Golf course closings outnumber openings

[BCrosby]

Peter -

Agreed. But consider this. All prior downturns in golf have been for external resons. By that I mean economic crises or war.

This is the first downturn where there are no such externalities involved. People have the money. They are at home and not flying bombers or charging up beaches.

The decline in golf is happening, I think, for a whole stew of reasons. The decline in courses is just the dead canary in the mine. There are some pretty significant demographic and cultural changes going on.

Bob

[BCrosby]

The other thing is that the Tiger Woods phenomenon has masked these long term, secular trends.

I don't want to think about where golf would be if Tiger hadn't arrived on the scene.

Every golf community developer in the country (are there any left?) ought to give Tiger a 5% commission on every lot sold.

Bob

[TEPaul]

I was talking to someone yesterday who is in the process of actively developing a comprehensive article on this basic subject.

Something occured to me in the middle of the conversation I'd not thought of before and so have no real opinion on and that is maybe it would be a good thing in the end if golf did contract some.

I'm pretty sure noone on here wants to see that happen or even talk about it or think about it but I'm pretty confident golf is never going to go away so perhaps it needs to go through some kind of natural cycle of solidification.

Is it possible that over a period of time and in various places golf has been used in ways that perhaps it shouldn't be?

The next question that might really fascinate me is if golf did go through some natural contraction cycle if it would in fact then and as a consequence get back to a bit more of it original essence and purity?

[paul cowley]

I played 18 holes at the Brunswick CC last week as part a fivesome in 2 hrs and 50 mins....which is nothing special there.
Everyone plays ready golf and in the past I've had to let a sixsome in six carts through my foursome.

I guess for whatever reason Brunswick has always played the game using the Scottish model and its a real joy to play the game fast.

I don't think this approach can be taught anymore in America.
Very few people seem to have learned the game this way. They have been taught using a different model.

Its a shame and its taking its toll on the game.