“Over the last 24 months all you have heard is ‘the sky is falling’ when it comes to golf. Golf has lost nearly five million players over the past 10 years,” explained panelist Charlie Kautz. Though golf seems to be in a tough place right now, all of the panelist believe that there is a bright future ahead for the game, with technology and new avenues to participate (Top Golf as an example) driving its growth. Kautz was primarily the moderator for this panel but he also provided insight on the growth of technology in golf, explaining that there is currently 3000 apps for golf instruction, where to find a golf course, etc. On top of the use of mobile applications, Big Data has begun to gain importance in the golf community. This data allows players to improve their game by gaining more specific information about your golfing mechanics and performance (i.e. getting the rate of spin on your ball to adjust your point of contact). Technology is being slowly adopted in to the game of golf, and Kautz believes it will be about five years until it is widely adopted by the common golfer.

To the same sentiment as Kautz, Ashley Mayo stated, “from what you’ve read, you would think that Augusta (National) is about to get paved over with homes, but that just isn’t the case. There are still 24 million golfers in the United States.”  Mayo works for Golf Digest. She explained that part of the turnaround for golf comes from qualitative and quantitative research that the company has done to better understand their consumers, as well as expanding on the type of content that they provide; typically the magazine provides content about how to play and where to play golf, but they have included content about “smoking weed, peeing and drones being used throughout golf.” Along with providing unique content to Golf Digest, the magazine has begun to push content through all channels to reach a wider group of consumers. As of last month, more people consumed Golf Digest content via mobile and online than traditional print magazines, which is a big change for the company.

Another member of the panel was Andrew Kipper of Excel Sports Management. Kipper believes that one of the primary reasons for the decline in golf consumers is that the game is constantly available, nearly 365 days a year, unlike the NFL who “starves” its fans for nearly nine months. Currently, there is more live golf than every which potentially over-saturates the market. Along with the over-saturation of content, Kipper feels that the media coverage of golf could also be hampering the game. The media must get away from solely covering Tiger Woods. There are so many extremely talented young players that are winning on the PGA Tour, yet they do not receive the same amount of coverage as Woods, even when he hasn’t consistently been on the golf course over the past several years.

The fourth member of the panel was Shane Bacon from the Back9Network. The most interesting points that he brought up were regarding how golf and golfers utilize social media, along with the future of the game and the influence of technology. Bacon strongly believes that golfers are the most effective athletes on social media. Individual golfers do not have a team (like the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) to support them on social media. Many golfers are successfully utilizing social media to promote their brand, the PGA and connect with fans; he also mentioned how golfers are even now making music videos (Golf Boys). In terms of technology, Bacon spoke about the Track Band, a tool which many professional golfers are using to fine tune their game. He also explained that GoPro has created an entire vertical dedicated to golf.

Though the portrayal of golf in the mass media is that golf is in a bad place, after listening to this panel I feel that golf is in its best position since Tiger Woods came on tour. Many of the top players on tour are in their early 20s and have the ability to better relate to fans. There is also an influx of technology that will greatly benefit the game throughout the upcoming years including mobile applications and performance improvement devices. In terms of the common fan, all panelists believe that Top Golf and similar recreational golfing ventures will do wonders to improve the popularity of golf. All explained that there is this common misconception that going to Top Golf or playing a par 3 course, anything that isn’t playing a full 18 holes, isn’t playing the game of golf and this is simply not true.