Golf is stuck in the rough.
高尔夫运动已陷入困境。
While other sports are growing in viewership, golf is slowing down. The July 22 World Cup game between the U.S.A. and Portugal earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.3. The 2014 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat earned an average per-night rating of 9.3. The 2014 Super Bowl between the Seahawks and the Broncos got a household rating of 46.4—up from 42 in 2009, when the Steelers and Cardinals played.
正当其他运动项目的观众人数不断增长之际，高尔夫的观赛人数却在滑坡。市场研究机构尼尔森（Nielsen）公布的数据显示，7月22日巴西世界杯美国对战葡萄牙的小组赛家庭收视率为7.3。今年在圣安东尼奥NBA总决赛上马刺队对阵迈阿密热火队的场均收视率为9.3。西雅图海鹰队和丹佛野马队角逐超级碗时的收视率为46.4，高于2009年匹兹堡钢人和亚利桑那红雀对决时的42。
Meanwhile, golf’s 2014 Masters tournament in April received a rating of 1.5, down from 2.0 last year.
而与此同时，今年4月份的高尔夫大师赛收视率仅为1.5，低于去年的2.0。
And golf is not only slowing down on the screen. According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), golf course closings outpaced golf course openings in 2013 for the eighth straight year. Last year, 157.5 courses closed (the 0.5 represents a 9-hole course) and only 14 opened. In a recent newsletter, the NGF stated that the annual net reduction in the number of golf courses is now in the 130-160 range.
高尔夫的衰落不光体现在电视荧屏上。美国国家高尔夫基金会（National Golf Foundation）的数据显示，2013年高尔夫球场的关闭速度连续第八年超过开设速度，过去一年共有157.5家高尔夫球场关门歇业（0.5代表一个9洞球场），而新开业的只有14家。该基金会最近发布的新闻通讯称，目前高尔夫球场每年的净关闭数量介于130-160家之间。
Jim Furyk, the 2010 FedEx Cup champion currently ranked No. 12 in the world on the PGA Tour, finds the decline a bit puzzling. “We are definitely in a difficult phase in golf right now,” he tells Fortune. “It’s surprising to me, because [in the past] golf was a really nerdy sport. It’s a lot more socially acceptable now.”
2010年联邦快递杯（FedEx Cup）冠军，目前职业高尔夫巡回赛（PGA Tour）排名第12的吉米o福瑞克对这项运动的每况愈下感到困惑不解。他对《财富》杂志表示：“这让我震惊。因为[过去]高尔夫确实不讨人喜欢，但现在人们对它的接受程度要高得多了。”
On the other hand, PGA Junior League Golf has expanded from 1,500 youth participants in 2012 to 8,900 in 2013, a 490% increase. In 2014, participation doubled (18,000 kids). And if you ask Donald Trump, golf is “booming.” In a recent video interview with Golf.com, Trump said the National Golf Foundation “is run by a person who is incompetent” and he refuted the NGF’s findings: “I think their numbers are totally wrong.” His basis for this claim: he said that his own golf courses and resorts are having their best year, “by far.” But Trump’s luxury courses (the initiation fee at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, FL is around $250,000; at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor, NY, it’s $350,000 plus $18,000 annual dues) do not represent the majority of golfers and golf clubs.
另一方面，参加PGA青少年巡回赛的小选手人数从2012年1500人增至2013年的8900人，增幅为490%。今年的参赛人数更是翻了一番（达到1.8万人）。对房地产开发商唐纳德o特朗普来说，高尔夫运动“欣欣向荣”。最近接受Golf.com视频采访时，特朗普说美国国家高尔夫基金会“领导者不称职”。他不认同该基金会的结论：“我觉得他们的数据完全错了。”做出这一结论的基础是什么呢？特朗普指出，他的高尔夫球场和高尔夫度假村正经历着情况最好的一年，“而且要比其他年份好得多”。但特朗普的豪华球场不能代表大多数打高尔夫的人，也不能代表大多数高尔夫俱乐部（设在佛罗里达州西棕榈滩的特朗普国际高尔夫俱乐部的入会费为25万美元左右；设在纽约州布赖尔克利夫马诺的特朗普国家高尔夫俱乐部的入会费为35万美元，每年还要缴纳1.8万美元会费。）。
You could reasonably trace the sport’s decline to the pace of play. While a sport like hockey or basketball has plenty of nonstop action—athletes moving up and down the ice or court constantly—golf can be painfully slow. Colin Sheehan, head coach of the Men’s golf team at Yale University, thinks speed might be the issue. “What we really need is a culture of fast play, where there is less dilly-dallying,” he says.
