"The industry whiffed during quarantine, but this game is far from over."

With news of the European Tour’s launch of virtual Trackman matches, Adam Schupak of Golfweek (lovingly) takes the golf industry and television business to task for a fairly dreadful response to COVID-19 in a different way: how the sport has handled marketing itself and how its used assets to promote the game.

Granted, it’s asking a lot given the way the coronavirus overtook life and the difficulty of putting out “content” while so much suffering is taking place. On a grander scale, there is also the difficulty of coordinating, meeting and producing, but as he notes, the efforts have been uninspired.

PGA Tour pros from Rory McIlroy to Billy Horschel to Charley Hoffman have promoted Peloton (not even a Tour sponsor!) more than the sport that has brought them fame and fortune. Kudos to NASCAR for pivoting and quickly launching an e-race series so we could see Ian Poulter in his favorite habitat behind the wheel. Why couldn’t the professional golf circuits jump on something similar? Why couldn’t Jordan Spieth just invite a few friends over to the house for a simulator match and ask his wife to film it on his phone? We’d watch.

Finally, the European Tour has hopped on board with the BMW Indoor Invitational, a series of five 18-hole virtual golf tournaments contested using TrackMan. What took so long?

Getting PGA Tour releases?

Seriously, after pointing out that no one needed to see the Big Break XI once, much less again, Schupak points out why it was important for golf to better use the downtime.

This is a time for golf to puff out its chest and remind sports fans why golf is the greatest game of all. Where are the PSA’s promoting the beneficial reasons to play golf?

“We will be launching a campaign in due course with a number of PSAs in a variety of ways to talk about the benefits of golf, and you will begin to see those come out soon,” said Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America.

That’s a start because the golf industry tends to rest on its laurels – being on TV every weekend and having its own channel tends to do that – and doesn’t need to worry about exposure. Now would be a good time for the industry as a whole to actively seek and market to new golfers and support the people in the industry slogging it out and turning on the lights and cutting the grass at 15,000 courses nationwide.