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American golfer and global industry supporter here.
This two-week whirlwind, when the world’s elite male players trot the linksland of the British Isles, proves intoxicating and irritating.
And we’re not intoxicated because of an overabundance of heavy stouts.
Watching pro golf played on different landscapes at odd hours interrupts the monotony of the televised game. In a fragmented pro golf egosystem, majors like The Open Championship offer the only must-watch, non-YouTube golf content. Let’s face it, 2v2 matches and Breaking 50 series are more enthralling than weekly pro golf broadcasts. Request for creators: Can we get Phil and Bryson vs. Scottie and Rory at Pine Valley without anybody getting into trouble over media rights?
Because there’s nearly an nine-month gap between The Open Championship and the next major — that glitzy invitational played in Augusta — we must consume this weekend’s action from Royal Portrush like somebody chugging stouts in an authentic Irish pub for the first time. I’m assuming people chug stouts in authentic Irish pubs. I’ve only been to branded Irish pubs in American strip malls.
The most curious among we golf geeks binge The Open Championship and daydream about ditching life responsibilities, booking a flight to Glasgow, London or Dublin, and playing hooky for 13 days. By about 3 p.m. Sunday, we’re groggy and wondering how we’ll accomplish everything we delayed the past four days.
That’s when the irritation emerges.
For decades, mainstream American golf storytellers have planned “work-study” junkets around The Open Championship. This means touring the British Isles and indulging on links golf and stouts. It’s brilliant timing. The end of The Open Championship begins that-nearly-nine-month sabbatical from significant golf tournaments.
The content produced by traveling mooches with keyboards and phones glorifies links golf. We get it, playing an authentic links course must be incredible. But glorious becomes gory when their content takes unnecessary jabs at American golf:
A little brown and lots of bounce at Awesome Links Golf Club. That’s how golf should be played.
Greens running at 8.5 at Awesome Links Golf Club. That’s golf as it should be played.
Awesome Links Golf Club. How golf should be played and presented.
Insufferable writers and creators on expense account-funded jaunts to the British Isles attempt to expose everything somebody should despise about expansive, greedy, green American golf. These are the same people who root for Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose over Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and … Wyndham Clark. Fine. It’s culturally acceptable to pull for a European player over Clark following his locker-room antics at Oakmont.
American golf needs a few public defenders. We’ll diplomatically defend golf’s grandest economy in the next 197 words.
Two things are true: spectacular golf can exist in both the British Isles and America.
Judging by participation numbers, rounds played and the hassle of securing a tee time, American golf gets thousands of things right. Owners and superintendents should ignore every scribe, blogger and podcaster (besides this one!), and listen to reasonable customers and members. They will tell you what you should be doing, although you’re unlikely to hear from 99.34 percent of them because they are mesmerized by your delightful product.
Customer-focused courses combine to generate more than $100 billion of economic impact for American communities of all sizes. Golf is a big American business that helps millions of people pay big bills and enjoy a satisfactory quality of life. Terrific reason for celebration. Fortunately, July coincides with America’s birth.
Instead of snarky comparisons to distant courses with different business objectives, grab a blanket, order a seasonal IPA from the clubhouse bar, chill on a verdant ryegrass slope and watch a fireworks show from an 18th hole.
Thank the American golf model for the memorable evening. And thank the superintendent and crew for its swift cleanup.
Lucrative tee times must be filled in the morning.
Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-chief.
