USGA Core Strategy Over Next Four Years: "Reducing the need for longer and longer golf courses"

Tom Cade reported on the International Association of Golf Administrators mid-November Annual Meeting in Tucson and shared this synopsis of Executive Director Mike Davis' speech about the USGA's strategic plan.

The USGA's strategic plan, said Davis during his presentation, will consist of six core strategies: Strengthening the delivery of the USGA's functions (i.e. presenting better to the golfing world what the USGA does); enhancing the experience of their championships (for those who attend, and for those who compete); enhancing the game's sustainability, from an environmental standpoint (addressing the concerns and issues of water usage and course maintenance) and by making the game more enjoyable (by having courses be playable for professionals and high-handicappers alike - he actually used the phrase "reducing the need for longer and longer golf courses");

Whoa, whoa, timeout, timeout! That's one of the core strategies? Fantastic, as long as this doesn't also mean our shorter and shorter courses get Peter Dawson's "The Treatment."

recognizing the USGA's own global relevancy (with its continuing relationship with the R&A);

And what trailblazing partners they are...

keeping healthy the GHIN Handicap system and Course Rating and creating sustainable business plans for state and regional golf associations, which are the arms of the USGA, and the more immediate contact with the world's core golfers; and maintaining the economic well-being of the USGA with the introduction of sponsors into the association's mode of thinking.

Sponsors with the association's mode of thinking? I wonder what that mode entails? Oh right, value creation above all else.