By now, I think most of us have about had our fill of reflections on the year in golf just past and are more eager to get the 2013 party started – I know I am. However, there is one last look back I'd like to share with you because it's different – and better – than any other I've seen.

This one was written by Greg Nathan, and I encourage you click on over and give it a look. He's the senior vice president at the National Golf Foundation, but likes to call himself "the Mayor of Crazy Town," and his perspective ranges far beyond what happens on the tours.

The No. 1 item on his list is 2012 as a comeback year for the golf business. Right behind that is his praise for the PGA of America's Golf 2.0 efforts to grow the game. Those things aren't as sexy as Tiger vs. Rory, but they're really more important to all of us on a day-to-day basis. (Tiger and Rory are both on the list, I should point out, but down toward the bottom.)

And while I appreciate the industry-wide focus of Nathan's topics, what I appreciate most is his perspective. On the anchor ban, for example, he comments that the "best thing about the issue is that it makes us all think deeply about the game and what's most important to each of us, as golfers, administrators, guardians… and as business people."

He even finds some good news in the downbeat fact that this will be the seventh consecutive year that more golf courses will close than open in the United States.

"Don't let the media tell you that closure of golf courses is indicative of the decline of demand to play. Simply not true," he writes. "Net reduction of 500 courses since 2006 (out of roughly 16,000), is not a story at all."

Closing more weak facilities "would improve the health of the existing courses and the impact on golf demand would be negligible," he believes. And he says, "There is plenty of supply to serve America's golfers… and the quality of that supply has never been better."

A positive yet sensible outlook on what seems like a negative story? Hey, that's the kind of mayor I want in charge of my Crazy Town.

Today has been a bittersweet Sunday in our house. For one thing, it's the final day of the NFL regular season, which means the last day of my wife's favorite TV show – the NFL Red Zone. I can't help but chuckle at how much she loves it, even as I'm frowning over how my home-state Houston Texans nuked my chances of winning this final week of the office football pool.

But I'm also happy because today is the second and final Sunday without pro golf on TV for the year. Yes, after two whole weeks of no golf, the PGA Tour kicks off its 2013 season with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions out at Kapalua in Hawaii, and our global tournament golf cup will runneth over for 50 straight weeks all the way up to the middle of next December.

The Tournament of Champions runs Friday through Monday, in part to give the players a bit more time to get out to Hawaii and also to give us a Monday finish. The TV times for the first three rounds give us plenty of prime-time golf, while play is ending earlier on Monday so as not to run into the BCS National Championship college football game.

Seeing as how Monday is a work day, I'm a little disappointed that most golf fans won't get to see much of the final round. If it were up to me, I think I'd go ahead and play the final round in prime time, even opposite the big game – there are so many starts and stops and commercial breaks that it'd be easy to flip back and forth and not miss much of anything. But, hey, this is no time to be critical. I'm just happy golf is back.

And, oh yeah, today is Tiger Woods' 37th birthday. Happy birthday, Tiger, and we look forward to seeing what you have in store for us over the coming year.