人们可能会把高尔夫的衰落跟这项运动的节奏联系起来，这很合理。冰球或篮球等运动极具连贯性——运动员在冰场或球场上不停地来回穿梭——高尔夫却可以奇慢无比。耶鲁大学（Yale University）男子高尔夫球队总教练科林o希恩认为节奏也许是个问题：“我们真正需要的是一种快速运动的文化，一种少一些磨磨蹭蹭的文化。”
Jack Nicklaus, one of golf’s living legends, has been pushing for 12-hole courses since 2007; he even built a few. Some argue that the sport is just plain too difficult, and others have considered expanding the four-and-a-quarter inch width of the golf course hole all the way to 15 inches (about the size of a large pizza), which would be just over 350% wider. Sheehan has strong feelings about this proposal. “It’s ludicrous,” he says. “Golf is a game of history and tradition…. It’s ridiculous and takes away from the integrity of the game.”
杰克o尼克劳斯是依然健在的高尔夫传奇人物之一。2007年以来，他一直在推广12洞球场，甚至修建了几座这样的球场。有人说高尔夫太难了，还有人想到把高尔夫球洞的直径从4.25英寸一下扩大3.5倍以上，增加到15英寸（和大号披萨饼差不多大小）。这让希恩感到很不满：“这太荒唐了。高尔夫是一项历史悠久、富于传统的运动……这种想法很可笑，也失去了这项运动的本意。”
Young golfers may also be attracted to new innovations. That’s what Irish entrepreneur John McGuire hopes. At the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January, McGuire unveiled Game Golf, which allows users to quickly see their average shot distance for each club, average putts per hole, fairway accuracy, and other statistics. For $249, the Game Golf kit comes with a belt clip-on device that weighs about an ounce, and multiple “tags” that screw onto your clubs—one for each club. Before beginning a round, you screw the tags into the appropriate club-shaft, turn the belt-clip on, and tap the two together. This creates a GPS data-point; Game Golf has collected 2 billion of them so far from 33,000 courses around the world.
但参与高尔夫运动的年轻人也许会被一些创新所吸引。这正是爱尔兰企业家约翰o麦圭尔所希望的。1月份，在奥兰多举行的PGA商品展销会上，麦奎尔推出了Game Golf，用户通过这个产品可以迅速查看他们在各个俱乐部的平均击球距离、每一洞的平均推杆次数、在球道上的准确程度以及其他数据。Game Golf售价249美元，包括一个别在腰带上的“小盒子”，重约一盎司（约28克），以及多个用螺丝固定在球杆上的“扣子”——每只球杆一个。开球前，把这些“扣子”旋进球杆尾部，把“小盒子”打开，然后让二者接触一下。这样就建立了一个GPS数据点。目前，Game Golf已经在全球3.3万座高尔夫球场收集了20亿个这样的数据点提供的信息。
In the six months since its release, some three million shots have been recorded using Game Golf, which equates to about 45,000 rounds. According to the company, approximately 5,000 rounds of golf are uploaded per week from 55 countries around the world. It has also earned USGA approval, allowing it to be used in tournament play. Eric Jones, a PGA professional golf instructor at The Bridges in San Ramon, Calif., sees teaching potential in Game Golf. “I no longer have to ask a golfer how they played,” says Jones. “I can see it. Hole by hole and shot by shot. I can evaluate strategy: where they are placing the ball, which clubs they are selecting, and what decisions they are making.” His players are improving by an “average of 1.3 shots to 10.6 shots per round” using the new technology.
