Giles Morgan, the head of sponsorship for HSBC, one of golf’s biggest sponsors, has said that golf needs to radically rethink both the format and the way it is presented if it wants to attract players to the amateur game, as well as sponsors to professional tournaments.
All of HSBC’s golf sponsorship deals are up for renewal in 2015 and Morgan is concerned that the game is not moving with the times.
“It’s a crossroads moment,” said Morgan in an interview with BBC Sport. “I think that we will look back over this period and see where golf has gone. There are lots of positives about golf, but the world, particularly with digital communications and people’s time, has changed in the last 15 years beyond anybody’s wildest dreams.
I’m not sure that golf has kept up with that change. And therefore I think, because it attracts high investment, has famous superstars, its men and women, its old and young, and it’s relatively healthy, there are lots of good reasons it can look at all of the ingredients and then re-bake the cake.”
He added: “I don’t think the sport’s in trouble, but I do think that those who are in charge of the game need to be brave. They need to take some risks.”
Alluding to the success that domestic and international cricket has enjoyed in adopting new formats, Morgan added: No-one would have said 25 years ago that Twenty20 cricket would be the success it is and it has grown. It doesn’t mean that through Test cricket those who are the purists don’t still get their diet. The Ashes is still vital to the game of cricket, but Twenty20 has embraced a whole younger generation to play broadly the same game.”
Although he feels that 72-hole stroke play tournaments should still provide the backbone of the professional game, Morgan believes there are enough weeks in the calendar to provide tournaments with new faster formats, including foursomes alternate shot format matches and events that include both the top men and women. He would also like to see similar technologies to those used in cricket’s Big Bash to allow for players to be interviewed mid-round. “It would be informative and instructional and would bring more people into the game,” he said. “I think time and format are the sort of things that can be looked at relatively easily, that could preserve all of the greatness of the game, but make it a bit more rapid for people’s consumption.”
He added: “I believe golf has an opportunity to make itself more attractive and if they do, more sponsors will come in, more television will follow, more spectators will follow and the virtuous circle will grow. But if in 10 years time people are not engaging in the sport, not playing it or watching it, and it’s not relevant to the people we want to do business with, it follows that it won’t be the right way to engage with them.”