Nobilo on Future of Golf

From Nobilo.com, where Golf Channel analyst Frank Nobilo posts occasional thoughts on issues in the game:

Now that we are nearly into May, so much has happened already on this year's Golfing Calendar.
Whilst Tiger Woods won back his World ranking number one spot with that incredible victory at Augusta he did it in a way that we are not accustomed to ... he was human, and if that "one in a million" chip shot on 17 did not decide to drop, Chris DiMarco would be regarded as this year's Masters Champion and it would be deservedly so.

The weather played such an important role in the tournaments at the start of the year and Chris was unfortunately one of the ones on the receiving end. When play was stopped late Saturday night although he looked a little raggedy through the front nine he was still in command of the event. Tiger had just hit his tee shot on 10 (the hole that killed DiMarco all week) and his ball had a nice chunk of mud on it which would have made the second shot into 10, at best, guess work. Instead the rest is history! Tiger comes back the next morning, clean ball in hand and continued the great run which resulted in 7 birdies in a row through the toughest stretch at Augusta, meanwhile DiMarco's start to the morning was horrendous at best. He did bounce back like Rocky though, and made Tiger Woods produce a miracle of old, plus a putt down the hill in the playoff that looked like it had no other home to go to, to wrestle the trophy a way from the gutsy Chris DiMarco.

There were lots of little stories that always pop up at Augusta. It started with more talk about the ball and how it is getting out of control. If you see the big picture it is important that we keep an eye on it as it is making so many courses either obsolete or go through expensive redesigns to keep them current. In order to keep the cost down, we need more people to play, not less! I don't normally advertise books, but if you want a good background on the problem and where it is potentially going buy a copy of Geoff Shackleford's "Future of Golf in America." Jerry Pate recommended it to me on the Champions Tour last year and it is indeed an interesting read.