Detailed Discussion on the Changing Landscape in Golf with Alex Myers
Alex Myers, a senior writer at Golf Digest, discusses his experience in golf media and the changing landscape of golf content consumption. He notes that he keeps up with golf news and finds ideas for his writing by consuming content through various channels, including TV coverage, online streaming, and social media. Myers highlights the significant increase in golf's popularity, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more people playing and following the sport. He also emphasizes the growing importance of online platforms, such as Golf Digest's website, in influencing the content in the magazine.
The conversation then shifts to the impact of technology on golf, particularly in terms of training and equipment. Myers and Sajiv Mehta discuss how professionals now focus on rigorous training routines and fitness regimens, as well as the advancements in equipment, which have resulted in longer distances in shots. They acknowledge the need for a balance between innovation and preserving the traditional aspects of the sport. While there have been discussions about regulating equipment to maintain the challenge for professional players, they agree that recreational golfers should still be able to enjoy the game with equipment that brings them joy and accessibility.
Overall, the episode highlights the evolving nature of golf media and the increasing popularity of the sport. It also underscores the role of technology in shaping both professional and recreational golf, while emphasizing the importance of maintaining the competitive fire and skill in the game.
Alex Myers
I'm Alex Myers. I'm a senior writer at Golf Digest. I write mostly for GolfDigest.com. I also write for the magazine. I've been there now for over 13 years, which is kind of crazy to say. Before that I worked at the Journal News in Westchester, and before that I went to Wake Forest, where I got into sports journalism, writing for the school paper, The Old Gold Black, and covered a lot of sports there, including the golf team, which happened to be very good. So that kind of got me into all this.
Sajiv Mehta
All right. And how would you say you consume golf content today, whether it be through reading or watching videos or watching tournaments? What do you think?
Alex Myers
Sure, yeah. I mean, look, it's part of my job to constantly be consuming golf content. So whether it's just watching coverage on TV or streaming online with the PGA Tour Live or ESPN Plus or I feel like I'm on Twitter like twenty four, seven. I know my wife thinks I'm on Twitter way too much. I'm constantly consuming golf either as it happens, or monitoring players or different news outlets who cover the game because I'm constantly looking for things to write about. And most days I wake up, I don't know what I'm going to write that day, or cover or do a video about, or do a podcast about. And so I'm constantly checking all these things and looking for ideas. So, yeah, I mean, to answer your question, it's pretty much a potpourri of just about any way you can consume it.
Sajiv Mehta
That's pretty cool. Obviously, you've been so involved with the golf media world, both as consumer and as a producer of stuff, and you've been involved in it for a while. So I just wanted to know, how do you think it's changed recently with golf? Obviously, it's skyrocketed in popularity recently, and how do you think that's affected the world of golf media?
Alex Myers
Yeah, I mean, it's been crazy these last couple of years, obviously since COVID how much more you see people playing golf. I think that's carried over into people following golf, at least in terms of the discussions, the heated discussions that you see whether it's on Twitter or amongst your friends. I have friends who didn't care at all about golf, who now not only play it, but they'll be texting me during tournaments. So I think there's been a huge change, obviously, with COVID There were a couple of months there where nobody was doing anything, and then finally people realized, well, you can kind of do things outside, and golf is kind of one of the only things where not only are you outside, but you don't have to be near anybody if you don't want to. And so it kind of became that safe activity for people to do. And as a result, it's been an incredible boom. I mean, really, there was a boom following Tiger Woods's emergence as a pro and winning the Masters in 1997. And then it was kind of pretty stagnant for a while. But these last two years, it's been a huge boom.
