In the Wall Street Journal, there’s an interesting article on the golf industry’s attempt to reinvent itself. You know the background basics: the industry took Tiger Woods and retiring boomers as a sign from the Golf Gods and began an unprecedented period of expansion. But the millions of players did not materialize (at least not for the long term). Now during the Great Recession, courses and manufacturers are worried about their futures. In “The Battle for the Soul of the Game,” author John Paul writes:

Golf’s leadership is responding to the situation with more urgency than ever. At golf’s big annual merchandise show in Orlando, Fla., last month, I sat through several state-of-the-industry hand-wringing sessions. Nobody in golf is complacent. The PGA of America is pushing a new, all-points initiative called Golf 2.0, whose goal is to make the game “more relevant” to lapsed golfers and others, especially women and minorities, it has identified as underserved. At last weekend’s annual meeting of the U.S. Golf Association in Houston, the incoming president, Glen Nager, sounded downright radical (by USGA standards) in urging golf to make itself more accessible.

From all this verbiage, one phrase from Nager’s speech stood out for me as best representing the predicament for golf’s traditionalists. At the end of a list of worthy goals—making golf more enjoyable to play, more affordable and more welcoming—he added that this must be done “without fundamentally changing the game itself.” The game itself, of course, is different than the business practices that support the game, many of which (like poor customer tracking and feckless rangers) are indeed hidebound and need to be revamped. But Nager also stressed that the USGA’s top priority is to protect golf’s core values—to preserve, as he put it, “the true spirit of the game as embodied in its ancient and honorable traditions.” But it’s unclear if that spirit is still viable for an industry that hopes to expand its customer base, as per the Golf 2.0 vision, to 40 million players by 2020 from 26 million players now? Never mind gaining those customers, especially young ones, in an ever more time-squeezed, electronically addicted culture.

Paul wonders if it’s possible to appeal to the modern masses while without losing the traditional game. Some of the ideas floated by “reformers” are larger holes, different sets of rules and non-conforming equipment. Those, he rightly points out, terrify traditionalists..

There are, however, two solutions that don’t involve a golf schism. First, PGA Professionals, course owners, rangers, etc. all need to work together to make sure people play the proper tees. I believe that playing from the wrong tees is the number one reason for long rounds, high scores and unhappy players.

Second, the powers that be should encourage people to try match play. It makes the game more social, and ends the time consuming spectacle of guys plumb bobbing for their eighth stroke.

Known for the vast majority of its life as The Los Angeles Open, the Northern Trust Open also has flown under the banner of the Nissan Open and—in the days of the celebrity hosted event—the Glen Campbell-Los Angeles Open. Since 1973, it has been played at the fabled Riviera Country Club, with the exception of 1983, when the club hosted the PGA Championship and 1998, when it hosted the US Senior Open.

The tournament and the Club have gained a place in golf history. In the 1938 tournament, Babe Zaharias became the first woman to play in a men’s professional tournament. Ben Hogan won there in 1942, 1947 and 1948—which, along with his 1948 US Open victory at Riviera, gave the place the sobriquet “Hogan’s Alley.” Three victories in two years at Riviera is an amazing accomplishment. Finally, the 1992 Nissan Los Angeles Open gave amateur Tiger Woods his first spot in a professional tournament—a favor he has repaid by never again returning to the event.

The inaugural Los Angeles Open was played in 1926 at the Los Angeles Country Club. The next year, it moved to El Caballero Country Club in Tarzana. It moved again in 1928 to the Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Open made its first appearance at the Riviera Country Club in 1929 and 1930. In the 1930s the event was held at the Wilshire Country Club, the Hillcrest Country Club, The Los Angeles Country Club an Griffith Park.

Following a break for World War II, the Los Angeles Open was played at the Wilshire Country Club in 1944, and then for the next nine years at Riviera. In the 1950s, it was played at Fox Hills Country Club, Inglewood Country Club and Inglewood. Rancho Park hosted the event from 1956 to 1972.

Riviera Country Club, the current host of the Northern Trust - Los Angeles Open is one of the country’s fabled courses. The course opened in 1926 as the Los Angeles Athletic Golf Course with George Thomas listed as its principal designer. Credit, however, also is given to Alister Mackenzie and Billie Bell. After several redesigns, Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore made an attempt in 1992 to return Riviera’s bunkers to the original Thomas-MacKenzie design.

Thomas’ work at Riviera is oft cited for its risk-reward design. The first, for example, is a short par 5 that has a tee elevated some 75 feet above the fairway. It’s possible to make an Eagle on this hole, but thanks to out of bounds left and a ditch crossing the fairway, a wayward drive can drive to score to a double bogey. The par 4 eighth has two fairways separated by a ditch. Ten, a par 4 , is drivable, but greenside bunkers make it a risky proposition. The eleventh and twelfth are defended by ditches, bunkers and trees. I also think it has one of the great finishing holes—a par 4 with a mostly blind tee shot and a green situated in a natural amphitheater.

The course also has a bit of humor. The par 3 sixth has a bunker in the middle of the green. I wonder what Hogan thought of that. For my part, Riviera is on my list of courses I’d most like to play.

