Forethoughts: Bigger than the CAGGYs

Jon Rizzi | Colorado AvidGolfer

I love our CAGGY Awards. They represent your picks for the best in Colorado golf. This year’s winners contain a number of surprises, which you can see for yourself here.

Speaking of surprises, that will be the only mention of the CAGGYs in the column. Instead, I’m going to use the space to reflect on the two industries in which I work—magazine publishing and golf. Both seem to be obsessed with their own demises.

The former frets that every new technology—first radio, then television, the Internet, tablets and smartphones—somehow will spell the end for paper and ink as the preferred purveyor of illumination and information. Even the venerable National Magazine Awards now have digital categories.

The bottom-line impact of this latest electronic sea change has prompted a number of major international publishing companies to blur the once-sacred line between journalism and advertising by setting up “content studios” that put editorial to work for advertisers. As a result, the user (formerly known as “the reader”) doesn’t necessarily know if the “article,” “listicle” or “charticle” is actually an infomercial. In catering to others’ brands, these companies risk diluting the integrity of their own.

Let’s look at the national golf industry, which cites among its apocalyptic bellwethers a 20 percent decline in nationwide participation since 2003 and an average of 130 course closures in each of the past five years.

I’m as vigilant about ensuring golf ’s survival as I am about upholding editorial integrity. I consider myself one of the sport’s stewards, but ever since we started this enterprise, nary a year has passed without some dire forecast and the drumbeat of “grow the game.” Often that drumbeat sounds a lot like Chicken Little clucking. However well intentioned, many “grow the game” strategies (e.g. footgolf, manhole-sized cups) risk diluting the sport’s longterm “brand” value in the name of short-term revenue generation.

Wait, did someone say generation? The attention-deficient “Millennials” represent golf ’s latest bête noire. This group comprises 25 percent of the golfer population and spends more than $5 billion annually on the sport. But, while the total number of golfers has hovered around 25 million since 2011, participation among these 18-to-34-year-olds has dropped by 13 percent since 2009.

Ministering to Millennials and their successors came up at February 10’s G4 Golf Summit at The Broadmoor. This second annual “Coming Together of the Golf Industry” involved leaders from the Colorado PGA, Colorado Golf Association, Colorado Women’s Golf Association, the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association, and the Mile High Chapter of the Club Managers Association of America—as well as representatives from national organizations, including PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua.

I applaud Colorado’s golf leaders for convening the G4 and also for teaming up this year to celebrate “A Century of Golf ”. This issue was on press during the G4, so you won’t see an account of it in these pages. However, I’ve already posted my reports on Twitter and our Website.

No paper, ink—or sponsorship—required.

RELATED LINKS

Forethoughts: Is This How We Roll? (Award-Winning Article!)

Forethoughts: No Tiger, No Cry

Forethoughts: The Golden Boys

Forethoughts: The K-Y of Commerce

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com. Jon Rizzi is the founding editor and co-owner of this regional golf-related media company producing magazines, web content, tournaments, events and the Golf Passport.