Bellinghamgolfer.com

Geoff Shackelford has never been afraid to voice his opinions about the game he loves. Even if it’s meant upsetting a few folk along the way.

All eight of his previous books had earned widespread acclaim, and while his ninth certainly had its admirers and sold its share of copies, it also made Geoff Shackelford a lot of enemies within the golf industry. ‘The Future of Golf’, originally self-published in January 2004 with a really cool Tommy Naccarato-designed/George Thomas-inspired cover (Seattle’s Sasquatch Books bought the book a year later and re-released it with a different cover, and a flattering, appreciative foreword by Nick Faldo), was “radioactive”, Shackelford says now. “People thought I was nuts for writing it," he adds.
The book, for which Shackelford added new material to already-published columns from Golfdom, the LA Times, Golf Magazine, Golf World and Links, focused on how the author felt the game had lost its way. The governing bodies, he argued, had been negligent in maintaining a check on equipment standards; club and ball-makers were concerned only with “moving product” and improving their bottom line but failing to create equipment that made the game more “fun, affordable or interesting”; except for a small handful of architects designing low-budget, low-maintenance courses full of interest and subtlety, most had rejected the important lessons of their predecessors and become obsessed with building holes that resisted par; the game’s soul had become lost in corporatespeak; pro golfers were now coddled softies upset with trivialities like poorly-raked bunkers; and predictable/unimaginative Championship set-ups now confined players to predictable and unimaginative golf rather than giving them freedom to express themselves.  
“It felt like a dark period for the game,” says Shackelford. “The manufacturers were beginning to have far more influence than they’d ever had (Shackelford called out Titleist’s Wally Uihlein numerous times), and the USGA, fearful of another damaging lawsuit, just let it all happen. They were losing credibility, and giving up control of the game to entities that probably didn’t have its best interests in mind.”
Many a copy belonging to Shackelford sympathisers now look positively antique with frayed edges, dozens of post-it-notes stuck to its pages, masses of highlighted text, and a lot of scribbled notes. Every page has some interesting factoid or passage only someone with Shackelford’s knowledge, experience, and access could possibly have written and which makes you smile, laugh, nod, frown, gnash your teeth, and lift your eyebrows…even now. But while it’s incredibly insightful and at times amusing, at some point you actually become aware that Shackelford comes across as something of a kvetch.
If his words in various publications over the preceding years hadn’t given readers reason enough to regard him as a bit of a downer, quick to find fault and happy to criticize with a sarcastic jab anything that apparently veered from his Golden Age ideals, seeing it all in one place and spread out over 222 scathing pages, definitely confirmed it. And 17 years of geoffshackelford.com which emanated from the book, plus his new Quadrilateral newsletter, have just added fuel to the fire.
Shackelford’s not bothered though. “I’ve never had a problem being called a downer,” he says. “If people want to think of me as being a downer for pointing out stuff I think detracts from the game, then so be it. People say to me if you’re negative in any way at all, you’re not growing the game. And if you’re not giving manufacturers free-rein to develop whatever they want then you must be anti-capitalist.”
You can almost picture Shackelford in a Jurassic Park Jeff Goldblum disguise saying “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”
Somewhere else people have been known to do something before considering the effects is social media which was in its very formative years when ‘The Future of Golf’ first appeared. Facebook launched a month after the book surfaced and two years before the arrival of Twitter which Shackelford joined in February 2009, and where he now has over 70,000 followers.
“It’s impossible to evaluate how big an impact the internet and social media have had on golf,” he says. “On the whole I’d say it has been extremely positive. Everyone can chime in and share their opinion which isn’t always ideal, of course, but it’s certainly better than only a very select few having a voice.”
The internet, Shackelford adds, has shone a light on numerous aspects of the game that wouldn’t have received much coverage without it, and given rise to dozens of quality bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, and other commentators. “No Laying Up, The Fried Egg, and a few others have large audiences because they’re authentic,” he says. “They obviously love the game and know what they’re talking about. And they create really interesting content. How can that not be a good thing for golf?”
