Friday Fragments

Another day of spring skiing awaits, so without further ado....

Honda Happenings - A good day for one of our faves in tough conditions:

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) -- Sergio Garcia made an eagle, avoided an alligator and wound up in a share of the lead Thursday in the Honda Classic.

Garcia holed out with an 8-iron from 142 yards into the wind on the second hole for an eagle, and he narrowly missed an eagle putt on the 18th hole at PGA National. The Spaniard shot 5-under 65 and shared the lead with Michael Thompson, the 2013 Honda Classic winner, who also birdied the last hole.

They were one shot ahead of Rickie Fowler and William McGirt.

It was much ado about nothing, though that's easy for me to opine after the fact.  And the rumor that Tiger tried to get a wager down on the alligator could not be confirmed  by press time.

Shack's got the video of Sergio, and also the funnier one of a goose that refused to take anything from Chesson Hadley.

Jeff Babineau assures us that Rory is headed in the right direction on his trek to Augusta:

And now McIlroy is healthy once more, and hungry once more, too. It was four years

ago at this very event that McIlroy not only won the tournament, holding off a hard-charging Tiger Woods – who stirred the masses with a Sunday 63 – but he also ascended to another post quite familiar to Woods, the world’s No. 1 ranking. 

“Enjoy the view,” tweeted Luke Donald, himself a former World No. 1. 

McIlroy did enjoy the taste, and now he’s trying to do the things he needs to do to get back atop the podium. Next week at Trump National Doral, just an hour south down Florida's Turnpike, McIlroy, Spieth and Day will tee it up against one another for the first time since the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Maybe, but I'm guessing that item was posted before his ugly 72, that again featured missed short putts.  Phil played better than Rory, but his best shot was this photobombing of a couple of unsuspecting spectators:

I'm guessing they didn't object.....

Awkwardness Ahead - I thought this to be a done deal, but it turns out that social progress does not adhere to schedules:

An admission by Martin Slumbers, the R&A’s chief executive, that it is “highly unlikely” Royal Troon will be a mixed gender club in time for its staging of the 145th Open Championship in July demands explanation, and the sooner the better. 

It was the Ayrshire club itself, after all, that used the word “shortly” in the press release issued on 27 January last year to announce it was to embark on a “comprehensive review” of membership policy and there was no disguising, surely, what that meant.

So, what's the hang-up?

In short, there is an element of the membership that want it to remain men-only, despite the lead having been taken by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews when it voted in favour of admitting women, and Royal St George’s subsequently following suit. 

Slumbers was being diplomatic when he said that Royal Troon deserved “respect and the freedom to consult with their members as they wish”. Privately, though, he’d surely rather be overseeing his first Open Championship since taking up the reins from Peter Dawson without this thorny issue hanging over the event.

An element?  C'mon guys, get with the program.  Allow in two well-connected yet elderly ladies, you know the kind that understand they're not to show up terribly often, and the world will move on.

Exit question:  The last Open held at Troon was in 2004.... anyone remember the winner?  Answer below if I, you know, remember....

Millennial Mishegoss - But I repeat myself.... If you think our national leadership is somewhat lacking, our game seems ti be in similarly-disappointing hands.  You will likely not have heard of Steve Mona, but he's the CEO of the World Golf Foundation, and oversees the First Tee Program.

He recently sat for an extended state of the game interview, and there's more nonsense than one blogger can handle....  Shack does quite the righteous job of Fisking his millennial madness here, and I'll pile on in a sec.  But first comes a short discussion of using alternative golf experiences to drive higher participation rates, things like TopGolf, computer and simulator golf and foot golf.  I know, it takes a committee to confirm that the guy on the golf simulator is already a golfer....  Never saw that coming.

But then there was this:

Steve Mona (r) with the PGA's pete Bevaqua.

