Not my choice to support or not support, it’s up to the players. Don’t think the Euro Tour or Asian Tour have less talent either. A lot of those guys just choose to make a really good living closer to home. For years we got our clocks cleaned by euro players. I really do understand making a buck too. You’re talking appearance fees, paid for expenses, and money you can take care of your family with for generations. The top players here already have that. Multiple millions. So for the top 50 or so it’s really not a choice. I was asked one time what’s the difference between $4M and $2M. I was told not much cuz it’s awfully hard to spend either amount in a year and that’s not endorsing anything. It’s a good option for the Sean OHairs or Pat Perezs of the world. Do you really think those names are going to impact the leader boards over a long haul
So, this is now ‘Dead in the Water’ with the biggest loser appearing to by Mickelson. What future does he have now?
Some big name professional golfers , past or present, made fortunes off the Tour but also not careful of making choices in life. Jack Nicklaus made an effort to learn the other game ( how to run a business) , others kept thinking the money tree will continue to bear fruits.
Me neither, I don’t know the difference between a 2 million or 4 million since my position never offered a chance to consider that. But the people I dealt with in business will tell you the difference is exactly 2 million reasons.
Those that have it just play with higher numbers, and many will find trouble getting satisfaction from life.
At the low end, I’m easily satisfied with family gathering around a good meal and talk about what’s new in their life. Where others have no thrills left and have to seek satisfaction by spending outrageous amount of money to get into orbit for a short time.
I would not touch any of that even if offered to me for free.
Like I stated, I could not and don’t want to criticize of what others do in their life, but I would give my two cents of mind when people are bringing action to harm my world.
I could understand someone who dunk most of his fortune into several failed business ventures, and now injured and could not sustain the level of living he’s gotten used to; thus trying to stir up the pot for self profit.
The ignoring of the possibility of harming other has never crossed their mind. Business world is cruel and realistic; but, it is not a shark tank.
If that person has not learned why he failed in so many ventures, just look back at what Arnie and Jack did.
In fact, if this new Tour got off the ground, I’d bet within 5 years, it will lose all the financial backing other than their own oil well.
Another prominent professional golfer took the consequences.
His statement is bias; like most the money grabber. When he said the top players done things to promote the game of golf and the Tour did nothing for them ? Where does he think he got his hundreds of millions from ?
When a human got over their heads from amassing wealth, they’d thought they are head and shoulders above the next person and God Like. Take away the digit from his bank roll and he is no different than the next player.
Although he would not care of the lost from many sponsors; I’m sure this will give him something to think about since all rich people love their money more than the paycheck to paycheck guys.
They had forgotten who put them on the pedestal !
If you go back to my original posts. I believe I read these tea leaves and spelled this out and it came to bear fruit. Phil trying to be a maverick ended up putting his size 14s in his mouth. Now, all that guaranteed income he HAD went on temporary hiatus while he’s scrambling saying he was taken out of context. The Sanbox Tour will be able to get some of the top players in the world, just will not get the big names that would be required to launch a successful enterprise. It’s like going to a Tom Petty cover band. It’s ok, but without Tom and Mike Campbell, just ok. PGA players know where their bread is buttered and Phil also found out who supplies that butter.
I didn’t completely disagree with Phil’s opinion of the Tour. They can be dictatorial and greedy IMO. I have read they don’t donate as much to charity percentage-wise as other sports and players and employees may not get the % they should either. I don’t know any of this for certain, but I do know that when a rich person starts whining about not getting as much money as they believe they deserve, I just want to slap them hard.
Yes, without the support of at least half of the top 20 ranked professionals in the world, the added Tour will be doomed for failure.
But who knows, there were lots of cases which should have gone belly up a hundred times over but survived.
Amazon is on top of the example.
As we experience in life, the young lion will tempt to take over the leadership and often times not well prepared and got licked.
Here is the recent whining, poor baby.
Greg Norman is a worm. I used to have a great respect for the person he used to be. Greg Norman is not in this for the Good of the Game… Greg Norman is in it for Greg Norman. The majority of the Tour is probably tempted by the cash, but don’t BS yourself this has nothing to do with the game. I’ll leave it right there
I have a lot of respect for Greg as a golfer; but, not as much for him as a human being.
