OPINION

MBGH resorts to 'Mafioso' techniques to stifle speech

All together now class: Myrtle Beach golf, good. Talking trash about Myrtle Beach, bad. This is the message marketing behemoth Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday sent last week when it shut down On The Green Magazine's Myrtle Beach Golf reader forum.

MBGH doesn't shy away from the rationale for the cyber closure. The venerable organization has a joint venture in place with OTG Magazine, and fear of negative comments about its member courses and hotels would not be tolerated at the forum. Thus, no more forum.

• On The Green chairman responds • Myrtle Beach golf course reviews • Myrtle Beach golf course guide

"One of the conditions for us to make the On The Green/Golf Holiday joint venture happen was that this forum had to go. Forum members have a nasty habit of writing about whatever they want, naming names, and writing about non-Golf-Holiday subjects . To be fair, some of the Golf Holiday members actually like the forum. It's like being able to spy on what actual golfers think . It doesn't matter - it's over."

Let's get this qualifier out of the way up front - no organization has done more for golf in the Grand Strand than MBGH. In fact, no organization in the U.S. has done more to promote a region's golf wares than MBGH. Second place? Who knows, it's not even close.

But all too often, MBGH resorts to 'Mafioso' techniques to get its way. If you have something bad to say about the beach, or more importantly, golfing at the beach, watch your back. The little non-profit organization that former executive director Cecil Brandon put on the map has evolved into the proverbial 800-pound gorilla.

With apologies to Jane Goodall, gorillas don't always think before they act.

MBGH's joint venture with Himmelsbach Communications, publishers of OTG Magazine is pretty simple on the surface. MBGH officials say they will include copies of OTG's biannual publication in informational packages they mail to prospective visitors. Dig a little deeper, though, and you find that the terms of the JV reach all the way to OTG Magazine's online presence at otgmag.com.

It was at this website, approximately two years ago, that Woodward, a Himmelsbach employee, and Art Stipo, a long-time Myrtle Beach visitor from Delaware, established the Net's most active, information filled forum pertaining to all things golf and the Grand Strand.

"I think the OTG forum closing is simply Golf Holiday performing a hostile takeover," said Tom Aliff, a veteran forum member from Baltimore, M.D. "The forum has been 99.9 percent good for Myrtle Beach golf with some rare but usually much needed negativity which is generated by poor course, hotel or staff issues. It's a real shame that Golf Holiday has the power they do to take away something so important to so many people."

Truth is, MBGH took the forum out of OTG Magazine's domain but it couldn't take the forum away from Delphiforums, an independently owned forum and message board engine. Like the pesky weasel that pops up through another hole, the Myrtle Beach Golf forum rolls on at a new website, forums.delphiforums.com/myrtlegolftalk/start.

So exactly what did MBGH accomplish by flexing its muscle? Absolutely nothing. True, 25 to 55 year-old-males in Ohio, Michigan, Delaware, Canada, Maryland and New York won't be able to sit at their computers and bash the course conditions at Caledonia, or room service at the Sands Resorts. But they won't able to shower courses and hotels with praise and pass along key information to first time visitors, either.

At least not under the crest of MBGH/OTG Magazine. Instead, they'll just bookmark the aforementioned new forum address, and do it there.

MBGH should have left the forum alone. Why? What would show more guts, more confidence in one's product than to operate and support a forum where members could speak their minds? Sure, you'd get the occasional, vengeful post from some gutless, anonymous guest. But a good administrator could put the kibosh on these posts (if they were too offensive) by devoting a few hours a week to the cause.

But perhaps a few hours a week, dedicated to the search for truth, is too much.