Jim Dodson, writing in the North Carolina Pilot, has a ten step plan for saving golf.

I like a lot of his points, but a couple particularly intrigue me:

1) Make golf a 12 hole game.

I whole-heartedly agree with this one. But I think it should be 14. Nine is not enough to satisfy me. And 18 is often way too much. But 14 is a perfect number. I’ll often play 14 at my club. I play one through 13, then jump over a fairway and take 18 back in to the clubhouse.

Perfect.

3) Kids play free.

Absolutely. And golf course owner who are thinking about their long-term viability instead of short term profits should at least start offering major kids discounts.

The Bradenton Herald has a debate on whether women’s golf should be considered a major sport.

Sadly, I think that there are a lot of people out there who would debate as to whether even men’s golf is a major sport.

The answer to both is yes.

Golf, I think at this point has more right to the title major sport than Hockey.

I’ve not been playing well lately. My drives are still long and hitting the fairways, and my chipping and putting are always solid. But my iron and fairway wood play has been horrific. In recent weeks, I lost at least a club length—probably more—in distance on every club.

I took a lesson from my club pro, but his suggestions didn’t really do anything for me. He said I was breaking my wrists at impact, and gave me a few drills to work on. And it all worked on the range.  But when I went back on the course—all the gains were lost.

So I figured that it was time to go back to basics. I got out the notes that I had taken from my first lessons and headed to the course.

I took my usual drive off the first tee without a warmup, or even a practice swing (kind of a ritual with me; the first swing of the day is my best). Worked like a charm: I blasted the ball up the hill on the par four to 110 from the green.

For my second shot, I got out my 9-iron, took my grip and stance, and then stopped. Body angle. Ok. Ball position. Ok. Head. Ok.

Grip. Not ok. It was too far up in my right palm, and my right thumb was too high up on the shaft. I settled the club back into my fingers and moved the thumb. My grip instantly felt less tight.

I swung. It was a high, beautiful shot uphill to the elevated green. On target. Good distance.

What a big difference a little grip change makes.

For the rest of the round, I made a conscious effort to get the grip right. And my play was remarkably improved.

But why hadn’t my pro noticed the bad grip form?

I think that what happens is that—like my boys at the club restaurant, I’m on my best golf form behavior during a lesson at the range. So it’s likely that the bad grip didn’t show up for my pro to see.

Not sure what to do about that one.

Is golf too easy now? Jack Nicklaus says that the march of technology is killing the game. He points oiut that not one of the top five players is in the top 120 in driving accuracy and the game has become a matter of hitting it as long as you can without regard for the fairway.

Nicklaus blames the ball, but I think that there are a lot of factors involved here: giant drivers with sweet spots the size of Texas encourage go-for-broke swings; graphite shafts increase swing speed; and other technologies such as launch monitors and digital video analysis has allowed them to fine tune their games.

I also think that one of the most important factors may be that many of these guys are just bigger, stronger and better athletes than the great golfers of the past.

Nicklaus was 5-11. Watson is 5-9; Palmer, 5-10; Trevino, 5-7; Player, 5-7.

Singh, Woods and Mickelson are all listed at 6-2; Els is 6-3. Factor in more muscle tone, training regimens, better diets, etc., and you arrive at the same reason that athletes in other areas are setting new records.

Are today’s sprinters faster because they have better shoes? (Nike would like you to think so). Or are the speedos of the swimmers that much better? No. Is there some revolutionary leap in football equipment that makes the players run faster and hit harder? No. The athletes are just better (we can leave steroids out of this for now).

I don’t think we need to go about limiting the ball just yet.

This has GOT to be a rules violation.

Seriously. When I saw Darren Clarke’s outfits at this last weekend’s MCI Heritage, I started having flashbacks to the 1970s. His belt is YELLOW, for heaven’s sake.

I hope its not a trend.