Golf has dominated the headlines in a way we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods burst onto the scene.  Even people who don’t know the difference between a birdie and a bogey have an opinion about the PGA Tour/PIF agreement.  I’m sure you do.

Regardless of how one feels about the deal, I think it’s fair to say that the announcement signified a “crossing the Rubicon” moment for professional golf.  Like Cortes when he came to the new world, men’s professional golf has arrived at an undiscovered country and burned the boats.  There is no going back.

So those who care about the sport have two choices: 1) look longingly to the past and wish none of this ever happened, or 2) the more interesting discussion of turning our gaze towards the new world before us and focus on building a better future for the game.

To that end, the most urgent issue facing professional golf is not enough people watch it.  The average age of the viewer is well over 60 and overwhelmingly male and white.  Masters Sunday is the only appointment viewing day for golf.  Without Tiger Woods to bring in casual viewers, the sport is struggling to grow, let alone maintain, its audience. 

These are not healthy trends for any sport or media property. 

This problem is not unique to golf.  Reaching Gen Z is a challenge for many mainstream professional sports.  Young people live on their phones and prefer tweeting or viewing highlights on social media to watching the games.  Or they experience sports through long form documentaries like “Drive to Survive,” gambling, or video games. 

Yet golf’s challenge is more acute because of age-old perceptions about the sport being too exclusive, too white, and too rich.  Young people today have clearly demonstrated that they will shun brands that don’t embrace inclusiveness, diversity, and social responsibility. 

This the heart of the crisis facing golf.  To grow, golf desperately needs to make itself more appealing to younger viewers, many of whom view the sport as out of touch with their values. 

Those of us who know and love golf can credibly make the case that this perception is unfair.  But even the most diehard fan must admit that it is grounded in some truth.  Moreover, we live in a world where perception is reality.  And by that standard, despite all the well-intentioned efforts to open and diversify the game, there is still a long way to go.

LIV was founded in part to address this issue.  Its boosters came onto the scene claiming it will “grow the game” by creating more global events that present golf in a more modern, less stodgy way.  This new look for golf would be more attractive to young people and to the advertisers seeking to reach them. 

Sounds great in theory, but unfortunately Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson focused the dialogue more on player compensation and workload which soured a lot of people.  Does any young fan (let alone the older ones) really care that Phil Mickelson thinks he works too much or is underpaid? 

This is the great missed opportunity of the entire LIV/PGA Tour episode:  instead of talking about how golf can attract more fans, the narrative has focused on issues that have little or nothing to do with truly “growing the game.”

To be clear, creating more events where the best players compete makes good business sense.  Even if the audience is aging, there is still real value in the golf viewer and new events means new broadcast rights, sponsorships, advertising, and merchandise to sell.  This strategy is clearly the linchpin of the PIF’s and the PGA Tour’s pitch to the players.  They are banking on the hundreds of millions, if not billions, in media rights that new events could generate to appease players who feel burned. More money will make everything better.

On one hand it’s hard to argue with this approach.  Raise your hand if you don’t want to make more money.  Anybody?

But what’s never been clear to me is how creating more televised golf events will attract young people to the sport.  LIV has great players, shorter events, loud music, relaxed fashion, and a gambling friendly format – all the things they thought they needed to generate interest among young people.  Yet the ratings performance to date has been dismal.  I don’t see how anyone can argue with a straight face that its strategy is a proven winner among young people.

There are no easy answers to this problem.  If there were, every sports league and media executive would be implementing them.  While I don’t pretend to have the magic formula, I know it includes two things.

First, golf and its players must do a better job bringing the sport to the media platforms where young people spend the most time:  TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.  It’s Marketing 101 – if you want to attract new customers you need to meet them where they are. 

In terms of followers and engagement on social media, golf’s premier players, including global icons like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Brooks Koepka, are woefully behind many much less famous and accomplished athletes.  Odell Beckham Jr has 6x the number of Instagram followers of the biggest names in the sport.  Really?  The players are the product and collectively they are not consistently presenting themselves or the sport in a way that generates excitement or interest among young fans.

Going to where the young people are is just the beginning.  The second ingredient is demonstrating that the things that matter to them also matter to golf.  The sport needs to speak the language of younger generations.  Tell stories that interest them.

Technology, fitness, giving back, diversity, fashion, music, and mental health are core values and issues that young people care about.  They are the things they talk about, share, and proudly promote daily. 

The irony is these same values are also central to golf.  Today’s young professional golfer grew up using technology and better fitness to improve performance.  Any golfer will tell you the game is played inside one’s head as much as on the course, so mental health and well-being are existential.  The sport is more diverse than ever.  Giving back and supporting local communities have been woven into professional golf for decades.  I could go on. 

There are many points of shared values and commonality between Gen Z and golf, yet those stories aren’t being told in a consistent way.  As a result, young people aren’t engaging with the sport and its players in ways that they could.  It’s a huge, missed opportunity.

There is a much uncertainty in professional golf right now.  No one knows what the final resolution between the PIF and PGA Tour will look like.  Given all the political and regulatory attention, it isn’t coming anytime soon.  The good news is engaging young people where they spend time and telling stories that resonate with their values are things that can be done right now, regardless of what happens.  Indeed, golf must do them if it truly wants to connect with the people who will ultimately determine its future.