A Few Thoughts About Golf For 2009 & Beyond

Not only is this a new season for working on handicaps, but we are now faced with a new economy where a great deal will depend on the quality of our Canadian dollar.

The arrival of snow wiped out Victoria's traditional winter golf at courses on Vancouver Island and forced the closure of snow covered driving ranges throughout southwestern British Columbia, leaving many ardent duffers pondering over the state of the game and where it's going.

Five familiar names from the ranks of professional golf--- Raymond Floyd, Bernhard Langer, Larry Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Fuzzy Zoeller, players who have combined to win 29 majors on the regular PGA TOUR---sat down with Josh Robins of Florida's Orlando Sentinel recently to share their views on the state of golf in North America; where it is right now and where is it going in the years ahead.

One theme emerged again and again. They all acknowledge that upgrades in equipment have made a dramatic impact -- and not necessarily for the better. Most of them also think the worldwide economic downturn will affect golf significantly.

These are their answers:

In what area or areas has the game of golf seen its biggest positive improvement or improvements over the last 25 years?

Raymond Floyd: Technology. Equipment and technology . . . It's unfortunate that the very top percentile, which is so minuscule, has really benefited. The masses have also benefited, but not to the (same) extent, because they've developed the ball and the club for the high swing speed. So that makes the ball go so much farther. However, the lighter club, the perimeter weighting, has benefited the masses as well. So, where do you draw the parallel? It's benefited everybody, but it's almost making old golf courses obsolete because of what happens exponentially with head speed, the distance the ball goes . . . I'm 66 years old, and I hit the ball farther than I did when I was probably 55.

And agronomy. Greens weren't that good when I first started on the PGA Tour. That's how the game's evolved.

Bernhard Langer: There's been improvement everywhere, especially with the equipment. Equipment has come a long way from the golf ball to the shaft to the heads to hybrid clubs. We didn't have all that stuff 25 years ago. It really helps the amateurs to play the game at a better level; it's easier with the modern equipment.

I think golf has grown dramatically worldwide. Maybe not so much in this country because it was always popular here. It's grown here, too, but around the globe it has grown tremendously. And we see now Koreans that dominate ladies golf . . .

Also, European golf has come a long way. The Ryder Cup? We used to lose it on a regular basis, and ever since about 1985 or so, we've been actually more successful than the Americans. So, it just shows that golf has grown all over the place.

Jack Nicklaus: Well, it's a matter of opinion whether (the biggest change) has (been a positive improvement) or not . . . The equipment's changed the most. The game has changed the most. The game has become a game of power rather than a game of precision. Not that there's not precision in power, but the game is played where you really have a very difficult time playing it unless you can hit it a very long way today. That's basically the difference, but it's been allowed to happen because of equipment . . .

You [ask] if that's a positive. For some people it may be a positive. I think that [Bobby] Jones would have thought that steel shafts were not a positive. Each generation looks at it as what their game was, and the game that I played is not the game they play today. . . .

But the game seems to be quite popular today. I think the fan base is increased. The quality of the golf courses that they play tournaments on is certainly far better, but that's through maintenance issues. When we played, we wouldn't know from year to year when we got there whether we were going to have grass on the greens or whether they were 100 per cent Poa annua [grass] or have holes in 'em or whether they had been aerified the week before. We didn't have much control over that. We played a lot of golf courses where they aerified the week before the tournament . . . You wouldn't believe it.

Fuzzy Zoeller: I'll give you one: Golf courses. The conditions of the golf courses. I think that's the largest improvement I've seen over the years, without getting into the equipment part of it. Superintendents have done marvelous jobs getting these golf courses in shape to play tournament golf and for everyday golfers.

What area or areas of the game would you most like to see improvement?

Raymond Floyd: I would bring the ball back down. I would make a ball for the masses that might go farther for the masses and bring down the ball for the PGA Tour, for the top levels.

Larry Nelson: It's hard to say anything without it sounding like sour grapes or anything like that. I think the game was more of a community-type thing early on. It's an individual sport, but there's relationships and camaraderie, I guess, that you just don't see in today's professional Tour players. They do have friendships, of course; everybody does have friendships.

But we used to have to travel together. The kids grew up together. The wives hung out together, and it really had to do with the non-affluence of that era as opposed to what it is now. Now, everybody flies separately, everybody travels separately and you spend time separately. So, I think that's the major difference.

I also think that we always respected the people that came before us. I'm not saying that there's some [now] that do. I'm just saying that, across the board, it's not quite as prevalent as it used to be.

Jack Nicklaus: You've probably heard my soapbox enough on that, so you don't need to get me on the golf ball. The only way I can design a golf course to keep all the levels of good players in from the back tees is to take the driver out of their hands three, four or five times. If you don't do that [as a designer], then you have to go to 7,600 or 7,700 yards to make it compete against the best players. But if you take the driver out of their hands, you can come down to 7,300 or 7,400 yards, which is still long, but then you can get an average-length, good player because their different skills will mesh, where they're forced to play some accuracy and forced to play some precision . . .

Fuzzy Zoeller: I'd like to see the USGA step in and calm some things down, or some of these golf courses that have been over the years are just going to be obsolete. Personally as a player, I don't think they're doing their job. That's just the way I feel about it . . . [The technology and the equipment] has gotten out of hand. It seems like the manufacturers are light years ahead of the USGA. I think they need to stop it and put a cap on it somewhere. It's like a runaway dog right now.

What effect do you think this economic downturn will have on golf?

Larry Nelson: I think you're going to see things affected. It's always down the road. With all three tours (the PGA Tour, the Champions Tour and the Nationwide Tour), because the contracts are done well in advance, you probably won't see it until two or three years down the road for the men. So, I think right now, all three tours are pretty healthy. I think it's probably going to be that way probably next year, but I think what you're going to see are the ramifications two or three years down the road.

Jack Nicklaus: It's going to hurt every sport . . . I think you're going to find sanity come back. The golf tour will hurt. Obviously, it'll still exist, but it will hurt, just like every other sport will hurt.

Fuzzy Zoeller: I think you probably won't see it this year or next year. But I think when they start renegotiating then I think we'll see a change . . .

I think it'll happen to all of us [where individual players lose sponsors]. Not only the Champions Tour, but the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour. It just has to happen. And we understand. That's just the way it is. What can you do? It's just the nature of the beast.

How much longer can the PGA Tour continue to thrive if there are not clear rivals to Tiger Woods and if someone doesn't step up to challenge him?

Fuzzy Zoeller: They'll step up. Jack Nicklaus was the same way. He came out and he was very dominant. After a while, people got tired of Jack Nicklaus winning every week. There's no difference. We've got Tiger out there right now. They're starting to get tired of him winning all the tournaments.

It's one of those games where the best man wins. The player who shoots the lowest wins. Somebody will step up. There will be another Nicklaus. There will be another Tiger Woods. It might be five years, six years or 10 years down the road. But it'll happen.

Do you think it will take Tiger some time to get back to his best once he returns from his rehabilitation from knee surgery?

Jack Nicklaus: Your guess is as good as mine. Tiger is a very strong-willed, hard-working kid that likes to win. I have no clue whatsoever what his physical condition is or how he's doing. Zero . . .

I hope he comes back. He hasn't broken my records yet, but he certainly, if he's healthy, should. And I certainly wouldn't want him not to be able to come back and not break my records because he wasn't healthy. Then you've got asterisks beside everything for everybody all their lives. If he comes back and breaks them, that's fine. If he comes back and he doesn't break them, then that's fine, too . . . I would say that if he's healthy, the odds are pretty good. He's just that much better than everybody else.