He paid the dues as a tournament player and it was exciting to watch him in the hunt when he had his game on. However, he did not evolve as a human being after he made it to the top. It seemed, he stopped or could not improve his person along with his financial situation.
You are spot on, he still acts like a hungry shark when he has more to learn and more to share.
A man needs to know his limitations. Ben Hogan was asked at one time as why he never express himself much in the public ( he was a different person among close friends ); he said, keep your mouth shut if you don’t have much to say, and they might not know how little you know about the subject ( or something similar to this ).
The game of golf imitates life; where with the game, one could recover from the bad shots much more easier than a real life situations. The imitation is not equal to real life. Some will never learn, no matter of their other achievements in life or their level of education.
Kind of like, one could work hard at the game, but the ceiling will be lower, if not born with a package of the physical and mental ability.
One has be able to take a punch if wish to start a fight !
If we peel back the layers of onion, Rory was echoing the position from Greg Norman’s investment group. I withhold it’s name for not wanting to mention it.
Would not be surprised if some members of the investment group representing the interests from the sandbox region. Which is desperately seeking to expand into other industry besides crude oil in the last few decades.
It’s war, and they don’t care how many bodies they’ll have step over, what method they’ll have to use to get what they want.
I’m not sure big payoffs are necessarily good for the sport: it pushes all prices higher, from equipment to lessons to greens fees, especially at courses that are tourney venues. Did y’all know Sawgrass is now charging +$800 per round??? ($840 as of March this year at best time & venue). Claims by anti golfers that golf is elitist seems spot-on when prices and earnings are rapidly climbing to those levels.
Certainly we have inflation. I doubt tourney purses affect it at all however.
As to the Sawgrass observation, a couple of things. It’s supply and demand. Access to a limited resource can be rationed by a variety of methods. Bethpage has its notorious “sleep in the parking lot for a tee time” group. Cypress Point simply doesn’t allow the vast majority of people to be members. And Sawgrass is choosing to use price to limit the number of buyers.
As there are a myriad of golf choices in the US that aren’t Sawgrass, I don’t see how a few (considering the total number) courses with extremely restrictive policies, shows that the sport as a whole is elitist.
It’s certainly not an inexpensive sport though. Especially as I watch the US lose in the World Cup, and have seen kids playing soccer with all sorts of “balls”. Though in theory, you can go to e.g., Goodwill, buy an old set for 20 bucks or so, and scrape it around a local park.
Maybe how some of us started, but likely doesn’t bear resemblance to how much we enthusiasts spend on the game today. Oh well.
The main cost in this game is not the set of golf clubs one purchased. May that be a 3,000-8,000 custom fitted bag or a $50 set bought from a thrift store. The expense comes in the form of a stream of green fees, and related expenses into the future.
One of the guy trying to get his son to start the game and complained about the cost of a fitted set of golf clubs. I told him, the golf clubs will be a one time expenditure which should last many years but every time the family get onto the golf course will be quite the green fees and other related expenses, Even for the average Joe, the golf budget could be from a couple of thousands to over 5 digit annual expenditure.
If the TPC Saw Grass is trying to use the hiked up green fee to limit the usage of the golf course, they will be successful. Looking at the Pebble Beach and the attached Spanish Bay and the Spy Glass Hill, the green fees certainly limited the rounds of play. A trip there will be over quite a few thousands including lodging.
The only TPC golf complex near me was sold a few years ago, now under new management as a semi private golf club. The green fees was out of reach for the average Joe.
I’m not like my father who was a country club golfer. I’m a daily fee golfer and I can choose to spend as much or as little as I wish. Play a different golf course every week if that makes sense.
As I see the cost of playing this game goes up faster in the last decades, throw the slogan of “growing this game” out of the windows.
When the general public can no longer afford or justify the cost of this game, they will seek other activities instead.
