Welcome back to the Golf Logic Podcast. What a week for Golf! Rickie Fowler with cool outfits, Dustin Johnson with his first win of the 2018 calendar year & Tiger woods has released information for his next tournaments. All & All 2018 is shaping up to be a great year for professional golf & I hope this excitement can trickle down to the recreational level.

Also, is Golf Broadcasting good or bad? Do they touch on the correct topics? Could they help recreational players learn more… Let's get into it!

This week we saw a great thing in terms of dress code & pushing the boundaries to change perspectives on the PGA Tour. Rickie Fowler was seen debuting Puma’s new clothing line that is quite awesome in my opinion. Below is a picture of what Rickie Fowler debuted on Thursday! As we you can see very Hawaiian inspired. I think it is great for the game, untucked shirt & a few buttons undone. Yet still “respectful” This is where PGA & golf in general needs to move!

Also, TIGER is BACK! Tiger Woods has announced that he will be playing the following events.

-       Farmers Insurance Open, January 25th-28th, Torrey Pines golf course

-       Genesis Open, Feb 15th-18th, Riviera country club

This is great news for active viewers & let's not kid ourselves if he plays well it will be great for everything that involves golf!

The Sentry Tournament of Champions was a great way to start 2018!

Top 3 below:

1.     D. Johnson -24

2.     J. Rahm -16

3.     B. Harman -15

The main talk of this event was not only Rickie Fowlers awesome outfit; it was the Twist Face technology we talked about last week. Dustin Johnson nearly aced (hole in 1) a par 4 that was 433 yards! He had an average driving distance of 320 yards throughout the weekend. Also, 4 players in the top 10 had the TaylorMade driver in the bag. I believe this Twist Face technology will be very unfair at the professional level. It will increase fairways hit, which in turn will increase greens hit & cause people to dominate these difficult golf courses.

The proof is in the numbers; Dustin Johnson hit massive drives ranging from 320-430 yards & wins by 8 strokes. All I am saying is this Twist Face is something to watch as the season continues. Giving professional the freedom to swing harder & faster & be able to hit fairways, it may get out of control.

Is Golf broadcasting good or bad?

Now Golf is a game of subtle nuances. A lot of the game starts with the player’s game plan & that is never talked about or broadcasted to teach the viewership. Many people would like to know why do golfers set up on the left or right side of the tee boxes, why do they talk so much with their caddies.

These are simple things that could be discussed & expressed better during tournament play on national television. This may seem sort & sweet but let me explain with a different sport.

Tony Romo has started to commentate NFL football. Some of you may have heard how he is a genius at guessing plays & calling out particular patterns on offense or defense. One thing is for sure he is educating the viewers, he is talking about how & why Quarterbacks do certain things. I could go into detail but you see where I am going. As a football fan my NFL IQ has increased a lot this year because I now understand certain setups & potential play calls, thus it makes it a lot more interesting to watch Football.

How does this relate to golf? Mic up the players, talk about the game plan that each player has, discuss why it is unique & important to the game of golf. I look forward to touching on these more in later episodes. But I believe if you educate your viewers more people will be interested & want to play on their own.

Welcome back to another episode! This week on the Golf Logic podcast we have topics that are sensitive to the golf business & new product updates. Let's get into it!! 

Callaway Golf has confirmed the date for the new Driver & woods to be released. 4 days ago (December 8th) Callaway posted a video of a silhouette image of what looks to confirm that the Rogue driver is the driver for Callaway in 2018. With the USGA conforming list having the Callaway Rogue & Rogue Sub Zero listed & with the new video from Callaway it is safe to say that this will be the Callaway drivers in 2018. 

What this means for the consumer is that last year's model from Callaway (the GBB EPIC) will get a big discount & people in the market for a new driver will have 1 more to test. I would strongly advise those looking at the new Rogue not to jump to purchase it right away. The reason being is the images I have seen... it does not look like anything big will be added to the new Callaway line. Not to say this driver will be bad, I just personally believe after a company has had a breakthrough in technology, such as Callaway's Jailbreak technology from last year it takes 2 years to really get another breakthrough or another aspect that will really improve your game. I look forward to testing this product. I could be wrong & the new Rogue could really be a great advancement from the GBB EPIC from 2017. 

Tiger Woods has been seen testing a Taylormade M3 driver & as discussed in the first episode we have seen images of an M4. Does this mean M1 & M2 are gone? Could we see the M3 & M4 taking over as the main Taylormade line? We will have to wait & see. Trust me, I will have my eyes open & keep you updated. 

This week we have some great news for the Golf Business. As discussed in Episode 1 we touched on the entire Lexi Thompson rule issue in our review of the 2017 golf season. I am happy to report that viewers at home are NO LONGER allowed to call in & report rule violations. In addition to this Professional Golfers are no longer going to be penalized for signing an incorrect scorecard from a rule violation that happened the day before. The USGA and R&A have agreed to this & it will be active Jan, 1/2018. This is very positive news as viewers will no longer be confused & angry about rule calls that should NEVER happen in the first place! It will also lower the amount of confusion within the industry. Great news for Golf & I could not be happier! 

Michelle Wie posted a picture taking a nice little poke at the LPGA & the dress code issues that were "updated" or "reminded" in July. For those of you that do not know during the 2017 season, the LPGA "reminded" their players in July of the "proper" dress code these reminders were as follows. 

- No Plunging Necklines
- No Skirts, Skorts or Short that do not sufficiently cover players "Bottom Area"
- No Racerbacks without a mock or regular collar
- No joggers
- No leggings, unless they are worn under a skirt or shorts. 

These dress code reminders made me want to address an issue that I believe to be a problem. 

Why is there a dress code?  I have never understood why a sport needed to have a particular dress code. Why can't you wear athletic wear? In a game that is all about rotation & athleticism, why limit the players? 

Now this dress code issue I believe limits a lot of people from playing the game. Some people don't want to participate in a sport that has such rigorous standards & tradition. Now some of you may be reading this & saying.. "well ya we don't want those people to play golf if they don't follow the rules"..... & I get where you are coming from but if you believe that then I don't want to hear any more about why the game can't & is not growing at the recreational level. Because with a game being difficult, expensive & time-consuming, along with adding dress code's you are pushing millions & millions of people away. Maybe this game does need to be 100% exclusive, if you can't afford a membership then to bad so sad... I don't want that. I want as many people to enjoy this game as possible. That is why as long as I work in the industry, I don't care what you want to wear if you are willing to pay for golf & enjoy the sport. By all means, play the game. 

Expensive, time-consuming & difficult. This is why people don't play golf. I have heard these 3 things way too much in my life... 

First & foremost, difficult is not going away. The game of golf is hard & that can't be fixed. The game would need to be restructured & that is unrealistic. So the difficulty is here to stay. 

On the other hand, expensive & time-consuming 100% can be changed. Golf Course development is quite expansive, they build on a lot of land, they have big water bills & a lot of employees this all adds up to an expensive bill of Overhead costs. Thus the expensive prices.... 

But most golf courses only charge for 9 or 18 holes, when they could charge for 3,6,9,12,15,18. Charging for all of these options will give price & time options to your customers. This is one simple way to fix the problems of time consuming & expensive. 

I understand all the logistics behind tee-sheets & time, but it doesn't matter. These options could be completed. I have a great idea for new golf courses, build a clubhouse in the middle of 6 multiple 3 hole loops. This way it could be easier to direct traffic. Because for already constructed golf courses that would be the biggest issue, traffic. 

The reason I wanted to talk about these topics was that I believe the dress code, price, time consumption naturally pushes people away. But that could change! Thanks for tuning in & I look forward to Episode 3!