The internet, pronounced: Inner-nayut hereabouts, has had a serious impact on golf, triggering a fearsome fixation on futurism around the woodstove in our barn Turf Care Center.

The Net (and the voices in my head) have been asking me:  What do we do?  Who are our customers?  What will Rockbottum CC be like in 30 years when I retire?

Golf has rapidly morphtastisized over the last 20 years, not just in the way the game is played, but how our product is brought to market.  As an industry, we are among the dwindling number of products the US leads the world in:  Weapon systems and Entertainment.  I'm sure there are other items of manufacture we dominate, but I just don't know what they are unless they inhabit my area of interest.

US made products are still superior in the skilled craftsman category; Mystery Ranch rucksacks and Lynskey Titanium bikes come immediately to mind.

Now, I don't know much about the weapons industry, aside from six months working on a classified project for a big MIC company deeply involved in making cruise missile engines and assault hovercraft, but I do know about the entertainment industry.  I know that it has problems.

For example, the music industry--where I worked for a while--not only lost sight of their customers, they also lost control of point of sale.  It began decades ago, when the music industry was invaded by accountants, agents, and corporate execs who were given the power to decide which artists would succeed.  (None of these folks actually created product, they just administered drained the blood out of creative types.)

The accountants had way too much influence in determining what music would be recorded and put forth over the airwaves.  Eventually, they discovered the practice of packaging artists and this led to concentrating on visual appeal, aided by computers.  Music empire made billions.

Then, the Pendulum Effect took hold and things came back the other way, exacerbated by a minor problem:  A lot of these shiny, pretty artists could not perform worth a damn.  (Not a problem, unless they needed to play live.)  But the Net happened along, took over music point of sale and soon, computer-raised kid customers learned to pirate music that had become too expensive.

The future for musicians appears to be one of playing live, in order to get paid.  (Kind of like the olden times, before agents, execs and accountants.)

The film industry suffers from allowing the accountants to make decisions best made by those on the other side of the brain, the creatives.  Film accountants worship the "Only do what has worked before" gospel and that's why we have endless remakes and very few original films.  If you want original films, scripts and ideas, you have to go the independent filmmaker.  I once took classes in screenwriting at Georgia State from a Hollywood Doofus named Hauge and he taught us how to write using a mathematic formula.  That formula is why you always know what's about to happen when you watch a feature film.

Going to see a film now can cost $10.  The movie audience is shifting away--courtesy of the internet--and yet the film lords keep making the same mistakes, because they are still driven by accountant theology.

Publishing is staggering around like a drunk on LSD, thanks to the Net.  I fear for the existence of hardcover books and magazines.  Those folks still in print are either delusional or subsidized, as the costs of print make no sense when compared to digital formats.  I prefer real books, but the accountants have killed the goose by sticking with "proven" authors, no matter how many times they write the same book.

I am forced to publish my books digitally to avoid the accountant advice of "rewrite it as a bondage-themed romance novel . . . with vampires".  The Net has also damaged writer's motivation by pirating, so, like film, original content is largely hidden in the independent areas.

With those examples, this brings me to golf.  I like to quietly visit and observe golf courses, both public and private, mid-level and elite, to assess the game, our product, and our customers.

I'm seeing substantial graying of our customer base.  Grooming standards and conditioning have improved everywhere, to levels once enjoyed only by TV tour courses, but the caliber of golfers has declined.  Even with the superball and trampoline-faced rocket clubs, golfers actually appear worse to me than 20 years ago.

I suspect corporate theocracy has allowed the accountant mindset to take over golf without our realizing it, in the manner of that body-snatcher film.  Using the Net, a form of Virtual Coupon clipping has damaged entry level golf courses.  The mid-level private CC is gradually being absorbed by Big Golf or falling victim to the internet price war triggered by Coupon users and dealers.

We need a change of tactics.  If future musicians survive by returning to the grass roots, live performance, actually talented singer-songwriter example of the early 70s--while Big Music slowly dies due to internet poisoning--how do we apply that lesson?

We could ask ourselves what we actually do or how to attract the customer of the future, but before we can answer, accountants will horn in with fluffy visions of kickballs and skateboards.  They don't realize those activities can be pursued somewhere else . . . for free.

No matter how hard the accountants in Big Golf try to manipulate our direction with initiatives, foundations and programs, we cannot ignore what happened to others in the entertainment industry when they followed the path of the money people.

I'm not sharp enough to map out a strategy for survival against an internet siege that has punched big holes in billion dollar industries, but I believe golf's young folks with an understanding of social media, internet trends and the ability to resist corporate brainwashing could do it.

I would give it a try, but my accountant told me to stop.

Randy's book, "Eephus The Terrible", produced without accountant interference, is available on Kindle.

(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K5WJNPG)