More data points in the WSJ piece about rising popularity of golf:
- Rounds played up 14% in 2020 and increased almost every year since (4.8% decline in 2018 and 1.5% rise in 2019 for context)
- Junior participation 58% higher in 2025 vs 2019
- Off-course participation up 63% vs 2019
- Gen Z household spending on golf grew the most of all age groups
- 19M Americans only play off-course, big runway to convert
- Industry consolidation has cleared out the weaker players (Nike, Adidas's TaylorMade, Golfsmith all gone)
- Acushnet $GOLF nearly tripled over 6 years, Callaway $CALY in the article) up 50% since announcing Topgolf sale
Tom Brady reveals the overlooked reason practice squad players never succeed in the NFL
It’s not a lack of talent.
Brady watched it happen for 20 years. The pattern was undeniable.
As soon as a practice squad player got promoted and had to perform under real pressure, they crumbled. It took years for Brady to understand why.
“There’s 53 guys on the active roster and there’s now 15 guys on the practice squad. So there’s 68 players. But those practice squad players are important because if anybody on the active roster gets hurt, they can get elevated to the squad.”
“These scout team receivers would come in and practice with the scout team and they do really well. And I’d be watching. I’m like, ‘Man, we got to get that guy. Let’s get him up on offense. He’s making a lot of plays.’”
“Then all of a sudden, we’re like, ‘Hey man, you’re doing really well. You got to come over here and deal with the pressure of succeeding now that you have expectation.’”
“And these guys are like, they weren’t prepared for it. So whatever we saw in practice against where there was not a lot of pressure, now when they’re put in a situation where there’s an expectation for performance, they’ve never had to personally deal with that and then they fail.”
“And then what I realized was a lot of guys on those practice squads, they don’t want to be elevated to the roster.”
“They’re very happy living this life where they could tell their family and friends, which I have no problem with that. But the reality is a lot of guys don’t want the pressure of dealing with top.”
Twenty years in the league and seven Super Bowl rings later, Brady learned that talent wasn’t the hardest thing to find.
It was people who actually wanted the pressure that comes with being great.
At 100 years old, WWII veteran Bernie Smoot still drives his convertible Ford Mustang to play golf five days a week, shoots in the low 80s and shares wisdom from 74 years in the game: “You live to play golf. But to reach my age, you play golf to live.”
To celebrate Bernie — who landed at Omaha Beach just months after graduating high school — his PGA Coach and friend Jeff Maynor organized a tournament in his honor at the University of Maryland Golf Course, where Bernie plays five days a week.
Maynor, the course’s PGA Director of Golf, has run a @PGAHOPE program there for Veterans since 2019, which Bernie loves to support. The tournament for Bernie was a chance for those Veterans to thank him and celebrate his love for the game.