Tarde: “The game needs to change fundamentally or follow the baby-boomer generation into the grave.”

Pretty bold words from anyone, let alone Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde, whose tone is typically measured and free of hyperbole.

Yet in his April, 2014 Golf Digest column (just posted at GolfDigest.com), he analyzes all of the recent talk about initiatives: non-conformance, real golf and the USGA President's interest in expanding accessibility to the sport but refusing to call alternative forms of the game "golf."

Tarde writes:

Outgoing president Glen Nager admirably urged the USGA to change, and incoming president Tom O'Toole promised a more welcoming game. But really, will they embrace a new generation with less money, less time and less inclination to join old-line clubs? Asked if the USGA supports alternative forms of golf—larger holes and such—O'Toole said yes, but "we're not going to call them golf."

I don't know about that. More than half the golf in Korea is played on simulators and ranges. As my colleague Bob Carney writes on GolfDigest.com: "If I play hoops in the back yard, I call it basketball. And so does the NBA, I'm quite sure. [The NBA] promotes the heck out of 'the city game' and yet is quite happy to include suburban kids playing on adjustable hoops in their driveways. 'Oh, I'm sorry. You can't call that basketball until you've raised the rim to 10 feet and played on sides of five.' "