In the past two days, two bombshell golf stories broke. The governing bodies announced a universal golf ball rollback and Jon Rahm announced his move to the LIV Golf League.
Golfers are passionate about their sport. Naturally, these two mega stories ignited those passions with many spewing opinion (reasoned or not) on Twitter.
If you've ever spent even two or three seconds on Golf Twitter, you know that it can be a wild place. And that craziness just ampped up to 11 this week.
Claims that Rahm signing with LIV means the end of professional golf (it might be), that PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan should be fired (he probably should be), that the PGA Tour is in trouble (it probably is) and that everything is fine in professional golf (also, it might be) are posted and debated with real people and LIV bots.
And that energy spent is on the news of one(!) player - granted the current Masters champion and one of the best players in the world - signing with LIV!
The day before that news, the USGA and R&A announced a rollback of the golf ball for everyone. For amateur golfers, that regulation does not go in to effect until 2030.
The rollback debate is an interesting one. Arguments on whether it is necessary for everyone, just for professionals, or even at all are plentiful. Sure, it doesn't seem like a lot, if you believe the USGA and R&A's reserach (only three to five yards for the average male amateur golfer and fewer for the female amateur golfer), but that will affect the game. Regardless, there are people claiming they will quit playing the game when the ball rollback is in effect. Seems like an overraction to me, but I guess everyone is entitled to a hot take on Twitter.
Frankly, I feel like I should have stronger opinion about those two developments. And if you're not a golf nut, you probably heard these stories and thought, "man, Brian, what the hell is going on in your sport?"
I wish I knew. I know is that the golf news is exhausting.
Here's what else I know: golf news isn't golf.
Thirteen years ago today, my high school golf coach, Coach Parker, passed away. I wasn't in high school when he did (yikes, I'm old), but just graduated a few years before that.
For any junior who played golf, high school golf was the dream. What kid who played golf wouldn't want to be on the high school team? It was three months of free golf every day after school. Sometimes are really nice courses, other times at overplayed, poorly maintained municipal courses.
Our school's home course was full of, let's say, charm and quirk. Coach Parker maintained it was the best home course advantage in the conference. He might have been right.
We nicknamed various features of the course after different players on our team or distinguishing characteristics. Matt's Tree was on the first hole; his opening tee shot often hit its overhanging limbs. The Quarry was a deep bunker that had just a little sand on the bottom, but was often full of rocks in the bunker and on the face of the bunker. Parker's Tree was not one that he hit with his golf ball, but one that he used to relieve himself on the fifth tee.
And the away matches that required early dismissals? Sayonara, 10th period Spanish!
I played high school golf in the years when internet message boards were a thing. The state newspaper had a message board for each high school sport. Our team randomly got into a feud with another team in our conference on theat message board. We did not play against each other in regular season play as they were in a different division. But we both played at unique, quirky golf courses, and were were both good teams, so an internet-fueled rivlary was born. It was stupid and it was silly, but that's how interscholastic athletics and golfers can sometimes be.
We won division championships, conference championships, and state sectional championships. We lost a match by two because a player on an opposing team hit a hole in one - we played that non-conference match because Coach wanted to play the course.
The highs and lows of golf are early lessons.
Coach Parker was also the public address announcer for the high school football team. One game, I was in the press box helping him as the spotter. The cheerleading team sold Raider-Grams as a fundraiser for their program. They were just announcements read to someone, from someone. I think they cost a dollar. One of them during the game I was in the press box: "Dear Sarah, you are the wind beneath my wings. Love, Tony." Coach, a true professional with the microphone, shut it off, and just said under his breath, "Tony, you are the wind between my ass." He had a snarky, off-air remark about nearly every Raider-Gram. Coach hated them.
High school golf creates friendships. It teaches young people how to be teammates in an individual sport, and ultimately, and individual world. High school golf helps you fall in love with golf.
This is not a "back in my day" story, even though it sounds like one. It's a golf story.
High school golf isn't much different than adulthood golf.
People play nice courses and bucket list courses, sure. But a lot of golf is played at courses with personality. Courses that may be a bit overplayed, places that may not be kept to the level of Augusta's groundskeeping.
The early dismissals from high school are traded in for canceling that 4:00pm meeting to sneak in a quick nine before the sunset.
There is light trash talk and friendly banter exchanged on social media.
There is shooting a low score only to be beat by someone's career low score.
There is slightly immature jokes amongst the foursome on the course.
The game can take you places. It makes lifelong friendships.
Everything that goes on in the professional game or the governining of the game is almost immaterial to what golf actually is to almost everyone who plays the game.
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