That's all fake crap used to discriminate against people that they don't want. I remember when a club said that they wanted me and my wife to come in for an interview and I refused because I wasn't telling my wife I was joining they let me in on the spot.
Same thing with this so-called UK model. You can play anywhere you want in the US if you have enough game to make the kind of money it takes to play. If you don't, join the Outpost. How many courses does one golfer need?
Awesome post. You not wanting your wife to know was probably WHY THEY LET YOU IN!
As for me, I'm part of Generation TW (ages 11 or so to 17 or so in 1997, otherwise would not have become golfers but saw Tiger dismantle Augusta and took up the game shortly thereafter). For many of us, life is starting to really get in the way of playing the game (kids, jobs, etc.) but not me. I work at a course to accommodate my addiction. Here are some opinions (opinions are like assholes...):
1) I thought the original article would have been impressive if written by a fifth grader but alas they put the old codger's picture up.
2) I believe the game of golf isn't growing, or dying, but is cyclically adjusting. Most leisure industries are very volatile like this (see boat sales).
3) The equipment industry and related have the most to lose and their desperation is really becoming quite pathetic. The LEAD topic of the last "In Play with Jimmy Roberts" was counterfeit equipment! This is July, in the middle of golf season, in between the last two majors, and you come up with COUNTERFEIT GOLF EQUIPMENT as your lead story? That show and any "journalists" involved can be dismissed as a thinly veiled infomercial and shills respectively.
4) Golf course maintenance practices have become absurd. Focusing on the wrong things, wrong philosophy, chasing the wrong look, wasting money, water, etc. etc. This is the industry in which I am currently employed.
5) The coming years will be painful, but golf will certainly survive. What we will be left with may be a better game/industry then we are looking at now. It will have to be. Golf is certainly in a better place than bowling (damning with faint praise?) and my other industry of employment: skiing (growing, but climate issues loom massively).