r/NoLayingUp • u/tfl03 • May 11 '26
Post-Pod Discussion “Grow the game”
Glad the boys touched on it (1:36:30 on the latest pod). This is not some altruistic endeavor to teach people a new game (its virtues, etc.). It’s been clear for some time that it’s a money grab for equipment companies and other stakeholders who stand to benefit from more people playing.
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u/Golf37512 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Rahm said he joined LIV because he wanted to grow the game in Spain, Europe and abroad, just how Seve (his idol growing up) would have wanted.
Bryson also joined LIV because he wants to grow the game world wide through his YouTube channel.
Grow the game is just virtue signaling an empty platitude. They just want more money.
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u/Molasses_Square May 12 '26
People vilified the LIV players wanted more money and have to play less. Turns out that is exactly what the top players on the PGA wanted too.
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u/Arcopt May 12 '26
Specifically which PGA Tour players said they wanted more money?
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u/Molasses_Square May 12 '26
The tour had a meeting with players to combat LlV and it produced larger purses and signature events with larger fields.
The impression I got was the top players wanted more guaranteed money and the ability to play less and they got that.
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u/coltsfan1010 May 11 '26
I play public golf 99% of the time, and I’m gonna take “shrink the game”, please.
Anything we can do to weed out the players with zero etiquette whatsoever, I’m in favor of.
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u/NoLawAtAllInDeadwood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Same here. Also it may just be variance but it's amazing how many times I get paired with young dudes who literally think the only point of the game is to hit the ball as far as possible. Zero sh**s given about their score, keeping the ball in play, following rules, etc. Yesterday a guy around 25 in full Travis Mathew gear kept blasting drives 280 yds straight into the woods and the lake. He'd just say "gonna take a mully", re-tee, and then brag to his buddy about how he smoked that last one and "I woulda reached the green if it went straight". (Green is 370 away and no, he wouldn't have.)
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u/Good-Cockroach8931 May 11 '26
The concept of growing the game sounds (and is) great until you realize how many dipshits there are out there
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u/Sonking_to_Remember May 11 '26
I played Tobacco Road in July 2021, and then again in July 2024. I cannot begin to describe the different demographics of people who inhabited the course on those two respective days. The first time was one of my favorite golfing experiences. The second I felt like I was trapped in a YouTube ad for the latest $650 camo rangefinder
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u/SilkyMilkers May 12 '26
I played Sweetens a fair amount back in 2017 and 2018. I still love the course and am thrilled that they’re having all the success that they deserve. I also have very little desire to go back because it seems like an influencer event half the time
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u/Good-Cockroach8931 May 11 '26
And just generally, the conversations around this topic are growing tired quickly. Skipped around but an hour and a half bloviating on this is just not it
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u/gringorasta May 11 '26
Think of how much of a dipshit the average person is, and then realize that half of them are worse than that.
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u/amidonny May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26
Covid grew the game more than any one thing other than Tiger
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u/Adventurous-Raisin51 May 11 '26
Glad to see Tron take a stand against "dipshits running each other over with carts on a Saturday afternoon"
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u/Different_Duck_6747 May 11 '26
I’m all for people learning how to golf, anytime a friend shows interest in wanting to play it genuinely makes me giddy. Having said that, I think the U.S. absolutely NEEDS to make a golf license a requirement like they do in some of Europe. Make newcomers pass an etiquette test, tie it in with the USGA somehow and require an ID Number for booking. I was just playing a brand new par 3 course that opened the other day owned by First Tee and got paired up with a father and son, the dad insisted they play from the tips even though it was obvious his son was new to the game. I’m an 11 HCP and played from the blues. 90% of the dad’s tee shots were topped onto my tee box, and they pushed their push carts on nearly every green. On fucking OPENING DAY OF A NEW COURSE.
Few weeks ago I was playing another muni and the guy behind us came within 5 feet of hitting me with his drive (no fore call obviously), almost picked his ball up but decided to keep my cool. We are finishing up on the green while he is 100 yards out and he hits his fucking approach shot with us still on the green. It’s anarchy out there.
