Interestingly B. Shamblee was ranting and calling out GCA's and Golf Geeks. Seems we matter... Does beating up on old courses matter?
In media, absolutely. They are arenas that resonate visually and iconically.
And the fact is, appreciation of golf architecture has penetrated into the consumer lexicon and viewer mainstream, and is not retreating. Do most consumer folks care? Probably not. Does the most coveted demographic sought by advertisers care. Absolutely.
Golf industry businesses arguing against bifurcation is lunacy. There was no downside. The Local Rule (Bifurcation) was the perfect solution. A ball for elite use in an elite setting. Top amateur or other highly athletic oriented events had the OPTION of invoking an MLRule for their specific tournament. From a business perspective, Joe public would have bought the “Pro” ball to vociferously claim “I play the pro ball”. From a business perspective, killing it reduces the manufacturer’s potential to generate incremental revenue.
Let’s be clear, the ball companies are chock full of talented physics engineers and scientists. Their math associated with the manufacture of a “Tournament Ball” likely has dust on it. It would take 10 minutes to update the subroutine. An argument that there are significant additional R&D costs is nonsense. In reality, there are probably currently 30-40 different PRO V composites in play across the tours that a consumer will never touch.
And the pros and elite amateurs are truly are different animals, and could score with a Nitro or a Noodle if they had to. So why would a pro would really care, other than their sponsor told them to whine. There is “Pro” equipment in every sports business sector, “Pro” model irons and Blades,”Pro” level skis, professional baseball bats, I assume cricket has “Pro” level gear, “Pro” level soccer/futbol shoes, pro bikes.
On this, golf industry seems bent on shrinking their potential sales portfolio, which I find fascinating in an industry that introduces a new driver when the waxes or wanes. Manufacturers will have one less SKU to pedal which seems counter intuitive to earning per share… They may have botched the takeaway with this one.