One Golfer Bad Dream

(Bridge Pro Tour Newsletter "Score" - December, 2004)

I could not recall how it started. Did the golf course owners became greedy trying to save money spent on individual bets, so players can spend more money for entry fees?
Or, was there a “virus of socialism” spread on golf courses with the manure of Canadian disguises?

But it did happen “overnight”, once suddenly, it became not cool to play golf with friends for money.

At the beginning everyone seemed to enjoy the new trend. The game became friendlier; players started to play with each other across social and economic boundaries.
Golf outings stopped being just a “corporate America” thing; they had become the most popular format of the golf game, organized by golf course management and open to general public.

Very soon, the time when individual golfers, or even a foursome can stop by the local golf club to play 9 or 18 holes, was a scene from the past. Now players would need to check the list of golf outings offered by the local golf course and join them at the certain time when the game was scheduled to start. Only one foursome would start from the hole #1 and go on according to the golf course design. The other 68 (17x4) players will also start playing at the same time, but go to the different holes, according to their assignments, rotating until they play all 18 holes, after which the best score will determine the winners. To cut down on wasted time spent looking for lost balls, most clubs adopt a “best ball” format, when every player was paired up with a partner, making a next shot at the place were the best ball had landed.

The future of the golf business (from the club owners perspective) could not be better.
The only obstacle between the current situation and an extremely bright future, when the golf course would be open only for organized tournaments 2-3 times a day, was a small group of players, who really wanted to get better at the game (vs. everybody else attitude “lets just play and have fun”) and a club’s Pros, who needed to offer help in training. The demand for golf courses to be open outside of organized tournaments for just practice rounds and long evening hours for training on lighted golf ranges. To cater to the needs of that small group, rather than focus all resources on making more outings/tournaments, seems like a very inefficient way of running the business.

There were a few other problems with a new format of the game.
#1 problem: The enjoyment of the game by a majority of the field must be protected from the players who did take the game too seriously. Those players occasionally would become upset about their mistakes or the bad shots of their partner. Some players would brake or throw away a club or even swear after a poor shot; some would offer unsolicited advice to their partners on how to improve their swing. The rules of “natural selection”-- you do not like the guy, do not play with him -- did not work anymore, since players lost almost all control on who they are going to play with or against. It became apparent that something needed to be done to regulate golfers behavior.
#2 problem was the slow play. Club management could not simply let the fast foursome play through, the new format would not allow for that. Therefore, one slow pair could make the whole tournament last an extra hour.
But if you know exactly where the problem is, you can find a solution. A newly formed North American Golf League (NAGL) went after the root of both problems. A motion was passed that nobody should take the game of golf too seriously. The early campaign slogans said: “This is just a game”, “We are all here to have fun”, or “Are you really that good to be upset about one bad shot?” Later, all of them were replaced with “Zero tolerance” policy toward players who were publicly upset about their bad results.

But what really did change the game of golf was a new match-points scoring system and revolutionary approach to the handicap rating.

Under new match-points system on each hole your pair would score 1 match point for all the other pairs they had beaten on this hole and ½ point for tie. Therefore if your pair did lose on a particular hole to all other pairs, who played that hole, it did not matter anymore by how many strokes. This helped bad players to look better. From the other side it did put “a cap” on exceptionally good results, since if good pair would win a hole it did not matter by how many strokes either.

Under the new rules all players would only be able to improve their handicaps. Poor performances would have no effect to your handicap and rating. This unique approach to rating gave birth to a new phenomena – golf pros started making money by playing with students as a partners, without any risk of dropping their rating due to poor performance. Students on the other hand had an opportunity, with the help of the expert, to improve their handicap in a way they could not dream of. It was just about time for that to happen, since the interest for the old-fashion golf practice and lessons had almost disappeared. The logic was clear. Since one can only improve his rating by playing, why bother with the golf range practice? Let’s go out and play, if we get a bad result we will “write it up“ as a practice.

Most players would start hitting the ball as hard as they can, most of the time with very sad results, but occasionally they would make a birdie or even hole in one. The results could even outscore a Tiger Woods, if he happens to play with his client in this tournament. For most, that moment would worth a thousand tries. After all, this achievement will be counted in calculation of there new, better handicap.
The golf ranges, across a country, were closing one after another. The ones that were attached to the golf courses were converted to place to party and celebrate rating improvement of those who got lucky today.

Did NAGL purposely promote the mediocrity? Not really. They call it “pursuit of happiness for the majority of players”. As an example, when everywhere else in the world golfers started using the metal head drivers, NAGL outlawed them in tournaments, since “they were disturbing playing field by unusual results”. With more and more protections for the playing field (or in other words, for the people who already got into the game) and broken connection between winning and monetary compensation, golf started making appeal only to the generation, which grew up with it.
Once very popular on TV, with it’s own channel, the golf competition on high international level became more and more the “foreign subject” to the average player. The general public no longer understood the concept of shots selection and course management. So, over time the golf coverage on TV was reduced to the highlights of very lucky shots, before all networks dropped it, all together.

But than something happened… One guy try an old game of throwing frisbee… on a golf course and a new trend was born. It did not take as much skills to throw a frisbee, as to hit a golf ball, so almost everyone can “jump in”. Young and old, the simple folks and the movie stars alike start playing the game. There was still was plenty of room for some strategy and, of course, the excitement of playing for real money…

I wake up in a cold sweat. It was a nice Sunday morning, with sunshine and 72°F. I re-dialed the last missed number on phone, my golf partner picked-up. Not fully recovered from my nightmare, I start screaming in phone,” Guys lets go out and play for 5 bucks a hole, like we use too!
“Serge, relax! Your phone was on vibration, or something. I was calling you 3 times in last hour, we got a tee time in 20 minutes, grab your stuff and be there!
Phone had made a disconnected click. I made a deep breath in and out. I was so happy that IT WAS JUST a DREAM, or was it?
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