The long standing golf writer for the LA Times, Thomas Bonk, is a victim of the latest round of buyouts at the paper.  This leaves the LA Times without a real full time golf reporter or columnist.  Bonk had been doing an online-only column recently that I read religiously.  The guy is an excellent journalist with great sources and ideas.  Now he's out.  He joins a growing list of golf writers purged from the Sports Department at major papers.  It's a real shame.

Now we have very few writers that are dedicated to golf all year round - even on the PGA Tour, with the world's most transcendent figure.  We have AP's Doug Ferguson as lead of the small group of major "newspaper guys" that are covering golf.  Larry Dorman continues on at the NY Times, as does Len Shapiro in the Washington Post.  Joe Logan left the Philadelphia Enquirer.  Craig Dolch got bought out in Palm Beach, and resurfaced at PGA Tour.com.  Ed Sherman is gone in Chicago.

Certainly, we have the major golf publications that are covering the sport, and the crew from ESPN that does well.  But, let's face it: the nature of golf coverage is changing.

We now have The Golf Channel as the major outlet for golf coverage on TV.  The network, though, is so mired in actually broadcasting tournaments and its sideshow reality programming that it cannot dedicate resources to providing serious analysis.  Their .com is pretty solid with Mercer Baggs and Brian Hewitt, but is understaffed to handle the full spectrum of the sport.

The reality is that golf coverage will have to realign itself to fit a new generation.  Blogs, like this one, will be the repository for analysis and new ideas.  This medium will be the one that provides the next age of video coverage of the professional game and for the amateur to improve their games.  Golf journalists and writers will have to consolidate to survive.  Seasoned writers will have to turn to the new age to thrive. 

It can be done, though, if there's a will to grow, work collaboratively, and appeal to what golfers and pro golf fans want to see, hear, and read.  Major outlets shouldn't shun bloggers or niche news sites.  They should welcome them into the fold, like Golf for Women did with many talented female bloggers before their demise and like Golf Channel has done with GolfersMD.  With the proper embrace, the number of voices in golf doesn't have to shrink.  It can grow.  And it can grow with people who are passionate about the sport and sharing it with the world - not as people who want to make it their career, but as people who feel connected to the sport as more than a weekend hacker.

It's time to wake up, get together, and start talking seriously about how to make this work.