Courtesy: progolferdigest.com

What's the matter with golf today? I ask that question after reading an opinion piece on the current state of the professional game with which I find myself agreeing almost completely.

John Huggan is a Scottish golf writer who pens his material for The Scotsman newspaper. His latest lament is over how boring professional golf has become. Week after week, he argues, we are subjected to the same kind of tournaments with the same kinds of shots being hit and the same kinds of outcomes.

There's nothing exciting, anymore, he bemoans. I agree. That's why I wrote last month that I was looking forward greatly to the Ryder Cup because it offered up exciting golf at a time when all the majors were finished and all that was left was the Fed Ex Cup conclusion.

The Fed Ex Cup has never been and will never be exciting golf. Total points earned over a season and then handicapped for the final six tournaments is a heavy-handed failure of an attempt to "create" excitement.

Golf's excitement is in the playing of the damn game. Not in predicting points outcomes.

Huggan offers some alternatives. My own alternatives might involve making the weekly tour stops tougher. Grow the rough longer, narrow the fairways, shave the greens, turn off the water for two days. Or perhaps play every other week on some of the best courses in America.

It's about bringing the inherent challenge of maneuvering a golf ball over natural terrain back into the game.