Alex Myers
I know course closures are way down. They had been creeping up. I know rounds are way up. I just did a podcast where I was quoting all these stats from the National Golf Foundation. I want to say that there was a 20% increase in rounds this year after there was already like, a 20% increase last year. So it's kind of this unprecedented growth right now, and I think it's spilling over into people talking about the game as well. So it's an exciting time in terms of what it's changed with the media. It's funny, when I first worked at Golf Digest, the website was this really small operation. It was me and two other people, I guess three other people, and we were kind of like in the corner of the office, like, yeah, that's the website. And now it's like, the website is bigger than the magazine practice. The website kind of almost dictates things that are in the magazine and vice versa. It's kind of like when stories are pitched for the magazine, it's always like, well, is there a web component? There? Is there a video component? How do we tie this together?
Alex Myers
So from that perspective, it's been really exciting because I feel like I was kind of in on the ground floor with the website of Golf Digest when we weren't that big, and now we're pretty big and pretty important and doing very thriving. So I've definitely seen a huge shift in golf being consumed. It used to be magazines and obviously newspapers where I worked previously. And now, not to say Golf Digest magazine is still really big, really important, still has over a million subscribers, but a lot more people are getting their news and their golf coverage directly from the website.
Sajiv Mehta
Okay, yeah. So you have this website, and obviously it's doing so great. So I wanted to know, you have these content pillars, right? You diversify your content, and I wanted to know where you see the most engagement with that. What part of golf are people really interested in today?
Alex Myers
That's a great question. It's funny because there's certain stories that can be from different subjects that they can all pop. Overall, I would still say newsy stuff still probably drives the most traffic just because, A, it's the stuff that's happening every day, and it's the stuff that we're writing about every day, and we probably write the most about news, but there's other things that do well, for sure. I know our instruction content is obviously very strong. That's one of our big strengths. And now we're doing more of that online. We just hired back Luke Kerdenin. He was a guy I worked with a while ago, and he was doing really good things for Golf Magazine. And now he's come back to us. And so we're going to focus more on doing more instruction based off things that are happening in the news, based on Tour, pros and everything else. So that's something that we're going to adapt to as well. But overall, I would say the main content pillar for online perspective, I would say, is news from the magazine. It was always instruction courses, but now, again, with the website doing so well, I think we've kind of shifted a little more into a current keeping up with the news.
Alex Myers
That's what people are coming for.
Sajiv Mehta
Adapting is really cool. Right. And something that I think is like it's happening in the media, but it's also happening everywhere in the golf world. Right. There's so many questions being raised with this popularity about casualty on the golf course. Like music and shorts.
Alex Myers
Sure.
Sajiv Mehta
Shorts for pros and tournaments, and hoodies in tournament formats. Even you can see that in LIV golf and the casualization of golf. So I just wanted to ask you generally, what role do you think tradition should play in the evolution of golf, whether it be tournament formats or courses and technology or like formality on the golf course?
Alex Myers
Yeah, again, great question. I would say that golf, probably more so than almost any other sport, is kind of tied to tradition. And so I think that's why we've seen such a rift now with LIV coming in and them trying to shake it up and do things a little differently. And there's a lot of people who just hold on to what they know, and I think that's even more so in golf. But I do think that that tradition is important to keep there. If you do come up, though, with new creative ways to play the game or to cover the game, I certainly think those should be looked at. And clearly, traditions can always be improved upon, but know the stuff you the the style. Obviously, you look at guys who were playing, look at Bobby Jones when he played. I mean, he's playing with a tie and the sweater vest and slacks and we've already moved way past that. So the fact that we're now moving towards hoodies, it's like, who cares? If people want to wear hoodies, let them wear hoodies. I think if the pros want to wear shorts, let them wear shorts.
Alex Myers
I think it would look a little weird at first, but we would get used to it. Just like we've gotten used to different length of shorts in the NBA throughout the know, that kind of know. And the music on the course, you see that a lot more now. I personally don't do it, but if someone I'm playing with, I was playing with someone a few weeks ago and they put music on the cart, I didn't care. It was fine. So I have no problem with that kind of stuff. I think it's really cool. I think the more things that you can do to not sorry. The fewer barriers you can put up is great to get people in the game. And so there might be some people who do want to go out and listen to music and wear hoodies and whatever, and if that's what it takes to get them to play golf, so be it. I think that's great.
