Welcome, Jennifer Mario! And hail the duffers

TravelGolf.com is happy to have a new blogger on board, Jennifer Mario. In her first post here, she touched on something many golf writers (and all gear manufacturers, course designers and owners) forget: “… you don’t have to have a single-digit handicap to enjoy the game … you don’t have to be good to enjoy golf.”

I attended the innagural PGA Business of Golf Summit in 2003 and a number of industry leaders agreed with the research showing that, well, most golfers suck. In other words, the vast majority of golf consumers use those cutting-edge, mega-distance drivers to fire their brand new “2 MILES OFF THE TEE OR YOUR MONEY BACK!!!!tm” golf balls ever deeper into the woods.

Want to know what gets off most hackers!? Not a great score. Not beating their buddies or lowering their handicap, but ball striking. Simply ripping right through one or two memorable shots. And that’s one of the great things about golf. We duffers might bungle most of what we do out there on a Saturday morning. But once or twice, we’re bound to rip a pure, clean, straight drive or iron shot that makes us feel like we’re about to head up the 18th fairway at Augusta with a 20-stroke lead. Once in awhile, we’ll roll in a monster putt (even a blind pig drops an acorn in the hole now and then).

So much in the golf industry revolves around that elite 1 or 2 percent of top players. The folks trying to make a living from this game would do well to remember the unwashed other 98 or 99 percent. So the next time you shank your chip 100 feet over the green, shout at the top of your lungs: “I am a force that the golf industry must recognize! Bow to me, for I suck at this game but love it!!!”

Anyway, glad to have you, Jennifer!