The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
European Tour on the clock at last – Tee to green
We at T2G have grown rather fond of Keith Pelley, the colourful and innovative chief executive of the European Tour, and his latest initiative is a case in point.
The Austrian Open next year is to become the 2018 Shot Clock Masters, an event which, if successful, might become immediately discontinued. If that sounds strange, it’s because – hopefully – maybe all events will be this way before long.
They trialled a shot clock – giving players a limited amount of time to play at the risk of being penalised a shot – during the inaugural Golf Sixes event this year. As the name suggests, in Austria it’s going to be incorporated into an entire 72 holes.
First players to hit will have 50 seconds, and the guys following 40. Go over time, it’s a one-shot penalty – no second chances, unless you use one of two “time-outs” per round which double the time limit.
The tour think that using the shot clock they can get three-ball rounds down to four hours, two balls to three hours 15 minutes.
Four ball rounds, like the Dunhill? Maybe they might get done in five hours rather than the current six.
Pelley, who as an “outsider” to golf quickly identified the pace of play as a major turn-off for casual fans, is to be commended for at least pushing the boundaries here.
Maybe it’ll have no impact and stay a novelty – I’m sure a number of strident slowies with the PGA Tour ranks will be doing their very best to ensure it does – but actually getting the concept out there at least begins a serious conversation instead of the lip-service being given to the issue right now.
The R&A and USGA tried to nudge someone in action in rather half-hearted fashion, but the major tours just weren’t listening. It’s encouraging to see one administrator actually looking for a solution.
No change is not an option
No sooner had the ink dried on last week’s T2G referring to Scottish Golf’s radical refinancing plan than Blane Dodds, the CEO and the man behind it all, was announcing his resignation.
The strategic plan, as it stands, is pretty much a lame duck. My understanding is a number of areas and senior clubs are attempting to come up with an alternative plan that covers the £400,000 funding gap but doesn’t involve doubling the levy paid by all club members.
That’s to be encouraged, and hopefully we’ll all see some benefits. Because the plan was a response – if an overambitious one – to a potential crisis within Scottish golf that simply is not going to go away.
The crisis is not just losing government funding. Elements of Dodds’ plan – he has decamped back to tennis, where his roots lie – had the laudable aim of improving Scottish golf’s desperate demographic, in which just 11% of club members are under 34 and just 14% are women.
That requires direct action some clubs are prepared to take themselves.
Scotscraig GC in Tayport, for example, unveiled a new membership structure last week that should be a template for clubs throughout the country.
There’s a “Pathway” membership for those looking to take up the game, new categories aimed at retaining the 18-32 age group that seems to be drifting away, and – simplest of all – children and grandchildren of full members can now join the junior section for free.
No doubt there will be some crusty club members who are appalled at the thought of all these extra kids roaming all over the practice ground and the course. Forward thinking clubs like Scotscraig should ignore them and plough on.
Tiger is a one-man golfing Groundhog Day
Here we go again. At prime time for sports news broadcasts in the US last Monday, there appeared on Twitter a short video of Tiger Woods swinging a club. A driver, no less!
The usual frenzy ensues. Tiger “has been cleared for all golfing activities” reads the sonorous accompanying statement. “Tiger’s back!” scream a collection of fanboys.
Hank Haney, his former coach, chips in with his opinion on the swing portrayed in the video, saying it is “a little stiff” but “one he could win with”. I hesitate to contradict a coach as celebrated as Hank but really? Just a little stiff?
It looked like a man very tentatively favouring a serious back injury to me and the absence of any further footage makes one suspect this is more carefully managed hype.
And this time, I’ve noted, there are a fair fewer fanboys, a lot less of a frenzy, and considerably more cynicism. We’ve seen manager Mark Steinberg’s carefully controlled comeback schtick one too many times.
All the “successful” surgeries, the brief glimpses, all those broken promises. It’s golf’s Groundhog Day.
I’d love Tiger to come back, just for the story. But he’ll be a shadow of what he was, even if he makes it past the first tournament without breaking down again. It’s over.
Pelley identified pace of play to be a major turn-off for casual fans and is to be commended for pushing the boundaries