While Hogan had four victories at Riviera, he had only three Los Angeles Open Titles. The records for most victories at the Los Angles Open are held by Macdonald Smith (1928, 1929, 1932, 1934) and Lloyd Mangrum (1949, 1951, 1953, 1956). A complete list of winners follows:

Ad Age has an interesting interview with the PGA Tour’s Chief Marketing Officer, Tom Wade.

Wade has some interesting things to say about the younger players and globalization. And then there’s this:

Ad Age: How important is Tiger’s return?

Mr. Wade: Well, it’s very important. But the sport is not dependent on any one player, and never has been and never will be. And Tiger Woods will be the first to tell you that. At the same time, Tiger is arguably the greatest to play—an exciting player and exciting personality. He’s a huge asset for the PGA Tour.

Competitively, what we are most excited about is the young, new breed taking on the established stars. You have a situation where Tiger has work to be done—you know, he wants to win the most PGA Tour events, he wants to win the most majors—and he is highly, highly dedicated to that. And Phil [Mickelson] is not done. I’m sure he wants to put an exclamation point on a Hall of Fame career. And to have those established stars and these young guns battling it out for primacy is very exciting to us.

When faced with a long carry over a hazard, stop focusing on the ground, and instead pick a target line using a point well above the fairway such as a distant tree, or the top of the visible flagstick. This takes the hazard out of your line of vision, forcing you to think of something other than the water (or brush). Thinking about the hazard—even thinking you’ve got to get over it—makes it much more likely that you’ll lose a ball.

TaylorMade RocketBallz Driver

I’m not entirely sure about the name of this new TaylorMade line. RocketBallz to me sounds a bit like one of those Japanese television cartoons my boys watch. I have visions of characters with odd eyes, spiky technicolor hair and jumpsuits affecting bizarre poses and shouting things like: “Behold the Power of ... ROCKETBALLZ!”

Name aside, this driver has the usual TaylorMade cornucopia of technology. It’s got “Flight Control Technology,” which allows players to adjust the loft and face angle.  A lightweight shaft and grip promotes faster swing speed for more distance and the speed-enhancing head aerodynamics promotes faster head speed for more distance. And the venerable Inverted Cone Clubface Technology promotes more speed and distance on off-center hits. Visually, you’ve got the white crown and black face, which TaylorMade says makes alignment easy and eliminates glare on top.

I think they ought to do the driver in spiky flames of orange, yellow and blue.

“Behold the Power of ... ROCKETBALLZ!”

First, congratulations to Phil Mickelson for his 40th Tour Victory. My #6 prediction for this year was that Lefty wouldn’t win a tournament this year. I’m happy to be wrong. My reasoning was that the young talent would edge him (and Tiger) out. Not yet, apparently.

It was nice to see Phil and Tiger in a final round pairing. That’s happened far less than most golf fans would like—just nine times. Phil holds the lead in the series, and has won the last five consecutive times the two have had a final round pairing.

Phil looked really sharp, particularly in his putting. When Tiger holed out the sand shot on the par 3 twelfth, Phil’s answer with the 30 foot putt was a definitive statement.

And speaking of putting: Tiger looked positively lost on the greens. After the round, he said “I could not see my lines. I couldn’t get comfortable.” It showed. He was missing putts I never thought he’d miss: two footers; five footers. it was almost as though the pressure had gotten to him.

The Mainstream Golf Media tries to put a nice spin on it, but I think Tiger is a long way from winning. He’s a very good PGA Tour player these days, but he’s not where the main stream media wants him. Faldo agrees. During the CBS broadcast, he said “Tiger’s got a good enough game to get into contention, but not good enough to finish it off.”

Part of it is that I think Tiger no longer intimidates his opponents into making mistakes. Today, it was Tiger making the mistakes. In fact, he hasn’t had that intimidation factor working in his favor since YE Yang backed him down at the PGA Championship.

Phil returns next week. No word on when Tiger plays next.

I was pleasantly surprised at how restrained the television coverage was with regard to the celebrities on the course. In my memory, past years have been much more egregrious in allowing the celebs camera mugging time. It actually seemed that many of the celebs were serious about their golf

Part of that may be that golf had its own super-celebrity in the mix, Tiger Woods. Even better: he was racing up the leaderboard, getting himself into a solo 3 at -11, four shots off leader Charlie Wi.

Ken Duke, who’s from Bill Clinton’s hometown of Hope, Arkansas, is in second. Duke, 43, is on Tour by virtue of having won the 2011 Nationwide Tour Championship, but he’s no stranger to the Tour. He first qualified in 2004, but didn’t keep his cut and returned to the Nationwide. He finished at the top of the Nationwide money list in 2006 and returned to the Tour in 2007. He played on Tour in 2008 and 2009, but in that final year finished 158th and returned to the Nationwide for 2010 and 2011.

CBS did a good job, I think, with the slow-motion cameras on the amateurs, comparing their swings to the pros. What was most evident was how many of the amateurs (all of the amateurs?) had over-the-top moves. I am going to work on that.