Golf is on the road to nowhere

Ronan MacNamara
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Bryson DeChambeau is taking the internet by storm once again (@brysondechambeau)

Ronan MacNamara

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Even Bryson DeChambeau knows not to show all fifteen wedge shots over his roof.

Our attention spans are so short that even 90 second clips have to be edited to maintain our interest. So what hope has a five hour plus professional golf broadcast got?

When was the last time you made an effort to watch the DP World Tour or PGA Tour?

The chasm between professional and club golf has never been as wide and the general public have grown disillusioned to the point where the local single stableford has taken priority over the Desert Classic on some bull**** resort course where Patton Kizzire is leading.

I mean, Jesus Christ.

You wouldn’t even blame Bryson if he had made the hole in one over his house on day three but copped that these videos were doing well so purposely decided to push them out until day 24.

He has the golf world talking.

You’d almost forgive him for being a Trumpian.

DeChambeau’s true personality has come out since he started boosting his brand on social media. He’s now a real fans favourite and if you still find him alienating, you can’t deny that he is box office entertainment.

The two-time US Open winner has caught on to how golf fans are consuming golf. The nights of sitting down with a glass of wine for a five hour PGA Tour broadcast are disappearing and golf highlights are now being taken in via Instagram, TikTok and X to name a few.

Golf is a unique sport where it is run by its members rather than business people. In order to fix the men’s professional golf product as a whole, we need to strip away player power and hand it to business people.

Golf has never been as good. If you are a player. For the rest, not so much.

As prize funds have gone up, viewing figures have decreased. Golf is dangerously close to becoming like tennis, if it hasn’t already, where the only tournaments that matter are the four major championships or grand slam events. Fans have grown tired, bored and disinterested in the run of the mill tour event due to its lack of star power.

The PGA Tour in 2024 drew in average viewing figures of 2.2 million for their Sunday telecasts outside of major championships. A 19% decrease on 2023 (2.7 million), with major championship Sundays included that figure was 2.8 million.

Golf fans are not being offered an enjoyable product and player power has a lot to do with it, of which Bryson is culpable himself for having taken a blockbuster amount of cash to join LIV Golf.

The product is so bad. We have diluted PGA Tour fields, and a LIV Golf product that has little or no commercial interest, no TV deal and small crowds while the DP World Tour sits in the middle waiting until September to get some of the big European names back.

Everybody is fed up of looking at players get richer and richer. Broadcasts seem to take pride in stating how many millions Scottie Scheffler has won to add onto his other millions, just as you deliberate whether now is the best time to put on the washing machine so it doesn’t waste too much electricity.

On Tour, players have a massive say in golf course set up.

People are sick to the back teeth of the 320-yard drive, wedge and putt golf that is a regular on the PGA Tour.

Fairways the width of both sides of the M50 combined, rough as short as your back garden and greens that roll like a kitchen table.

It’s all so incredibly boring.

But this is what player power has created. What difference does it make to them if the product isn’t good as long as the prize funds are pouring in?

Slow play on both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour is a massive issue. Women’s sport is booming but the atrocious pace of play on the LPGA Tour is turning people away and will continue to prevent women’s golf from truly exploding into life.

Telecasts are being forced to run overtime because the players are taking too long.

Another issue that has left golf fans disillusioned with the professional game is the distance the golf ball travels.

Courses are in danger of becoming obsolete due to the increased driving distances and the golf ball rollback in 2028 may even be too late to fix the problem.

The USGA want to roll back the ball by just five percent. The difference that would have on Rory McIlroy who would hit the ball 305 instead of 315 would be minimal but naturally, the players are completely against it.

The men’s game has lost the skill of cracking a long iron into a par-5, shot shaping isn’t as important as it used to be. Bomb and gouge has replaced strategic precision.

Not for the first time, Bryson DeChambeau is the most exciting thing in golf as the professional game goes stale in a bygone era.

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One response to “Golf is on the road to nowhere”

  1. Martina MacNamara avatar
    Martina MacNamara

    As a non-golfer I enjoyed this article. It is both enlightening and entertaining as it is informative.
    Well done Rónán!

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