For The Love Of The Game

Greetings Golfers,

Golf is back in the news.

Jon Rahm might sign with LIV for one trillion dollars. 

And … the USGA wants to roll-back the golf ball so that recreational players won’t hit it as far as Jon Rahm.

I might have both of those stories wrong … but not that wrong. But what is wrong … is the reality behind both stories. That’s what’s wrong.

Rahm assured us over-and-over again that he wouldn’t join LIV.

Roll-back the ball … for everyone? 

Why not roll-back the ball and get rid of non-wood drivers for tournament players?

Can you imagine if Major League Baseball players used metal softball bats? Every park would become obsolete … and the records would become a joke. 

So then the fix would be to make recreational softball players use wooden bats???? How stupid would that be?

Just like MLB and recreational softball are two different games … PGA Tour golf and amateur recreational golf are two distinct games. 

Last week I received an unusually large amount of replies to my blog. It must have really hit a nerve. People are sick of sports just being a cash grab - especially college sports.

College basketball star Caitlin Clark is coming up here to play the Gophers in February - the game is already sold-out. Rumor is that she’s also a really good golfer. She seems like a level-headed Iowa girl … I hope she can keep her heart and soul when she graduates and travels through Oz.

Obviously we all need to make money. Money is not a bad thing - it’s a necessary tool. But doing anything for money is not a good thing. We have words for that behavior.

We need money to keep the golf course operating. We try to be clear about it. Not a million prices and a bunch of promotions.

We have an annual Sale - had it last Saturday. And we run an annual Holiday Sale for passes. That’s it. Clean and simple. Maybe I didn’t promote it enough … I’ve had people ask me this week when we’re having our Sale. Oops. Also … people are asking about the Holiday Passes … we have a link on our website. It ends on Dec. 20.

We love golf. And we want to share our love through DRGC. We also have to pay the bills. But greed doesn’t run this place. Most people get it and realize it can’t be free. And we realize that Jon Rahm wants to be paid. And that golf companies want to run the game of golf.

Yet, Jon Rahm will make a ton of dough during his career. And the golf companies will still be healthy if we separate Elite golf from Recreational golf.

The new tag-line of the PGA of America is “We Love This Game!” I hope that mantra resonates throughout the golf industry. 

Maybe all the other sports will sell-out. I thought golf was better than that.

 

Cheers!

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com