completely fair and only mildly challenging wouldn’t grab you by the throat and say, “Try me again, maybe you will get it.” That’s what makes it the greatest game ever played. Now go out and have fun, even when the game bites you, because games are meant to be enjoyed.

– Gary Wiren

Explaining golf's fickle nature (and wisdom from past Masters winner Larry Mize)

Why is golf such a fickle mistress? I mean, how in the world can you be so good one day and so bad the next? Where does it go? How does seeming competency at one moment turn into “I don’t have a clue” in the next? Remember the time you were on the practice tee on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. working on your swing, trying to find something that would save you in tomorrow’s tournament? And then it happened…a little move, maybe just adjusting your left wrist at the top of the swing. You took some cup out and flattened it just a bit more. Voila! You’ve got it! The answer. Now the ball is literally flying off the face and zeroing in on your target.

Then comes Saturday. It is twenty minutes before your tee time and you are warming up. You put your “new move” into play, but all you get is a sharp pulled hook. You try it again and then again. You start to panic. The magic from last evening has disappeared. You scramble to figure out how to get out of these left to left shots. An adjustment has to be made. Lets try this… yeah, it seems to work with the seven iron, but how about the driver? NO…nuts…I am pushing them all to the right! Five minutes to go…better hit some putts. But what swing am I going to use now? Sound familiar?

I often get the “Why does this happen?” question from students. Hey, I wonder about it myself. I can’t answer where it goes but I can speculate on why. First is the physiological. We are just not the same physically every day. We may be a little weaker, or stronger, tighter or more flexible, more rested or tired, more healthy or more sick. These physical differences may not seem great but they can be disastrous when applied to a game of golf. The margin of error in striking a perfect shot is very small. A driver swung at 100 mph (distance of about 240 yds.) with the club head traveling on the correct path but a 4 degree open club face will slice into the rough if not in the woods. Four degrees isn’t very much. Yet a stiff back, a sore wrist, a low energy level, a head cold, you name it, can produce it.

I won’t even touch on the psychological, which can be just as damaging. The point is, golf is an exacting activity that is quite hard to predict and impossible to perfect. We all get our share of “come-up-ences” especially when we think we have figured it out. So don’t despair when you experience the great “Friday to Saturday” transformation. Its just golf. In the words of past Masters champion Larry Mize, “If you play the game you are going to experience a certain amount of disappointment and frustration…but misery is a choice.” So when those unexplainable days appear, find some other part of your golf experience to celebrate other than your score. If you do, you can still be a winner.

If they're lengthening courses like St. Andrews, Augusta and Winged Foot, golf's on the wrong track

Do golf’s governing bodies really know where the game appears to be going? Is it stumbling in the same direction that tennis did some twenty-thirty years ago when it fell off the earth in popularity? I hope not, but if it is, the reasons are different. The major culprit that is driving golf from a thriving sport to one that is struggling to hold its own in participation is the building of longer and tougher courses in order to keep up with today’s equipment improvements…the reason…to protect scoring.

I am one of those who also believes that a par 5 should require three shots to reach (that’s why it is a par 5) or, on occasion, two shots if the player hits a great drive and uses a long club for the second, but still at some risk. When a player reaches a 540 yard hole with a drive and a seven iron, something just doesn’t seem right, but rest assured, that is happening.

To protect the scoring challenge new courses are being built longer and old ones renovated to be longer. The examples are disturbing. I am talking lots of courses, including great ones like…The Old Course at St. Andrews, Augusta National, Winged Foot, etc. Is that supposed to be telling the world that these aren’t great courses anymore? Well it certainly seems so…but it really isn’t true. They are still great courses, providing the new equipment isn’t overpowering them. Changing the courses by adding length is the wrong answer. Here is why.

Longer courses mean more land is required to build them, that’s $$$, more equipment and materials to maintain them, more $$$, additional staff to care for them, yes, extra $$$, more time to play them (meaning fewer rounds and the need for a greater fee), that’s also $$$. Because of this the cost of golf has and will continue to escalate. Want to know what the two primary reasons the two primary reasons why people drop out of the game or never start. Time and money…and as the old saying goes, “Time is money.”

So what is the answer? The first one that most people come up with is simply to reduce the distance the ball can go so as stop the need for lengthening. While that may seem easy, it has some red flags largely because of the potential litigation from manufacturers. The average player would also resist at first, but not if the hole lengths were shortened to accommodate the ball’s reduction. (I would personally like to see that happen.) Another is to tighten the fairways particularly in the long hitter’s zone and lengthen the rough for tournaments. This would definitely reduce some of the low handicapper and pro advantage. And a final way is to forget trying to protect scoring. Let them shoot in the fifties, have a good time, play faster and cheaper. But don’t price the game out of business by sticking to lengthening the courses. It is the wrong solution for the greatest game ever played.

Hoof it! Don't let golf cars spoil our game

Golf started out as a walking game…for that matter, it still is in most of the world outside of this country. If you haven’t experienced golf beyond the continental limits of the USA you may not fathom the reality that exists elsewhere…that is, pulling a “trolley,” (a cart to us) or packing your bag and doing it in less than four hours. Doesn’t there seem to be a connection between the fact that we live in the fattest country in the world, where obesity is epidemic, yet choose to eliminate the most important exercise element that is built into the game, walking, and substitute a vehicle for transporting our equipment, and more importantly, ourselves.