Sajiv Mehta
Yeah, I think it's definitely going a long way to reducing the stigma of the stuffy country of golf, right. That a lot of people see. And it's starting to dissipate a little bit with the rise of so much formality.
Alex Myers
100%, man. And it's true. And unfortunately, golf does have that stuffy reputation still. But I do think that is changing, and it is because of some of these things that people are seeing. And again, just this boom that has happened these last two years, and you've gotten more people into it. These are people who never considered playing golf before, who are now out there, and they think it's great. I mean, we know how great of a game it is, right? Yeah. We know that once you get someone into it, they're hooked. Exactly. So they hit that one great shot at the range or they make one putt.
Sajiv Mehta
You want to get that feeling again.
Alex Myers
Yeah. Certainly you don't need to be a member at a country club or anything else. I mean, we happen to live in Westchester where it's very country club dominated, but the rest of the country for the most part is not like you have. I just did a podcast recently on a couple of courses where the community members took over the course and saved them and kept them going and worked and did jobs like maintenance and tended the bar there. A golf course can be a community. It doesn't have to be a stuffy country club.
Sajiv Mehta
Okay, that's so cool to see. And I just wanted to know sure, it's definitely so great that you're getting all this intimacy and community in the recreational golf sense, but do you think that should be recreated on the professional level? Should the formality of the PGA Tour and obviously live golf is with the rise of live golf, I want to know how has it affected the game, how will it continue to affect the professional game, and how can we tie that back to recreational golf and what people see in what people perceive about golf? When someone says golf, what do you think of and how has live golf changed that? And how will it yeah.
Alex Myers
I think LIV golf has the potential to change that. I mean, even something as small as letting the guys wear the shorts, I mean, certainly if you're watching at home, you think, oh, that looks more like me out there. You see the guys watching and they're playing music during the rounds. They're trying to do those things that you're right. They're trying to kind of bridge that gap from the elite tour pro to the recreational golfer. I wouldn't want to lose all of that gap because obviously there is something that separates those guys. And I think when you go to watch a baseball game or an NBA game or whatever, or a football game, there's a reason why you're going to see those guys. They're the best, and they stand out for a reason. Right. So I don't think any fans want it to be too casual. I think that's the one drawback with LIV is it's sort of getting billed as being more of an exhibition where guys have the guaranteed money already, and there have been questions of whether the prize money is coming out of their contracts and this and that. Are they really playing for anything.
Alex Myers
So you want the guys to really be invested and fighting tooth and nail to do their best and make the money and everything else, because, again, that's why they're the best and we want to see them compete. But I think you definitely can make it more where you do bridge the gap a little, but you don't want it to be too casual because then I think people will lose interest.
Sajiv Mehta
People want to see the competitive fire.
Alex Myers
Exactly.
Sajiv Mehta
Okay. And with the pros, and they've gotten significantly better with scoring average and all that has definitely gone down, and courses have had to lengthen and to beef up to protect against that. So I want to evaluate technology's role in that. How has it changed the way courses have to adapt and how has it changed the way the pros practice? What has that done?
Alex Myers
Yeah, technology has been huge, and I know that the way pros train now has been huge as well. Because back in the day, these guys were not hitting the gym, they were hitting the bars after the round. Right. Arnold Palmer was not. He was in great shape, but he wasn't hitting the gym before these guys. It's crazy. People don't think of golfers know, not real athletes. It's ridiculous. These guys are training as hard as anybody now, and factor in how long their days are, they might start going to the gym, and then they practice and then they play, and then they go to the gym again. Or you're hitting balls on the range for hours and hours. You have to be in great shape to do that. The toll it puts on your body. Yeah. I mean, like a Vijay Singh back in the day, he would practice from dawn to dusk. It's incredible work ethic. So my point is there have been incredible leaps in terms of training. They're having every sport, and these guys now have trainers. They have not only fitness guys, but like food specialists and all this other stuff. And they're trying to maximize every because, you know, at the top, first of all, you know, even on the high school level or the college level, every player, each stroke is so valuable and you're looking for the tiniest edge, you.
