From golf’s humble beginnings some 500 years ago along Scotland’s northeastern coast, the game has had image problems which continue to this very day. Originally, the kings, lords and dukes of the various kingdoms and duchies of Great Britain were opposed to the game of golf because they feared those involved would fail to partake in much-needed archery practice. After all, if England was going to attack Scotland, then the king couldn’t have his men hanging out on the links when they needed to be protecting their local fort.
As time went on, professional armies became the rule of the day and the citizen militias were able to tee it high and let it fly, or perhaps they simply gripped it and ripped it. Regardless, there were new hurdles involved for those who wished to play the game. It wasn’t considered ladylike to play the game and the earliest established clubs were male-only affairs. As time went on, those male clubs promoted even greater exclusivity. The best clubs of the day were not available to people of color. Religious background was another factor as some clubs didn’t allow Jewish members to be a part of their entity even though they oftens couldn’t identify who was and who wasn’t Jewish. The formation of private clubs in the British Isles as well as in America was a good way to keep the working class away from society’s elite. As the Western world entered the 20th century, the game of golf was very much a rich man’s game. The great amateur of the time, Bobby Jones, was from a wealthy Atlanta family and many doors were open to him whereas hard-scrabble professionals such as Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen were prohibited from using locker rooms and from entering the clubhouse.
Over time many of those barriers were broken down and yet some still remained. The PGA of America had a Caucasian-only clause in its by-laws that only changed with legal threats from California’s attorney general in the early 1960s. Still, the tour of that era showed its discriminatory practices by holding invitational tournaments in an effort to keep golfers such as Charlie Sifford and Ted Ray out of their fields. Augusta National, the longtime home of the Masters, was a bastion of racism that would invite the 1968 Los Angeles Open champ, Billy Casper, to its tournament, but wouldn’t invite the 1969 L.A. Open titlist to its tourney. Sifford won in Los Angeles in 1969 and it wouldn’t be until a decade later that Lee Elder broke the color barrier and played in the Masters.
In the second half of the 20th century, the game moved away from the world of rich elites and became more popular with Joe Six Pack. Part of the game’s growing popularity was the great influx of public and municipal courses built during the Roosevelt era to rebuild the economy and get people working during the Depression. The other part of the game’s growing popularity was television and Arnold Palmer. Palmer was the son of a golf professional. He grew up in the steel country of western Pennsylvania. Palmer won in dramatic style and yet was believable to all when he drove the tractor and sold Pennzoil to the masses. Golf was cool, golf was popular and it was affordable to the middle and working classes.
The game received another boost when Tiger Woods burst on the scene at the tail end of the 20th century. He was a man of color, he played a power game that was fun to watch, and he had a killer instinct. He was the Arnold Palmer of the modern era even though there was little to compare his outward personality with that of Arnie’s. More like Hogan than Palmer, he nonetheless drew people to the game, and suddenly non-golfers who had little history with pro golf were turning on their televisions to watch Tiger win another event in dramatic style.
However, the Palmer and Woods factor has taken a back seat as the game once again struggles with its public perception. Golf currently has three strikes going against it. First and foremost, it is too expensive. You need money to play, you need money for equipment, and you need money for items such as shoes, clothing, gloves and the like. Secondly, it is way too difficult a game to immediately master. You have to practice. Many of today’s courses are just too darn hard for the novice golfer. Developers and designers want to build the next Pebble Beach, not the next Black Rock. Finally, the game is very time consuming. Nowadays a five-hour round is the norm, and if you’re truly unlucky, you could be out on the links for upward of six hours. I’m not here to recommend doubles tennis or three-on-three basketball, but it is obvious that golf takes a long time. If only I had invested in sunscreen a long time ago.
Yet there are beacons of light out there trying to make the game more appealing to the general public. A case in point is the PGA Tour’s annual event every February in Phoenix. The Waste Management Phoenix Open is the ultimate party event with crowds of 100,000-plus spectators. The par-3 16thhole is a scene right out of Animal House with loud and boisterous crowds. True the Budweiser factor might just have something to do with all this hilarity, and yet no one has ever mistaken the Phoenix Open with the Masters. I’m of the belief that there is a time and a place for both of them.
Which brings us to this week’s Zurich Classic in New Orleans. A tour event since 1938 with past champions such as Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros and Tom Watson, today’s New Orleans Open is a victim of the schedule. Stuck in the no-man’s land between the Masters and the United States Open, the modern-era professional historically takes this time of the year off to recharge his jets. It’s considered OK to skip New Orleans, the Byron Nelson and the Colonial regardless of their prior importance in the olden days of the men’s professional circuit. The pros don’t need to play each and every week.
Last year the Zurich became a partners event. This year the format has gone from better ball to a mixture of better ball and alternate shot. College teammates play together, Ryder Cup heroes join up, Irish golfing greats team up, and even 50-somethings from Wisconsin enter. This year they’re even going to play theme music for each pairing. I don’t know if we’ll hear “Born on the Bayou” or “Stairway to Heaven” or “California Dreamin’,” but it does seem to be an intriguing change of pace from the typical four-day, 72-hole PGA Tour stroke play event.
True, no one will ever mistake the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana for the National Open at Shinnecock Hills. Then again, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson are all in this week’s field, and that happens to be an upgrade for the fans of the game.
