Cold Open
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.
Golf's Cultural Divide Is Real
A few weeks ago, before the Good Good controversy swept through the internet, I tweeted a thought:
While I am not omniscient, the timing of the post was fortuitous. I have been planning to write about the Cultural Divide in golf for quite some time, and now seems to be the perfect moment, given the recent controversy with a few YouTube golfers.
An Easy Out for Callaway?
The Good Good fiasco is a canary in the rapidly deepening coal mine which is the game of golf. As a new-age media juggernaut, Good Good has built an impressive audience of what I would call new-age, casual players. The content is optimized for views, clicks, and shares. Nothing else. To say their content deviates from the purist side of the game would be an understatement.
Many people jump to socio-economic status as the de-facto chasm between types of golfers. It’s a myopic simplification of a more nuanced phenomenon.
Everyone hated the ad. It was bad. But the core issue here is that the Good Good team felt the ad would resonate with their audience. That’s the real issue here.
The internet stripped the game of its decorum. Untucked shirts, loud escapades, heavy drinking now pervade the fairways. It’s all standard operating procedure for the biggest channels.
As I’ve written about the game I love over the past 15 months, the divide has only become more and more apparent to me.
The Two Tiers
In today’s game, there are the players who learn how to play by consuming content online, and there are players who learn how to play with clubs in their hands on the course. It has nothing to do with race, gender, religion, class etc. The medium by which you learn the game is the common denominator.
Before I go further, I’m not discussing the physical act of playing golf and improving ones golf swing, I’m talking about learning how the unwritten rules and etiquette mesh into the act of playing eighteen holes.
All other distinctions are now irrelevant. The internet has opened the floodgates and obliterated all barrier to entry. What was once a game for gentlemen and women has changed.
Net new players are, on paper, a good thing for the game of golf. The heralded “grow the game” mantra assumes a decorum standard for new entrants which no longer exists. The game’s culture has been diluted with each new player who decides to go buy clubs because they saw a convoluted, dumbed-down clickbait video on Instagram reels.
Juxtaposed with the grizzled veterans who, like many of you, have had a club in their hand since they were small children, and you’ll see a stark difference. The “worldview” and appreciation for what golf is is dramatically different.
What Course-Taught Golfers Understand
As I’ve written about in the past, players who grow up on the golf course have an inherently different understanding of how golf should be played. Where you learn matters less than how. Trial and error can't be streamed on TikTok.
Receiving an excoriation from an older member about pace of play or an un-raked bunker is a seminal moment in any young golfer’s life. It’s how traditions are passed down, and how clubs maintain a certain culture. Unwritten rules are unwritten for a reason. The implied etiquette is what makes golf special.
If you were to open up TikTok or Instagram tomorrow and search for golf, you’d find a few types of content.
Short-from clips from YouTube crews like Good Good or Barstool. You’ll likely see them in t shirts, carts, and playing a version of golf which would have been unthinkable fifteen years ago
Golf instruction from amateurs pretending to be teaching pros. Try as I may, I still watch these.
Hot girls at the driving range
The same four USGA videos discussing obscure rules.
That’s about it. I can’t blame the twenty-somethings who are keeping Good Good in business, because in all likelihood they do not know any other way. What’s wrong with a booze-fueled six hour round? My idol Grant Horvat probably thinks it’s ok?
Onboarding Infrastructure
Jokes aside, the real issue is the proliferation of vapid social media content, and a dearth of short-form content focused on the two or three core pillars that turns golf from a boondoggle to an enjoyable afternoon.
There is no counter balance to the fire hose of golf content teaching newer players. Courses have actually lowered attire and etiquette standards in order to capture more players. That’s not what the game is about. And while I understand that the golf courses need to make money, there are more than enough players to occupy tee sheets, and some sort of platzreife should be required at most public (and private?) golf courses.
The Reversion
The sentiment in the game is shifting. Whether or not Callaway used the ad as an easy way out, I believe sentiment within the industry is moving away from the unkempt attire and culture which follows. It’s bad business to alienate your core customers in a search for quick, cheap revenue.
As with the gradual pull of men’s attire back to natural fabrics, I believe the general consensus around etiquette and culture will begin to revert to what the standard had been for hundreds of years. Enough of the nonsense.
3 Things I Know I Know
The USGA has paused the reinstatement process of Colt Knost. They must read this publication. I am so happy I could cry. Protect Amateur golf.
September is the best month for golf. It’s not a crazy take, but whether it be high school or college matches, my fondest memories on the golf course are in September.
Fall layering is upon us. If those words frighten or confuse you, fear not, as I will create a layering guide to be posted in the next few weeks.
Brands I Have My Eye On
Although I’m not the biggest fan of the golf shoe/sneaker blend, Goatlane makes a good looking white shoe that you could probably get away with wearing at most nicer clubs. I’m always going to tell you to err on the side of FJ premiers, but to each their own.
It’s not a brand, but I found this website fascinating. It’s run by the former USGA photo archivist, who scanned and processed over 20,000 assets into an archive of more than 375,000 images. The site uses before/after sliders so you can see the original condition of each image against the restored version.
As someone who is always on the hunt for tee and host gifts, I keep my eyes open for nice leather goods. Bluetross out of Charleston fits the bill.
18 Rules of Etiquette, Revisited
I teased this a few weeks ago, but let’s review a few etiquette rules from a 1982 edition of Golf Digest. My notes will be in italics.
2. Compliment another player’s good shots (even if he’s your opponent and is beating your brains in), and refrain from complimenting his bad shots. There is nuance to this one. It’s best to wait for the ball to come to rest before offering a compliment.
6. Make sure you’re ready to hit when it’s your turn on the tee, in the fairway and rough, or on the green. Ready golf is good golf.
7. Rehit a putt after missing. Depends on the situation and how short the putt was.
9. Laugh when your opponent hits out-of-bounds, shanks three in a row or four-putts from seven feet. Depends who the opponent is.
12. Talk, whisper or rattle pocket change while another player is trying to study and execute his shot. A classic unwritten rule that is often overlooked by newer players.
16. Place your bag or your golf car to the side of the green nearest the next tee. Great one. Crucial for pace of play.
17. When attending the pin, stand where your shadow misses the other player’s line, and hold the flag so it doesn't flutter in the wind. Ah yes, tending the pin. Soon the the kids will think we are joking when we offer to tend it.
18. Give a hole-by-hole account of your round to anyone within earshot at the 19th hole or in the locker room. We all know at least one guy like this.
Industry Reads
Versant buying Full Swing for $530M. Simulator tech consolidating under a media owner that already holds GolfPass and GolfNow, meaning off-course golf is now a distribution play. Bruin Capital had bought Full Swing in 2021 for $160 million; the deal is expected to close before Dec. 31.
The State of Golf in 2026. 74% of AGM-member shops reported sales growth in 2024 against general equipment and apparel declines, with 80% of those top shops using RepSpark and half selling through digital channels. The framing is a K-shaped market: intentional operators posting double-digit growth while legacy-minded shops stagnate. Tariff refunds on misclassified goods are flagged as a real 2026 cash-flow lever.
Ecommerce as the backbone of green-grass retail. How an ecommerce platform became the spine of pro-shop retail and what the PGA of America's formal alignment with it means.
Thanks for reading, talk soon.
-BTG