You Know, A Nine-Hole Is Still A Golf Course
Over at Travelgolf.com, writer Chris Baldwin makes an excellent point on the lack of
9-hole courses. To me, he's right on the money. I've often complained that golf is a sport that isn't growing and one reason is that an 18-hole round takes 5-6 hours to complete. Add to that the excessive costs and the distance you must travel to find a course if you live in a major city, it's no wonder that for the last five years, as many people pick up the game as drop it. Even for someone like me that is involved in the golf industry, it is very difficult to take that much time (especially during the weekday) to play. If there were 3,000 yard 9-holes, I'd think that many more people would pick up the sport and stick with it. It would also be easier for businesspeople to go to the course on a long lunch hour, especially if they were close to the population centers. Unfortunately, the nice mature courses get plowed under for housing. Golf is often accused of being an elitist sport. It is a hard enough sport to learn and play, why make it even more difficult by requiring those who play to ante up $75 green fees and 5-6 hours to play?
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Due to some technical glitch that hasn't been completely figured out, our last podcast #21 ended up not being uploaded by podreaders. Our media kit was grabbed and uploaded instead. So, we are uploading the podcast again in the hopes that everything has been worked out. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for listening.
Michelle Wie Dumps Caddie. Is this the Beginning or the End?
I continued to be amazed at the ongoing saga of Michelle Wie. Anything that she does is front page news. So she fires here caddie. Big deal. Keeping a job as a caddie on the tour is harder than being a professional golfer. You can't fire yourself, but you can fire you caddie if you are playing poorly and Ms. Wie really stunk up the joint at the Ladies British Open.
I attribute the Michelle Wie phenomenon to the lifecycle of a product. Odd analog I know, but bear with me.
First, you've never heard of the product. Second, you market the hell out of it. Third, everyone knows about the product and everyone is talking about it. Fourth, everyone buys into the hype and has to get one. Fifth, now that everyone has one, we search to see if there is anything else to quench our buying lust? Sixth, finding nothing, then we, the fickle public, move to the next "great thing" and start buying that.
Michelle Wie is the same thing. Right now Wie, Inc. is a novelty, a circus act, an entertainment. The public likes that. They like to talk about what's new around the water cooler. Once the subject of Michelle Wie is old news, then we move onto something else more interesting.
Remember, before Ms. Wie turned pro, we talked all about the "young guns" on the LPGA. Now, since most of them have played poorly this year, we latched onto the latest sensation – Wieism (the worship of a winless wonder).
Now, unless Ms. Wie starts winning tournaments, she too will be old news. Faster than you can say Britney Spears.
Think of it as disposable celebrity.
Labels: LPGA, Michelle Wie