Sajiv Mehta
Get better and better.
Alex Myers
Exactly. And you have to always be improving. The margins are so small. So these guys have gotten better that way. But then you throw in the technology and you'll hear a guy like, I don't know, I'm trying to think like a Colin Montgomery or something. We had him on the podcast. These, some of these senior guys say they hit the ball farther now than they did in their prime. So now they're not all working out. That's clearly technology. That's the clubs. That's the ball. The ball goes a lot farther. And so you're right because of that then that's had a trickle down effect on golf course design. We've seen some great traditional layouts have to be either lengthened or the PGA Tours dump them or majors don't go to them anymore because they're just too easy. Now for these guys, old courses where you used to have to shape it and go around a dog leg, guys are just flying over it now. So unfortunately there's been a little shift where we've maybe lost some of the true intention of certain courses, architecture. But I think that's been going on for a long time so I think that was bound to happen anyway.
Alex Myers
But yes, certainly technology has changed a lot and you could argue they need to start doing something now because in 30 years, who knows what it's going to look like. But again, I know they've been saying this for decades as well, they're never.
Sajiv Mehta
Going to draw back distance.
Alex Myers
Exactly. They've been talking about it forever. We'll see if the USGA ever really cracks down and does something about it personally. Yeah, I wouldn't want it to get to the point where guys could drive every par four, for instance.
Sajiv Mehta
Then it just becomes… a little washed. Like you just see just the same thing every time.
Alex Myers
Exactly.
Sajiv Mehta
You want to see the competitive fire, you want to see the skill and sometimes that just gets overshadowed by the straight just brute power.
Alex Myers
Right, exactly. And maybe it's the kind of thing where eventually there are certain tournaments where they use a different type of ball or they use a different restrictions on equipment and it forces guys to really have to shape shots and strategize and think a little more than just bomb and gouge and everything else. But again, I don't think luckily we're quite to that point where it's completely boring. I know some people will say that a typical PGA Tour setup is a little too dull, there's not as much going on, but I still think the guys are tested enough. But yeah, there's only so much land right out there and so these certain courses that are already tipped out at 7,400 - 7500 yards, there's a limit, not much else they can do. So we'll have to see. We'll have to keep monitoring that. And if the USGA decides to do something.
Sajiv Mehta
Definitely. Like with the drawback that they've been proposing on the professional level. That's a completely different thing with the recreational level. Right. Because people come, they go out to the golf course, they want to hit as far as they can. You get so much satisfaction from that. You're not out there to showcase your skill or anything. So I think if the USGA. Were to do something, I definitely don't think it would be effective and helpful for the game to have that trickle down all the way to the recreational level.
Alex Myers
I agree with that, and you're right. And certain people have said, well, we can't have two different sets of rules. Golfers like to say that they play the same equipment as the pro, but I mean, who cares? Seriously, I agree with you. The recreational golfer let them play whatever they want to play with. Even now with the grooves, I don't even know why that affects the recreational golfer. Golf is so hard. Don't make it even harder for people. Like you said, everybody wants to hit it far. When you see the real distances that people are hitting. I think I just saw something. It was like only 5% of golfers average recreational golfers average over, like 260 off the tee.
Sajiv Mehta
Yeah, because you can have the strength, but it's just going in all different directions. There's no reason to draw that back and have it become even more difficult, because for practically everyone, it's super hard, and you don't want to just give them another reason to be like, no, I don't want to play. It's just not fun anymore.
Alex Myers
Right, exactly. And what's crazy is, with all these advances, the average handicap has not improved in decades. So there's still plenty of terrible golfers out there. They need all the help they can get. I'm not a great golfer myself. I need all the help I can get. I need all the distance I can get. And so I agree, if they ever do make a move like that, let the recreational golfers still have their fun. Again, we want fewer barriers for people tough enough sport as is. Let people have their fun. Let people have what equipment they want to use 100%.