Turn my back for a moment and this post has taken off!
The courses I am working on are public (daily fee). One could be private with a pub and fitness center focus...besides the golf.
I am, perhaps, more scared about John K. getting a Blackberry than I am some of the feelings here about the 18-hole fetish. I can hardly believe I am on GCA...let me check...yes, looks like GCA...hummmm....must be a bad connection...
Let us all recall Leith. Let all do some math. 9+9 is 18. Let us all reflect on some of the issues facing golf: water, land, play volume, time constraints of the golfer, environmental impacts, and the cost. A 9-hole course is just about 1/2 the cost of 18, less an annual factor for operations, which is likely slightly more per hole than 18.
Let us all recall the Royal Worlington model:
THEY PLAY FOURSOME MATCHES AS A RULE...THIS PRODUCES 9-HOLE ROUND TIMES OF ABOUT 1.25 HOURS...IN ESSENCE, THIS 9-HOLE WONDER HAS AS MANY MEMBERS AS ANY BRITISH COURSE OF STATURE...AND IT ACCOMMODATES AS MUCH PLAY...ALL ON 1/2 THE LAND