What I'm Looking For In The World Of Golf 2008

Truth…I don’t want to read or hear that a golf tee, a golf ball, a golf glove, or a golf shoe can improve my game. They might improve the experience, but the only things that can improve my game are lessons, hard work, and a proper shaft, in that order. Why be fitted until you’ve gotten better? Hold off on the equipment buys.

Curiosity…I want more courses like Erin Hills, Chambers Bay, TPC-Boston, but I want them priced like Bethpage Black for New York state residents. I want architects, owners, and directors to find a way to keep the costs of our great courses down, to give the less-wealthy a way to play.

Reality…I want us to be aware that the latest golden age of professional men’s golf is coming to an end. By 2015, no one outside the sport will care about the game, much in the way that they didn’t care from 1975 to 1995. Why didn’t they care? Because Arnie was washed up, Player was too weird, and Jack had too many kids. The rest of the palefaces were uninteresting, and Lee was too irregular (hamming it up for the cameras, treating people poorly in person.)

Fantasy…I want better golf fiction. Not the gooey, mystical stuff of people trying to copy Golf In The Kingdom (the book that thinks it’s philosophy, fiction, and religion, without actually becoming any single one.) Find your voice, like Rick Reilly did in his two tomes on Ponkaquog or however the heck you spell it! Be funny, loony, irreverent, anything to keep this meditative game from boredom between the leaves.

Well, those are four thoughts. Feel free to challenge me, contradict me, insult me, or praise me.