I’m not one that knows every professional golfer’s name and stats by heart, but with a shared home state and a couple other loose ties, Zac Blair is one I’ve kept an eye on in recent years.

This is why, perhaps, I first noticed this conversation on Twitter that impressed me on an individual level with Zac’s willingness to learn and an industry level as ideas for the sport as a whole began to emerge.

It starts with this tweet:

Massive putting greens/putting courses seem like the biggest wast of space to me… what are everyone's thoughts?

— Zac Blair (@z_blair) July 11, 2017

I like this for two reasons:

1. He’s not playing in a world of absolutes, saying “it seems” implies he recognizes he could be wrong.
2. But then he supports that sentiment by asking people to chime in and get a dialogue going.

So often social media is used to jump on your soapbox and rant, but that’s not what happened here. Zac shared his view, opened up a discussion, and suddenly some really interesting ideas and perspectives started to swirl.

I care more about whether dogs are allowed on the course.

— Brendan Quirk (@BrendanQuirk1) July 11, 2017

Fun putting course is a great place to unwind after the round. I like the small putting greens by the first tee. Dislike big putting greens.

— Sean Martin (@PGATOURSMartin) July 11, 2017

Depends on the vibe of the course. At resorts like Bandon and Ballyneal they are great, at a daily use place, they make less sense.

— Patrick Koenig (@PatrickjKoenig) July 12, 2017

Clubs in car. Putter in hand. Beer in hand. Bluetooth speaker in hand. Group of friends. Competition. HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE FUN TIME?

— b cap (@ChoiceSelection) July 13, 2017

Disagree. Used for ancillary activities, intro 2 golf, & engaging if done right. Massively important to ops. Gets people using the club=$.

— Cowan Golf (@cowan_golf) July 11, 2017

We have an 18 hole practice putting green at @TiburonNaples. Members and guests love it and we've found ways to drive revenue with it.

— Ricky Potts (@rickyleepotts) July 12, 2017

https://twitter.com/cagolftravel/status/884838075234369536

Yes there was some nuance lost along the way about putting greens vs putting courses, but I think this sort of debate is exactly what sports like golf need.

What do we have? Is it working? Why/why not?

Perspectives
But even more, I think what’s most interesting is that pretty much everyone disagreed with Zac.

Zac is a pro. Zac also, if I remember right, doesn’t drink. So it’s no surprise that it was on social aspects that most people disagreed.

I can see if you light them for after dinner drinking and gambling. Don't see it as a practice facility per se.

— Keith O'Halloran (@kohalloran25) July 11, 2017

But Zac is building a course and needs to understand how the rest of us think. Like Zac, our proximity to golf may blur our view on how “normal” people view it but rarely do we challenge those beliefs as Zac has.

A tip of the had to him for that because this isn’t the first time he’s tried to learn from others…

…and it likely won’t be the last.

We’re all so close to golf that we sometimes how trouble seeing the sport as our guests or local golfers do. With an imperfect perspective like, we’d do well to follow Zac’s lead on this one.

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