上市六个月以来，Game Golf记录下了300多万次挥杆，大约相当于4.5万场高尔夫。麦圭尔的公司表示，每星期他们都能从全球55个国家收集约5000场高尔夫的信息。美国高尔夫球协会（USGA）还同意在巡回赛上使用该产品。在加州圣拉蒙市The Bridges高尔夫球场工作的PGA职业教练埃里克o琼斯看到了Game Golf在传授高尔夫技能方面的潜力。他说：“我不再需要去问人们他们打的怎么样。我可以看到，每一洞，每一杆都看得到。我可以评估人们的策略，包括他们把球放在哪里，他们选择哪只球杆以及他们做出什么样的决定。”用了这项新技术后，琼斯的学员“每场球平均能提高1.3杆到10.6杆”。
Following a round, golfers can log on to the Game Golf website to view stats and data, and then, naturally, share them with friends. The idea is to help a golfer in New York compete for longest drive with his brother in California, or a woman in Florida attempt to hit more fairways than Lee Westwood, the 32nd ranked golfer in the world, whose statistics are also publicly available on the site.
打完一场高尔夫后，参与者可以登录到Game Golf网站上查看自己的状态和数据，当然，也可以和朋友们分享。这样，在Game Golf的帮助下，在纽约打高尔夫的人就可以和在加利福尼亚的兄弟比较谁的击球距离远；在佛罗里达的女士也可以和全球排名第32位的李o韦斯特伍德比较谁在球道上更为精准。韦斯特伍德在Game Golf网站公开了自己的击球数据。
Westwood is one of three pro golfers who own equity in Game Golf—the other two are Furyk and 2010 U.S. Open Champion Graeme McDowell (who appears to be aggressively diversifying his business interests—as Fortune reported, he is among an elite group of athletes to have just signed with Teneo Sports.) It’s still up for grabs if this technology can drum up more participation in the sport. Furyk won’t speculate, and only says, “Golf is supposed to be fun. I think that this well help make golf more fun.”
韦斯特伍德是参股Game Golf的三名职业高尔夫选手之一，另外两人是福瑞克和2010年美国公开赛冠军格雷姆o麦克道尔（麦克道尔看来正在积极地多方面发展自己的商业兴趣——《财富》杂志已经报道过，他是和咨询机构Teneo Sports签约的一批运动精英中一员）。这项技术能否吸引更多的人来打高尔夫尚无定论。对此福瑞克不打算进行猜测，他只是说：“高尔夫应该是一项有趣的运动。我觉得这会有助于它变得更有趣。”
To be sure, Game Golf is just one of many new technologies hitting the course: high-tech putters (TaylorMade’s Spider Si), drivers (Nike’s VRS Covert 2.0), golf balls (Bridgestone’s B330 series), shoes (Callaway’s X Cage-Pro), and even tees (Tornado Tee) are released every few years. (Meanwhile, Golf Digest recently wrote about the increasing usage of drones in golf, for photography purposes.) These are great for the avid golfer, but an amateur might not understand the need for these upgrades. Game Golf may not be the best known company trying to modernize the green, but it appears to be the one most aggressively targeting the young and social media-savvy. Can that resuscitate the sport?
当然，Game Golf只是高尔夫运动引进的许多新技术中的一项，其他新技术还包括高科技推杆（如TaylorMade生产的Spider Si推杆）、球杆（如耐克的VRS Covert 2.0球杆）、高尔夫球（如普利斯通的B330系列）、球鞋（Callaway的X Cage-Pro）甚至球座（Tornado Tee）——每隔几年就会出现新的技术，此外，《高尔夫大师》（Golf Digest）杂志最近提到了在高尔夫球场上越来越多地使用无人机，目的是拍照。这些对高尔夫迷来说都是很棒的东西，但外行人可能不理解这些技术方面的升级有何必要。在试图让高尔夫运动实现现代化的公司中，Game Golf也许不是最出名的，但它看来是最积极地以年轻人和社交媒体名人为目标的公司之一。这能让高尔夫运动复苏吗？
McGuire believes it can. But, of course, products that seek to make golf better won’t have much of a future if there aren’t any golfers to use them.
对此麦奎尔毫不怀疑。不过，如果打高尔夫的人不使用这些新技术，这些希望改善这项运动的产品就不会有什么未来可言。