By: Mike Anthony

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

A decade ago, professional golf was mostly relegated to the man caves of middle-aged dads as they napped their way through Sunday rounds while winding down their weekends.

Since then, a swarm of young talent has brought the game much closer to the sports mainstream. Not only are the current stars a far cry from the beer-bellied prototypes of pros from previous eras, they’re also personable to crowds, all over social media and – most importantly – better than any generation of golfers that has ever come through the sport.

Players like Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler have started to move the needle, and resurgences from the old guard of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have resulted in plenty of drama.

The changing of guard from one generation to the next is enough of a storyline to hook in the usual golf fans, but the shakeup to this year’s schedule could be the spark that ignites a burst in ratings for the game.

For years, the golf schedule religiously held to the same timing for its biggest events, inadvertently causing lulls of a month or more in viewing for the casual fans. This time around, the season will feature a schedule that features marquee events in six consecutive months.

The big shakeup begins in March as the Players’ Championship jumps forward on the calendar by nearly two months. The Masters will hold its usual spot in early April, with the PGA Championship cutting in front of the other two majors by moving from August to May.

That leaves the U.S. Open for its normal spot in the blistering heat of June, followed by every golf fan’s guilty pleasure of sneaking out of bed early to catch the (very) early morning rounds of the British Open in July. With the PGA already done, the season will bump up it’s big-money Fed-Ex Cup playoff, culminating with the Tour Championship in Atlanta in late August.

It remains to be seen how viewership and attendance will respond to the drastic change, but it seems to be a shrewd move for a sport that has always had a massive casual following while lacking the ticket gate and sponsorship revenue of the traditional major sports.

Golf may have just played its hand perfectly.

In an industry where leagues are struggling to get fans to come to games instead of going to bars or purchasing all-inclusive television packages, golf has spent a decade investing in technology and information beamed right onto the screens of everyone watching the action at home.

And while every other sport is locked into a schedule that lends it to lapses in attention from casual fans, golf has made the decision to condense what had been a very scattered 10 months of tournaments – many of which weren’t featuring top players – into six months of better tournament fields that see the four majors bookended by the next biggest player and viewer draws of the season.

If golf was a sports franchise, this is when all of its fans would be starting to get excited.

Golf had some down years in the early 2010’s, but it took a step back and evaluated its position. It developed a young group of talent that can produce for years to come, it still has the star power of old veterans and – thanks to the new schedule – it’s got some sleek new packaging that will catch the eye of more than just the die-hard fans.

So, for all of the lazy Sunday dads out there, watch out. Your regularly scheduled nap is going to be interrupted by a lot more excitement this year.