Rich - you've played a lot of golf in a lot of places over a lot of years, and I'm guessing you've heard about or experienced more than a few storms or rumours of storms. What's your take on this - sound and fury signifying nothing? or a 'never, never, never, never, never' (to mix references) kind of change?
Thanks
Peter
Yes, Peter, I'm old, but not that old!
My parents, on the other hand grew up during the Great Depression and it (and WWII) indelibly defined their personalities. 40 years after the end of the war my mother was still religiously saving aluminum foil. When she died we found enough in her cupboards to build a small fighter plane. I hope my children will not be so affected, but given the cluelessness of the "leaders" of the free world, I am not so sure....
If we're talking financial storms, I think that all golf courses will be impacted and it is inevitable that many will close and those which do not will have to operate on more limited and transparent budgets. As Pat M. said above, I think that the cash hemmoraging "country club" frills will be the first to go, and getting back to the topic of the thread next will be "Augusta syndrome" maintenance practices. If we are lucky, maybe the essence of what makes the game of golf so special will be rediscovered at places where it has been lost.
As for links courses, they will survive longer than any others, including the wannabie links in places like the midwestern US and even the heathlands around London. Why? Water. Try the following though experiment: what if a neutron bomb-type weapon which killed only people and not any other species was developed and used? What would be the effect on golf courses (as if we would care)? Well......
.....all courses in the Southwest, including Southern California would revert to desert. Most of those in the Southeast would revert to swampland. All courses in temperate climates would become impenetrable forests, except, of course, those built on linksland, which would revert to itself and would probably look like a golf course even 5,000 years later when dsicovered by some alien life forms or even 1,000,000 years after that when human might have finally evolved again from the apes. Assuming that it would be another several hundred thousand years before greenkeepers, D-9s, fertilizers and irrigation system were re-invented, the only golf that could be played would be in those very same places where it first arose--St. Andrews, Leith, Montrose, Dornoch, North Berwick, etc., etc. It would probably take another 2,000 years before the re-inventions of the golf course architect and the collateralized debt obligation would allow us to get back to that Golden Age which was July 2008.
IMHO
Rich