I think many of you have got it just right. Several months ago, in a Chinese golf magazine, I wrote on this very topic. I stated then that no one has been more responsible for the ailments the game suffers than Jack Nicklaus himself.
The idea that there is not much fun in the golf business is hardly new. The world’s greatest golfer and, arguably, the most successful golf course designer, Jack Nicklaus, has recently claimed that "Golf has become too difficult, too expensive and takes too long." Ironically, no one has had more to do with golf’s becoming too difficult and too expensive than Mr. Nicklaus himself. Indeed, he bears much of the responsibility for the game’s taking too long also, as generations of golfers watching him on television learned to adopt his deliberately, often infuriatingly slow pace of play. But, since golf has always been primarily a matter of business for him, and because he has always been a great player and a most successful champion, it’s not surprising that he is also one of the world’s most successful businessmen.
But the business of business is not to have fun, and to claim that there’s no fun in the golf business should shock no one. The current malaise in the American golf scene, which threatens the viability of golf course operations throughout the land, is a result of the many complex ways that the business of golf is subverting the game of golf. Throughout the industry, there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the question of how to get golf growing again.