Golf does not have to be expensive. I’m a volunteer coach at the First Tee of Greater Richmond. We have three facilities in the area, each with some kind of course (ranging from pitch ‘n’ putt to regulation) and good practice facilities. Kids in our programs play the courses and use the practice facilities for free when they’re in our programs. The courses are all pretty reasonably priced for adults, especially compared to greens fees at other daily-fee courses in the area. Our participants are also signed up for Youth On Course, so they can play for $5 at courses across the country.
Golf can be as expensive or as inexpensive as you want to make it. People will always look at places like Sawgrass or Pebble Beach and claim that golf is just for rich people. They’ll look at Augusta National, Cypress Point, or the exclusive country club in town and claim that golf is elitist. These folks don’t want to let facts get in the way of their narrative. I don’t know that we’ll ever change Malcolm Gladwell’s mind about golf, and frankly I don’t know if it’s worth the time and effort to try. But if we can get more people who are merely indifferent toward golf out there and playing, then we don’t need to worry as much about people with axes to grind.
There is no inexpensive golf, no longer after the 80s.
Not for anyone over the age of 17.
The majority of the retired folks could not take up the traditional sports as part of the retirement. The cost of getting involved beyond the difficulty of first have to learn how to advance the golf ball had turned most of the new retirees away to other activities.
I have a chance to interface with senior golfers on and off the golf courses and the feeling I received is that they will not be after this game as we did in the earlier decades.
The game is only open to those either have the financial ability or someone who will dedicate most of their resources in pursuing golf.
Wow Pebble is Cheaper! I played Sawgrass in 1988 for gratis! I actually played alot of courses at no charge as a guest of the member or in a tournament, so it was just the entry fee. I’ve paid for 2 “big time” courses in my life Spyglass…we couldn’t play Pebble…That was $275++ at the time and Bethpage Black which was because I was a NYS resident at the time was like $35. Pine Valley, Merion, Aronomink, Firestone South, Olympic, Doral, Sawgrass, Oak Hill, Atlantic City, White Manor, Cog Hill, Inverarry and Inverness…I was fortunate to not have to bring my checkbook! And the prices I’m sure are going to continue to rise!
You’re right. I just looked up Pebble. Greens fee are ‘only’ $595 if a guest. (Which you kinda’ sorta’ need to be, for reasons discussed earlier) Such a bargain!
The rooms are where you get hosed. “Garden” rooms at the Inn start at 900/night, and they weren’t great when I worked there. At that price, just pay another few hundred and get a better view.
All that said, Pebble IMHO is worth doing. Once. The others aren’t, though I’d likely change my mind now vs when I played them.
What, in your mind, is the maximum affordable greens fee? Can’t really have this discussion if I don’t know what you mean by “affordable.”
Affordability from the point of view with the retirees. Most of them largely depending on fixed income after retirement. Quite a few had their own businesses sold and got our before the pandemics and a few whom had planned deep savings from their productive years.
However, for the most of the retirees. maxing out on the fixed retirement is not going to be anywhere close to being comfortable.
Some tried to pick up the game of golf and found out they ran out of money and the patience.
Affordable, means discretionary amount. Something one could put in the expenditure without blinking an eye or think twice about it.
The example I had used in the past, which I first heard from one of the guys, was comparing to a round of golf with golf cart and a couple of brew at the 19th. Our local muni course ( by no means an up-scaled golf facility, in fact, I seldom golf there when I was younger), Golf with a seat on the riding cart will be over $50/weekdays and $80/weekends with the senior rate. Not many I know will fork over a couple of hindered each week just for golf without blinking. This comparing to a pound of US choice NY steak for under $10 at warehouse member price.
When someone comparing using their resources between grocery ( which is essential ) to golf ( which is non-essential to life). We will guess the cost of participating in this game has gone out of range for the average Joe.
The benefit of walking a golf course, getting out in the nature and exercise is good for you. But if anyone need to think of what they could have done with the green fees and tax(s) they just paid with what they could have had for dinner for several days… it is not affordable.
There are people doing well in different sectors of the society; but the majority of the “golfers” could no longer afford to get out on the golf courses 2-3 times per week.
When we need to stretch out wallet to get the weekly golf in, it is not being affordable.
when I was younger, most the golfers could get on the golf course several times a week without even having a second thought.