Was 2019 a good year for golf?
Fergus Bisset considers a notable year for the sport that witnessed progress and success, growth and decline, prosperity and deficiency...
On January 1, 2019, the most significant reworking of the Rules of Golf for a generation came into operation. The objectives were to simplify, increase fairness and speed up play. There were early grumblings within the professional ranks and, like any significant alteration to an established code, the transition has taken time.
The changes to increase fairness, like no penalty for being struck by a rebounding ball, have been received well at club level. But the flag-in rule hasn’t quite worked as expected, and anecdotal evidence suggests many are yet to figure out what a threeminute search looks like. Overall, though, the rule changes are positive, making golf more accessible and quicker to play.
With regards pace of play, ‘ready golf’ appears to be increasingly in use and is having a positive impact. At top amateur tournaments, competitors are encouraged to play when ready and round times are decreasing. This is filtering down to clubs and will hopefully continue to do so. The more it’s talked about and tried, the more it will become the norm.
In the pro game, the shifting of the USPGA Championship to May condensed the four men’s Majors into a four-month spell. This allowed increased focus on the seasonending series on both the PGA and European Tours, which was good news for the sponsors. However, for the top players and fans to have to wait eight months from the hugely successful Portrush Open until the 2020 Masters for another Major seems too long.
At Augusta this year, Tiger roared back into the public eye with an incredible victory. To win a 15th Major, 11 years after his 14th, was one of the great comeback stories in sporting history. Having Tiger back to winning ways has been fabulous PR for the game. For the first time in a long while, golf returned to the front pages.
But for all the positives, Tiger’s return also raised concerns around just how important a single man is to the success of our sport. Without Tiger, where does golf sit? Unfortunately, the answer is quite a long way down the list of stories on the BBC Sport home page.
And that seems incredible, as Britain excels at golf. At the time of writing, 15 players from GB&I are in the top 100 on the Official World Golf Ranking. Rory Mcilroy won four times in 2019 and is close to returning to World No.1. Golf should be celebrated by the British sporting public, but it isn’t. We clearly have some way to go with regard image.
Although there are concerns around how the WHS will impact British playing culture, to have all amateurs around the globe measured by the same yardstick can only be a boost for the world game.
Golf continues to expand into new regions and events like the Asia Pacific Amateur and Latin America Amateur Championships are at the vanguard of this progress. The 2019 Presidents Cup International team will feature four players who competed in one of those events. Golf’s governing bodies are doing a huge amount to turnover and higher costs. Golf is in danger of heading further towards a sport for the rich in this country when it should be a game for the people.
Overall, 2019 should be viewed as a positive year for golf, albeit with some underlying concerns. The governing bodies are working harder than ever before to move the game forward and, at the highest level, players are enjoying huge financial rewards. With Tiger’s fantastic return to the Major winners’ circle at Augusta, golf enjoyed a spell on the front pages.
“Golf should be celebrated by the British sporting public, but it isn’t”