Breaking news? Hardly.

Plenty of us have played golf. In December. In Minnesota. Later than this. And in far more absurd conditions.

But December golf in Minnesota always is an entertaining novelty.

That’s Steve Rodriguez of St. Paul – you’ll never guess his nickname, but it’s Chi Chi – chipping back to a green (I’m pretty sure it’s the ninth) at Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale earlier today. On any other day, Steve would have been going into his Chi Chi-sword-swinging routine on this shot, because he had just flown a wedge shot dead at the flagstick, hitting the green about 25 feet in front of the cup. Ball should have released and rolled to tap-in distance.

Except that greens in Minnesota tend to be just a bit firm in December. Steve’s shot bounced four feet in the air, as though he had landed it in the middle of the left lane of I-694, and scooted off the back of the frozen-hard green.

Steve laughed about it as he finished his round. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many people laugh while walking off the last green as the 30 or 40 hearty, stocking-capped souls who finished their rounds in the late afternoon today at Oak Marsh. The popular 18-hole course just north of the Woodbury border is, as usual, turning itself into Golf Central at the end of the Twin Cities golf season. Oak Marsh has been hosting up to 100 golfers daily, sometimes more, through late November and on into December. Club pro Steve Whillock is holding out hope of even a few more days of 2013 play. Seems like a good thing to me — the club takes in a few more dollars to help make up for a nightmarish spring season; the course, Whillock says, incurs little or no damage; and all these guys (I didn’t see a female while I was out there) seem to have a blast playing their final round (maybe) of the season in Minnesota.

Full disclosure here: I am partial to Mr. Whillock. He is a former teammate of mine on some strikingly mediocre Winona State teams of the late 1970s and early ’80s. To his credit, he got good at the game and carved out a successful career in it, including winning the Minnesota PGA Teaching Pro of the Year Award in 2003. Steve was a talented player even at WSU, but the talent of his that I remember best was his ability, as we rode in the school van up Highway 61, to scream at the top of his lungs at people out fishing or boating on the Mississippi River and to be heard, oh, I don’t know, it seemed like at least a half-mile away. Then he would slump back in his seat, the veins in his temple still throbbing from his screams, and say how much his head hurt. I suppose you had to be there, but it was humorous. Steve, allow me to embarrass myself, too. I believe my claim to road-trip fame on golf trips might have been my ability to stuff an entire moonpie from our sack lunches into my mouth.

Oh … I digress … back to Oak Marsh.

Steve Rodriguez was joined in today’s 35-degree heat wave (but there was no wind, so the cold was eminently tolerable) by Mike Petermeier of Woodbury and Bill Jahner of Somerset, Wis. None was entirely convinced he was playing his last round of the season up north — not even Jahner, in whose case it might be prudent to hang it up for the year knowing you scored that slick par on your final hole.

Nearby, Dan Chlebeck of Oakdale was one of the final five or six players on the course as twilight fell. From the right rough near the green on No. 18 — even with an uninvited visitor clicking a photo of him while in his backswing, a misdeed that would produce the Glare of Death from Tiger Woods — Chlebeck flipped this chip up to within 2 feet of the hole. He didn’t seem surprised. He said his long game isn’t so good, but he chips like that all the time.

Nice finish, Dan.

There’s no moral or lesson or really even a nugget of information in all this. Just thought I’d pass along a few observations on an end-of-days, for 2013 at least, afternoon at the golf course.

I just responded to a Facebook post from Links Magazine, which bills itself as “The Best of Golf,” a billing I find it hard to disagree with, even if it is going to take me at least one, maybe two, full Powerball hits for me to reach a stratum that would get me onto the remarkable courses they write about.

Anyway, the post has to do with declining numbers of people playing golf.

Here is the post, followed by my response. I’d be interested in hearing other people’s takes. By all means, please respond here.

Every year, the National Golf Foundation (NGF) publishes a study on how the game is doing, both the numbers of players and the reasons for the game’s growth or decline. Right now, it’s in decline: Participation slipped just a bit from 2011 to 2012 (25.7 to 25.3 million, small enough to be a statistical error), but since 2005 the game has lost 4.7 million players, a disturbingly large number. Studying those who dropped the game, the NGF divides them into two types: “Once Committed” and “Never Committed,” with the latter—who never played more than 10 rounds in their lives—the much larger group. The “Onces,” who used to play like the rest of us, cited time and money as their principal reasons for giving it up, followed by health, lack of playing partners, and other activities. The “Nevers” primarily gave up golf for other activities that were more fun. Golf, they said, is too hard, too frustrating, and makes them too uncomfortable. Not enough fun. Interesting. Think about it.

My response:

As a “Once,” I respectfully disagree with the “Nevers.” Golf is indeed fun, in a damnable sort of way. Those of us who golf know what I mean. But golf likely never would captivate the “Nevers” who don’t believe it is fun, and it never would have — just as my idea of fun wouldn’t be to hoist a jib (is that what they do?) in a sailing league. To each his own. Golf shouldn’t mount a campaign to install 10-inch-diameter cups and concave greens as a way to make it “more fun.”
The “Onces,” if you ask me, are more crucial to the game of golf than the “Nevers” are. As a “Once,” regrettably, I agree that time and cost are huge barriers. It pains me to say that, and I can’t say I know what to do about it — though I am willing to pay less for a round of golf on a well-plotted course that isn’t what we consider to be in immaculate condition.
Speaking of fun, can I interest anyone in a fun offseason golf read? “Fore! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses, 1897-1999.” Due out within weeks. Find out more at ForeGoneGolf.com. Yes, it’s a shameless plug