As baby-boomers aged and could no longer play b'ball or even tennis without blowing out a knee or worse, they turned to golf en masse and golf became "cool".
Given the luxuries of a booming, expanding economy, what should be a simple game turned into "entertainment", which garishly constructed eye-popping, visually impactful golf courses being designed faster than the rise of home prices. Countless magazines were filled with views of these courses from the air, and if there was even a spot not uniformly deep forest green, or cool aqua blue, it was airbrushed to create the imiage of a heavenly playground, or the ultimate backyard garden of eden.
Prices for the game and the equipment to play the game spiralled upwards, as well, where soon one was made that they couldn't effectively compete unless they gave into technological advance, left completely unchecked by the governing bodies, and went out and purchased the latest $599 driver, or a set of irons costing as much as a decent used vehicle.
We played on courses that were largely "riding only", because it evidently didn't make sense to let people walk the 7-12 miles (I kid you not) that the courses were laid out on through housing developments. Rounds took 5, sometimes 6 hours to play, and one would be "serviced" throughout the round by a flurry of bagboys saving one the herculean task of removing their clubs from the trunk of the car, to cartgirls, appearing multiple times throughout the round to serve up refreshments, and further slowing things to the golf equivalent of the Bataan death march, but somehow seeming preferable to having to pour oneself some drinking water from a cooler as if that act required more effort than should be allowable,
Soon our carts were equipped with electronic GPS, so that we could know that it was exactly 123 yards from one's pine-strewn lie 18 yards deep in the trees to a hole location cut behind a pond and a bunker.
Who can keep up?