Troubled Times Prompt Golf Digest Pledge To Better Reflect The Game, Society

Golf Digest Executive Editor Jerry Tarde penned an intriguing piece outlining the magazine’s intent to “accelerate golf’s journey of understanding” on a number of issues at the forefront. After a nice setup detailing the sport’s history with race and inequality issues, Tarde outlines the pledges:

—We at Golf Digest will commit to making the images and subjects of our golf content as well as our staff better reflect the diversity of the world around us. Both the game’s population and our own record here have been inadequate.

—We will continue to advocate for more access and affordability.

Continue, start, either would be great!

—We will increase our coverage of municipal golf—the lifeblood for attracting minority participation.

—We will support the golf industry’s collective efforts through The First Tee, in which 48 percent of participants represent minorities.

—We will promote sustainability in all its forms, because we know the ravages of climate change hit the poor and minorities the hardest.

—And we golfers promise to use our voice and influence to make gentle the life of this world.

Obviously this is a wonderful goal and a welcome pivot. Unfortunately, it’s way too late.

For decades Golf Digest has supported ideals contrary to the values pledged above. In repeatedly rewarding difficult, expensive, ridiculously-conditioned and ultra-private golf via the influential Golf Digest rankings and awards for a solid forty years, untold damage has been done to the sustainability prospects of the game.

Decades of editorial apathy and even hostility to the notion of equipment regulation or those taking stance with sustainability in mind has been partly driven by protecting commercial interests. The resulting expansion of golf’s scale, cost and environmental footprint has not made the game healthier.

The bad news for Golf Digest? Advocacy efforts highlighting the need to move in a different direction have been taken up by a variety of independent outlets that recognized long ago who had the game’s best interests at heart.