The PGA Tour is, statistically, an old white guy’s sport — but it shouldn’t be.
When the Waste Management Phoenix Open came to Scottsdale last month, 27-year-old Rickie Fowler — now ranked No. 5 in the world — went to a gripping sudden death playoff with world No. 14 Hideki Matsuyama, a 24-year-old from Japan.
Golfers like Fowler and Matsuyama, along with 22-year-old world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, have made an impact on the tour since Tiger Woods’ decline left a vacancy on golf’s center stage.
At ASU, Sun Devil senior golfer Jon Rahm of Spain sits as the No. 1 amateur golfer in the world (a title previously held by both Spieth and Fowler).
Despite the diversity and youth found in the world’s top golf crop, a study from Sports Business Daily in 2011 showed that 64.2 percent of PGA fans were male, 38.2 percent were between the age of 45 and 64. Finally, 84.2 percent of PGA fans were white.
While diversity is an issue in its own right (which could probably take up a monologue of many more articles), the PGA’s biggest challenge is the one it faces in garnering a younger audience.
This year’s Phoenix Open was a crowded one, drawing more than half a million fans for the week and 201,000+ fans for the third round on Saturday, Feb. 6. The appeal for the tournament is obvious: Some of the world’s best golfers (like the young Rickie Fowler or ASU alum Phil Mickelson) play on a sunny Scottsdale course that includes the raucous stadium hole on 16.
This weekend, the PGA Tour stops at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Florida, and I couldn’t help but think that the tournament atmosphere will likely not compare to the party that is the Phoenix Open.
Perhaps the PGA should try to model its other events after the one at TPC Scottsdale.
Whatever the PGA’s tactic will be, it nonetheless needs to show young people – and other races, perhaps — why golf is fun.
As Sun Devil students are represented in NCAA golf by the No. 1 amateur in the world, study in the same metropolis as a party-like PGA event, and are roughly the same age as the world’s No. 1 pro, there should be a greater popularity for golf within the ASU student body.
After seeing a nail-biting finish to last month’s Phoenix Open, I’m confident that 20-somethings just don’t know what they’re missing.
Reach the reporter at mattjlayman@gmail.com or follow @Mattjlayman on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