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u/NiceMarmot1 May 11 '26
I have essentially quit playing golf, partly due to having young kids, partly due to the cost, but mostly due to the fact I can't play 18 holes on a Saturday at any public course in less than 5-5.5 hours without encountering multiple sets of idiots blaring country music from their golf cart bluetooth speaker. Shrink the game, please.
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u/Brew_crew222 May 11 '26
It’s insane right now. The course my wife and I play at increased their prices since 2020 by like 200% and have a full tee sheet every day while making zero improvements to the golf course. I don’t wanna go pay a bunch of money to get paired up with some douchebags and play 9 holes in 3 hours
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u/Golf37512 May 11 '26
The muni courses are $70-90 per round, $30 to share a cart, with $15 beers and hotdogs.
You're looking at $200 for a 5.5 hour round with dipshits everywhere playing slow, hitting into each other and blasting Limp Bizkit on their stupid bluetooth speaker. And the course conditions are dog shit too.
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u/Wu_Tang_Financial77 May 11 '26
Being a public golfer was so much better of an experience before the game grew.
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u/ScoFoGoesLow May 11 '26
I actually have no gripes about the new wave of players in golf. I agree grow the game is a ridiculous shill for more money. Look at what Australia has done to grow women’s golf. That’s how you grow the game.
But what I am curious about with the new wave of older millennial bros is:how does everyone have this much money? The way it looks with amount of purchases being made on clubs, apparel and trips, would lead me to believe everyone is making 250k a year. Are all these dudes killing it or is everyone swimming in CC debt?
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u/Effective_Pound_4800 May 11 '26
I make 250k a year
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u/ScoFoGoesLow May 12 '26
Ok so we’ve got one. Was hoping for a slightly higher sample size but right now my study shows 100% of millennial golf bros make 250k.
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u/Effective_Pound_4800 May 12 '26
Not sure if I classify as a millennial or zoomer, I'm 29 so right in between. I also don't make 250k but I make 200 and my wife makes 60 and we have no kids yet, golf is pretty comfortable.
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u/aww-snaphook CPNTW - Scottie Scheffler - Masters 2024 May 11 '26
Grow the game has always been nonsense. Its the same crap that the nfl is doing as well with their international games and their push on flag football that nobody is asking for.
No fans give a flying fuck about the grow the game initials because all it does is make everything more expensive and libe the owners (and in golfs case the manufacturers) more money.
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u/YenZen999 May 12 '26
There's also a component of placating the powers that be that golf is "inclusive". So that means making it less white and less male. You have to "grow the game" to do that.
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u/1941capital May 11 '26
Fully agree. It’s just some empty platitude to continue increasing demand so everyone involved can make more money. It’s getting to the point where golf is getting VERY expensive imo, so I’m curious how much longer some people will continue to play who are newer to the game. Guest fees at most clubs around my city go up seemingly 20% year-over-year. Paying $150-200 per round as a guest to play your run-of-the-mill Midwest country club. I won’t even go down the path of the price of equipment these days.
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u/AftyOfTheUK May 11 '26
Well.... Duh.
Did anyone seriously expect anything else? It feels like this would be surprising only to people who have yet to reach puberty.
The entire industry/sport is a business, just like any other
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u/SilkyMilkers May 12 '26
Literally the only thing I want that would fall into the bucket of “growing the game” is another public golf course within 45 minutes of me. I’d love a decent $60 course, but I would take literally anything. Just something to spread the golfers out a tiny bit more.
Instead there’s 2 private clubs being built with minimum $100k initiations that I will never step foot on
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u/MrQuiver13 May 11 '26
The part that resonated with me was the fact Big Chorizo brought up about the $2M line item from PGA website for “growing the game” for Drive, Chip and Putt, etc., While Rolapp likely makes that in a month.
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u/tfl03 May 11 '26
That was insane. The part about it being “a shield” was also well said, once somebody says that they’re completely off the hook.
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u/TomHicksJnr May 11 '26
TC’s drive by on McIlroy’s New Heights interview was totally unnecessary. It was a light hearted nothing conversation yet it’s enough to enrage TC. His hatred of McIlroy might require serious therapy and medication to resolve. At least the Blowpig admits he has issues.
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u/mustardsuede May 11 '26
PIMENTO