Golf Is Dead? I Don't Think So

     I am busily writing the second half of yesterday's post on junior golf. I went through my archives and found this post from last year.  Golf goes through cycles in its growth.  With Tiger we saw a huge boom in the number of golfers playing the game and now we are seeing a huge number leaving the game. However, if you look at the statistics we have had a solid growth in the number of golfers playing.  That's a good thing.  Like all booms, there must come a bust and then an evening out.  I feel we are in that evening out period with slow and steady growth, not an unsustainable boom. Golf is a game that is immortal and has been here for centuries.  Its not going away anytime soon. Please enjoy this post from last year.

Golf is not dead.  Those that gave the game a premature funeral and thought that it was finished were badly mistaken. Golf is truly alive and well, as witnessed yesterday by Jordan Speith's win in Atlanta and his winning of the FedEx cup. After all, he is only twenty two years old.
     The game is on fire! There is a distinct youth movement in the game that will infuse the game with a new excitement. As I was watching the tournament yesterday at it's conclusion the commentators on NBC put up an interesting graphic. The top four players in golf today--Jordan Speith, Jason Day, Ricky Fowler and Rory McIlroy--are all under the age of thirty, with Speith being the youngest. That speaks very well for the game and how it is going.
     I remember yesterday one particular moment that occurred late in the tournament.  It didn't involve Jordan Speith.  Ricky Fowler, resplendent in his bright orange Sunday outfit, was playing a pitch shot from of the green. The shot he made was just short of a miracle and he pulled it off. The crowd went wild. What was fun to watch though was the crowd. The camera caught a young fan behind Fowler after Fowler had made the shot. The fan was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old dressed totally in burnt orange and wearing a Ricky Fowler orange Puma hat. After Fowler made the shot, the boy did a dance complete with the obligatory fist pump. It was quite a sight to see and after watching the telecast you couldn't help but notice the number of younger fans around the course accompanied by older adults together enjoying the action. There was an electricity in the air among the fans. This speaks volumes as to the health of the game.
     I remember quite clearly that before Tiger Woods burst onto the scene, critics were also saying that the game was dead and the game would never recover. They kind of got the reading of the tea leaves a bit wrong. With the Tiger Woods years golf saw probably the biggest world wide growth the game had ever seen.  He was young, and brought new life into the game as well as a player the likes of whom the game had never seen for quite some time. There were other stars as well such as  well such as Phil and Payne Stewart. The game was flourishing.
     Unfortunately Tiger has tarnished and has been found to be human.  Phil is getting older and we lost Payne in a horrible accident. We do have Bubba, but how exciting is Billy Haas? Enter Jordan, Jason, Ricky and Rory and the game once again becomes exciting. These guys are good, and there really isn't a dominant player like there was in the Woods era. Jordan Speith is on top, but he has some stiff competition and that is good for golf..
     I apologize to the Christian Rock Band Newsboys for the shameful takeoff on the title of their hit "God Is Not Dead" but Golf is not dead, it is surely alive and well.

Rocco Mediate talking to and signing an autograph for a fan. This is great for golf and the new stars are good at this.