We did see a connection with Top Golf and FootGolf. So we are going to be working with both of those entities to see if we can make the connection even tighter, if you will, so that we can bring people who are patronizing Top Golf facilities, or like facilities because there will be other versions of it under different brand names – it’s the American Way, right? – and formalize a process to go from Top Golf to Get Golf Ready, or whatever the program might be. The same effort will be made with FootGolf. It doesn’t have the same conversion percentage and not as broad in terms of participation as Top Golf, but the advantage is you are already at a golf facility. Long story short, that’s where we are going to put our emphasis in 2016.

Geez, Steve, any clue as to why that conversion rate might be lower?  How about because it's not, you know, GOLF!  Just spitballin' here....  But it's the millennial stuff where he makes me laugh, but also fear for the future of our game.

So, let's dive in:

GW: How is the industry trying to engage a younger audience? 

SM: The Millennial committee started meeting this year – I joined the first conference call, gave them the broad parameters and that was the end of me. It’s made up of all Millennials, as it should be. It’s a blend of people from inside and outside the industry, including people from some of the big tech firms. Long story short, the final report and recommendations aren’t officially made yet, but I can tell you the direction we’re heading.

 Wow, a committee....wish I'd a thought of that.  Shack is also all over the imagery:

Picture a group of twentysomethings--some ink, some beards, some flat-brims (backwards), sometimes looking up from their phones--sitting on the conference call with World Golf Foundation CEO Steve Mona to discuss their findings.

I'm guessing more than "some" ink and I don't see the bit about them looking up from their phones.  Ever....  but let's keep moving:

There are three separate strategies. One is ensuring that golf facilities are “Millennial ready” because if we start driving Millennials to golf facilities and they show up, and it’s not the experience we promised that defeats the purpose. 

GW: What does “Millennial-ready” mean? 

SM: It could mean different things to different facilities but what it means is that it is an environment that Millennials feel comfortable in. Addressing things like dress code and technology on the golf course.

Will we be certifying facilities as Millennial-Ready?  But is this all, because at most public golf courses you basically only need to be dressed and no one gives a hoot about your phone?

Things like music on the golf course and alcohol on the golf course.

That sound you hear is the palm of my hand meeting my forehead, because I know millennials invented everything, but reports of alcohol being sold on golf courses predate Da Anderson. 

But this is a man with big plans:

The other is go where the Millennials are.

Huh?  How are you going to get into their parent's basement?

There are places like Coachella (Music Festival), Lollapalooza, South by Southwest, that we don’t have a presence.

Ummmm...you need a presence at music festivals to do what?  There's more drivel to come:

Even if we can just go there and see what it’s about and figure out how we might be able to connect better, we’re going to do that. We tend to get very insular as an industry and talk to ourselves and we don’t get out as much as we should, in this case where Millennials gather and, learn from that.

The third piece is the whole communications message/marketing piece, and that is the least defined right now. Those are the three specific tasks being taken. In all four cases, I want to make the point that these are not one-and-dones.

As The Donald would say, it's gonna be YUUUUUUUUGE.  

Don't you get the sense that he's a bit embarrassed by his paymasters?  This is all so much nonsense that it's hard to believe that anyone believes it....  but isn't it all based on a sense that this generation couldn't possibly be interested in our stupid game?

For centuries each successive generation has found it's way to golf, admittedly in niche-like numbers.  So, it has to be asked, what's changed?  Now one obvious issue is the economics of it all.  An expensive hobby in a time of economic stagnation can be an obvious problem.  As the twenty-somethings struggle to start careers (hence the incredibly funny basement bon mot above), golf will be a luxury outside their grasp.

But we need to focus on mechanisms to get golf clubs into the hands of as many folks as possible, and ease their learning curve where possible.  That's why The First tee makes sense, especially as it grabs kids at a young age.  I'm skeptical of TopGolf actually creating golfers, but it at least involves an actual golf experience, as distinct from Foot Golf.  As always, struggling golf course operators will innovate to attract business, and they won't be taking dictation from Steve's Millennial Committee, and thank god for that.