It disturbs me to see young people, particularly high school students, driving a golf car when they should be ‘hoofing it’ and lugging their bag. They should do it not only for the exercise, but also, for the camaraderie which is greater by far in a walking foursome than in two riding carts.

I know there are resort courses and others who require that you take a golf car to play there. What they really require however is that you pay for one. If you can get someone to drive (I tell my playing partner that my doctor won’t let me ride) the facility doesn’t care as long as they get the money…which of course is what riding is mostly about. (Exempted are the infirm who couldn’t play otherwise.)

If your companion also wants to walk and get something physically worthwhile from the outing, you simply alternate driving/riding every other hole, which is a good compromise. Walking gives you additional time to enjoy the experience and puts you into a better rhythm pattern for making a good swing. Rather than speeding up to your ball, to get out and hit, you can establish a better tempo by walking. Mark Twain once said, “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” Today he would say, “If you want to spoil a good walk, ride in a golf car.”

You're no Tiger Woods - so set realistic goals for your golf game

As a teacher of golf I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes to become a good player…by good, I mean with a five to six handicap or better. But only a very few golfers seem to get it, that is, to honestly understand the amount of effort it takes to achieve that level. Once they find out, fewer still will do it.

Now I am not trying to discourage anyone from seeking improvement or from setting an ambitious goal, but know that it takes a lot of time, practice, and a better than reasonable amount of athletic skill to get to that low handicap range…only about 2 percent of all golfers do. It helps to have a coach, a good teacher who can assist a player in finding the answers to the six criteria that influence one’s scoring performance. Those are:

1. Swing Mechanics
2. Correct Practice
3. Physical Conditioning
4. Psychological Strength
5. Knowledge of Special Shots, and
6. Equipment.

That is a tall order. Handling all six requires considerable motivation, effort, and a lot of patience.

Here is where I have a problem. Most people’s expectation level far exceeds their preparation and talent. Now it is not bad to be optimistic, on the contrary, but it is also of value to be realistic. Golfers who arrive at the course with huge expectation levels (mostly Type A’s or young bucks) get quickly disappointed with bad shots and angry over the results. When in fact, THEY HAVEN’T EARNED THE RIGHT TO BE ANGRY! They haven’t done enough practice to play golf like they see on television, though they think they should. Their anger can easily ruin the day not only for themselves but for their playing companions. It’s a game! So cool it…"You ain’t no Tiger Woods"…who, by the way, spends countless hours training, practicing, working on mind and body, trying equipment, and employing a teacher. After all that, he still can’t do it all the time as well as he wishes.

So why do you think you should? The answer: because of the male ego. Hey, I have it too, but work to keep it in check.

That leads me to my favorite quote: “If you play golf, you are going to experience a certain amount of disappointment and frustration …but misery is a choice.”

Enjoy your golf.

Have a golf partner who's a yakker? Here's a tip for putting the lid on it

There are few things I don’t like when playing a round of golf. Obviously I am not fond of the “ugly threes"…, those three putts and triple bogeys. But beyond them, even when the score is not great, I truly enjoy simply being on the links…except when I am playing with a ‘yakker.’ You know the guy I’m talking about. The one who insists on giving a detailed description of every shot that didn’t “come off” like he had envisioned.

Usually he tries to find an excuse, like saying for the fourth time, “I just got these clubs re-shafted and I’ve got to get used to them,” or “Did you see that? The wind didn’t push my ball one yard toward the hole,” as it sails into the bunker.

Fortunately for his type we have a nice little game that my other playing partners can introduce him to if he keeps it up. The game is called, “Oh, really!?”

Here’s how it goes: Whenever anyone says something about a shot they just hit that is blatantly obvious, like, “I hit behind it again!” and it is a shot that everyone clearly saw, someone in the group responds with a sarcastic, “Oh, really!?” That costs the ‘yakker’ whatever the determined amount that has been set, let’s say two dollars. (It may depend on how much you actually like the player you are trying to quiet.)

So let’s say he’s not your best buddy and has a chip to the flag from across the green which is sloped back to front. His ball breaks easily ten feet below the hole which causes him to exclaim, “That shot must have broken 10 feet left!” He is immediately hit with an “Oh, really!?” (Does he think we are blind?) That costs ‘yakker’ two bucks for the pot. The total is collected at the end and pays for refreshments. Don’t be surprised if it exceeds the first round of drinks. While your other companions just play golf, chat, tell stories, and have the occasional “dammit,” over a poorly played shot, the target of the game just keeps getting socked with $2 penalties because he can’t resist another “Geez, I left another putt short,” or, “That may be the worst shot I hit all day,” or, “Did you see that, I putted it through the break.” Those comments simply cry for an “Oh, really,” from his companions, and they never fail to come.

It may not be the game for your best friends (if you want to keep them) but it is very effective for halting the non-stop play-by-play, swing-by-swing, analyst providing the commentary on his own swing…

“Oh, really!?”