Besides being able to read, watch, and listen to this content, the internet is also responsible for a number of other developments that have happened in the game since ‘The Future of Golf’ was published, and which Shackelford certainly appreciates. Even though golf has a perfectly valid reputation for being a slow adopter, it’s unlikely the construction of so many short courses would have happened quite as quickly as it has, if at all. “There’s a lot of really cool stuff happening,” says Shackelford. “The everyday game still takes cues from the pro tours, but not nearly as many as it used to. The PGA Tour isn’t really the model for the everyday game now. Its values are becoming different, and the two sides of the game are drifting further apart. I’m certainly not keen on where the pro game is headed - I said the PGA Tour was becoming a bore in the book, and nothing has happened in the years since to change my mind. But I’m very bullish about the everyday game.”
With that in mind, Shackelford sees a day coming when a golf club bites the bullet and says no more with course lengthening. Sometime in the early 1990s, the shift from metal spikes to plastic cleats gained momentum (slowly, of course). He can’t be certain, but Shackelford believes Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles may have been the first club to actually outlaw spikes entirely. “And I’m surprised something similar hasn’t happened with the ball,” he says. “At some point, a club is going to grow tired of making changes forced on them by ever-changing equipment and stipulate a certain ball be used on its course.” It’s an odd dynamic that golf courses are selling the very clubs and balls in their pro shops that give them little choice but to spend a lot of money on making their course longer. “It can’t happen yet because manufacturers aren’t selling a rolled-back ball,” says Shackelford. And who’s going to mandate the use of 1990s balatas?
But what about that rolled-back ball? Shackelford called for it in ‘The Future of Golf’ and devoted a whole chapter to promoting a ‘Classic Course Ball’. That chapter actually began with a quote from then Callaway Vice-President, Larry Dorman, who echoed Shackelford’s thoughts - “We believe that if the PGA Tour decides it wants to regulate its members with a tour-spec ball we would be in favor of it. We have the same concerns about the record book and the sanctity of great old golf courses as they do.”
Times have obviously changed a great deal since then, and the very thought of the Tour having concerns about the sanctity of old courses and regulating its members with a ‘tour-spec ball’, and Callaway agreeing to it, seems laughable now. Shackelford, however, believes manufacturers are making some poor business decisions over equipment rollbacks and are backing themselves into a corner. “I don’t get it,” he says. “Well, I do, because they’re publicly-traded companies that don’t want to rock the boat and make big changes. But I think the USGA and R&A are close to making some important decisions that will limit the distance the ball goes, and if/when they do, the manufacturers are going to have to market balls they’ve been contesting for years.”
Shackelford is curious to see if the Super League (“or whatever comes next for elite professional golf – but something is definitely coming”) would adopt the new equipment standards. “The new league would obviously be an entertainment product that doesn’t necessarily want what’s best for the future of the sport,” he says. “But my hope is it sort of goes the same way as NASCAR which seems to be focused on making driver skill more important. IndyCar too. The finish of this year’s Indy 500 showed how compelling driver skill is. Thinking the new league could champion faster and more interesting professional golf maybe too much to hope for though.”
Geoff Shackelford’s ‘The Future of Golf’ painted a pretty bleak picture in 2004, and pointed fingers at a lot of people. But it also suggested steps golf could take to get better. It’s taken a few, he says, but sadly regressed in other areas. After seeing recent pictures of Augusta National building what look like new back tees at the 11^th and 15^th holes, he is losing a little hope in club Chairman Fred Ridley. But he is expecting good things from Mike Whan, the incoming CEO at the USGA. “His recent comments about not really understanding why some people had a problem with equipment bifurcation were very revealing,” Shackelford says. “He obviously did a great job at the LPGA and was the right man, I think, to replace Mike Davis. But he does go off-script a bit, and will need to be careful. I think he could have a very positive influence on the game though.”
And Geoff Shackelford will be there to document it all, rubbing up people the wrong way perhaps and  occasionally offending some with caustic remarks, but always…always with a view to protecting the future of golf.