Golf Expo May Pick Up Pace on Links

Don Sandefur thinks something can be done about the worst problem in amateur golf--slow play. The answer, he says, is education.

A few years ago, he recalls, taking four hours to play 18 holes was considered by some golfers to be excessive. Today, a round sometimes takes five or six hours of agonizingly slow play. Sandefur, director of professional services for the Southern California Professional Golf Assn., says it’s because many of today’s golfers simply have never been shown the correct way to play.

Sandefur and his colleagues at the PGA have taken a step toward correcting that problem with Southern California’s first major consumer golf exposition today and Sunday at the Anaheim Stadium Exhibition Center, 2000 S. State College Blvd. Golf Expo admission is $6 for adults, $3 for ages 60 and older and children under 12. Hours are 10 a.m.-9 p.m. today and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.

A burgeoning interest in golf and the desire of teaching pros to share their expertise prompted the show. The chief goal is educating the golfing public, according to Sandefur.

“Golf is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. today,” he says. The National Golf Foundation, an independent research organization in Jupiter, Fla., predicts a 40% increase in the number of golfers in the United States by the year 2000.

Women make up about 23% of golfing enthusiasts, and 11% of golfers are under 19, according to the Southern California PGA.

There are about 2.5 million golfers in Southern California, but many of them don’t know as much about the game as they should, according to Sandefur.

“They don’t have a plan of attack,” he says of the neophyte golfers clogging the links. “They don’t play alertly.”

For efficient play, he says, golfers should make their club selection while approaching the ball and should watch where the ball lands after they hit it, rather than spending 10 minutes looking for it. And they should be ready to play their shot immediately after the person before them hits and “not fiddle around and then walk another--or ride another--30 yards or whatever.”

Sandefur believes that attending even a few of the Expo seminars is likely to “double knowledge of the game . . . and that’s going to help everyone.”

Thirty-minute educational seminars on rules, equipment and other aspects of the game will be offered every hour on the hour at the show. Other attractions include: 10 hitting cages staffed by PGA teaching pros, who will provide free individual instruction; free golf-club fittings by PGA members; a putting green; displays of the latest in equipment from golf club manufacturers; exhibits of golf fashion apparel, accessories and gifts, and information on golf schools, golf-related art, golf gifts and golf tour packages.

One of the big attractions is bound to be the free 5-minute golf lessons from PGA pros. Perry Dickey, president of the Southern California PGA and general manager of Seacliff Country Club in Huntington Beach, admits that the brief lessons will be “somewhat of a quick fix.” But he believes people will at least be able to pick up a few pointers, and adds that there’s nothing to stop a person “from going through the line again.”

Seminars on rules will be held each day, Sandefur says. Most people know only the most basic golf rules, which can cause problems because there are always “areas in the game open for debate,” he says.

There’s also a seminar on a new method of determining handicaps, as well as seminars on women’s golf, golf swings, and tips on playing the short game--using metal woods and graphite shafts rather than steel shafts. There will even be a seminar on golf balls.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people who play don’t know a lot about the makeup of a golf ball,” Sandefur says. Different covers and the internal composition of golf balls affect the spin or roll of a ball--all of which can affect the accuracy of a golf shot.

Dickey says one of the most valuable things a golfer can take away from the show may be a card--filled out by a PGA member after working with that person for a few minutes--that suggests what type, length and weight of club might fit that particular golfer best.

Improperly fitted clubs can be an expensive mistake, and sometimes people end up with golf clubs they “have no business trying to play with,” Sandefur says. “People just say: ‘I’ll take a set of those. They look good.’ They won’t go in and get the right length of shaft or the right grip or the right lie angle.”

Dickey explains: “Every individual is different. So you’re looking at not only the length of the golf club. You’re looking at the swing, flex of the club and the shaft.” Some players, he says, may need a type of club that’s a bit more forgiving than the one better players use.

Also to be considered are grip size, components of the shaft (from a lightweight titanium to conventional steel or wood) and the strength and speed of each golfer’s swing. And it’s necessary to see how a golfer stands when addressing the ball and swinging, because how much a person bends over the ball affects the required length of a club as much as arm length and height.

Even Sandefur admits, however, that all this education can’t do much about golf’s second biggest problem in the Los Angeles/Orange County area: getting a starting time.

It’s already so difficult to get on public courses, he says, that every Saturday morning there are long lines of golfers waiting to get a starting time for the following week.

For more information about the show, call (714) PRO-GOLF.