Shark: Golf Needs To Go All In On Millennials!

Patrick Durkin talks to Greg Norman for AFR Weekend about the state of golf.

Now, having mulled this one a bit, it'd be easy to point out that Norman is lamenting all of the 18-hole, 7,000 yard courses built and which no sizeable audience enjoys, yet apparently has never told a client to stop building what he's constantly built: 18-hole, 7,000 yard courses which no sizeable audience enjoys.

But instead, let's focus more on the Shark's health because it appears he's come down with a serious case Millennialitis, which also has impaired his dressing sense as you can see from the royal blue Seinfield puffy shirt he's sporting.

"Bring the kids in by letting them put speakers in golf carts, putting headsets on or playing in their board shorts or getting on an electric skateboard or something like that to take their clubs around, have fun with the game, speed it up, do what the kids like to do," the straight-shooting Norman says.

"I'm a big proponent of increasing the speed of the game. Building 12-hole golf courses, reducing the time. Why do we have to build these 7000 metre long golf courses for maybe one week a year or not even one week when the cost of constructing and maintaining these ridiculous clubhouses gets out of hand. We've really got to get our crap together."

Good on Norman who has remained very consistent on this matter in his comments (less so in his design actions). He even started a nice rant during the U.S. Amateur telecast about the absurdity of trying to chase modern driving distances before a commercial break cut him off.

But about the skateboarders and music and all the other hipster stuff?

I'm curious, at a local golf course what would attract new people more: speakers in carts, or, operational improvements like better beer selection, bring your dog days or shorter hole loop setups, like Cordevalle is trying (John Strege reports).

I'm guessing the latter innovations would have more resonance, and we can all agree that golf courses have been slow to try.

Either way, the Shark has had enough of you Baby Boomers. So go away!

"Quite honestly, you can't rely on the Baby Boomers to carry the game of golf any more, they have done that for a long period of time but you've got to reach down to the millennials," Norman says.