Jack Nicklaus :: Golf ‘too slow, expensive and difficult’

• Nicklaus: Golf “too slow, too expensive and too difficult”
• Stresses the need to keep older golfers in the game
• Also says golf needs a younger fanbase and playing base

Jack Nicklaus has outlined three major problems currently affecting the world of golf, branding the game ‘too slow, too expensive and too difficult’.

The 18-time champion also stressed the need for attracting younger people into the game, although admitted being ‘totally lost’ when it comes to social media, and says more needs to be done to stop older golfers dropping out of the game.

“The game of golf is too slow, it’s too expensive, and it’s too difficult” – Jack Nicklaus

“The game of golf is too slow, it’s too expensive, and it’s too difficult,” said Jack Nicklaus ahead of the Memorial Tournament. “Those are the three elements that I see are problems for golf.”

The pace of play has been discussed a length recently, with world No.1 Rory McIlroy saying in a BBC interview that ‘people don’t have five or six hours a day to go and play golf’, while 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie has also been very forthright on the subject, calling slow play ‘a massive problem’.

Expense has been a long-standing issue surrounding the sport, while Nicklaus believes older golfers are giving up the game because it’s getting too difficult.

“You always want to have a younger fanbase,” said Jack Nicklaus. “I think the game of golf is trying to create a younger fanbase and a younger playing base, but it’s not only about junior programmes.

“I’m concerned about keeping older people in the game because you find that the game gets so difficult that the older people want to drop out of the game. You want to keep everybody in the game and those issues need to be addressed constantly.”

Jack Nicklaus :: Do you agree?

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