The IX: Golf Thursday with Carly Grenfell, May 9, 2019
By The IX Team
What Makes Golf Cool — Interview with Sei Young Kim — Must-click links in women's golf
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What Makes Golf Cool
Seeing things on social media seems to be my inspiration for this newsletter each week, and today is no different! I saw a really great thread on Twitter that you can check out under Tweet of the Week. I encourage you to click on that tweet and check out the thread of different people’s ideas of what makes golf cool. Here are are a few of my favorite replies.
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No two rounds are the same. It’s always challenging, but at least one part of it is always fun. The people. The scenery. Moving your body. Being free from all other things (work, personal life, etc).
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It’s the endless pursuit. You can never beat it, but you can always find ways to get small victories.
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There’s not too many things you can do your whole life and work on. Unlike music it doesn’t take any talent and it’s not exclusive to find others like you. It’s the perfect thing.
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I have friends living in 6 other countries (Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, Australia, Switzerland) all because of golf.
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All of the irony. How it looks so simple but it’s ridiculously hard. It’s meant to be very exclusive but majority of golfers and warm and friendly.
This theme ties in perfectly with a couple of the things I’ve been up to at the PGA this week, too. On Monday, I spent the day at Target Field with Stacy Lewis and Phil Mickelson for the KPMG Women’s PGA Media Day. It wasn’t your traditional media day of interviews and sit-downs, however. It was legitimately cool. They set up three targets in the outfield of famous home runs or hits at Target Field. Stacy and Phil had to recreate these shots in golf form, so we got some awesome content out of the day. I included that social media recap in the links section!
This day was cool, in my mind, because it was a different pace. It was cool because when you think of golf, you probably don’t ever think of hitting golf balls into the stands at a baseball stadium. Working in social media in the golf industry is an incredibly unique experience, because I feel it is my responsibility to show people every side of golf that there is.
It’s a balance of feeding the golf-obsessed fans swing videos and other technicalities of the sport your average Joe probably wouldn’t care about or understand, and still finding room to try new things and show that golf is, in fact, cool. It took me awhile to really buy into the sport if we are being completely honest. But I tell you what, I play a lot of golf now and consume a lot of golf content outside of my own job. To circle back and reiterate some of the points above, golf brings people together. It challenges you. It can be an escape.
The list of what makes golf cool really, probably, could be endless. I was reminded of that in a meeting with some of my colleagues recently. We are getting ready to undergo a major re haul of the PGA’s main website, PGA.com. We were asked questions like what content inspires us and what would we want this platform to look like in a dream world. Everything seemed to circle back to simply providing a cool and diversified experience for consumers.
Our mantra at the PGA of America is to evolve the game of golf, so we should be able to accommodate everyone’s journey – from people searching for Topgolf facilities or Par-3 courses, to wanting to take lessons for the first time, to wanting to have a career in golf, to wanting to teach themselves how to play through video instruction. I think what makes golf cool is that we can accommodate and cater to every kind of golfer: young, old, inexperienced, experienced, boys, girls, men, women, disabled, black, white and you get my point.
Golf is cool because literally anyone can play it, however they want to play it. It’s cool because we have an opportunity to go against the status quo. We (in my situation, us at the PGA) just have to do a better job of showing all sides of the sport and communicating to all types of golfers and non-golfers. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. Growth doesn’t happen without that.
This Week in Women’s Golf
Reminder: First, the underlined words are the links. Second. CLICK these, even if you’ve already read them. Clicks = Attention from editors, producers and webmasters. Third, if you want to push out stuff you’ve written or read, email me! carlygrenfell@gmail.com
Petterson enjoying life as a regular mom, unsure of LPGA future.
Mediheal Championship ends in epic playoff and a missed flight for Bronte Law.
Sei Young Kim won the Mediheal Championship last week. Here’s how.
Qualifying for the 2019 US Women’s Open officially concludes.
Annie Park fighting inconsistency on tour in 2019.
PGA’s Kerry Haigh returns to prepare Hazeltine for LPGA major.
South Korean dominance will continue on the LPGA.
Stacy Lewis and Phil Mickelson were hitting dingers at Target Field this week.
Headspace named official mental training program for the LPGA.
The 2020 dates for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship were announced.
Here’s an update on which women’s college golf teams advanced in the NCAA’s.
14-year-old Alexa Pano qualifies for her first US Women’s Open.
Tweet of the Week
Five at The IX: Sei Young Kim
It was a wild finish at the Mediheal Championship last weekend that came down to a three-way playoff betwen Sei Young Kim, Bronte Law and Lee Jeong-eun6. Kim birdied the first extra hole to secure the victory, which was the eighth of her career. Here’s her post-round interview, fresh off her big win.
