Do we need any more golf courses?

[Rob Rigg]

Jeff's thread about "Do we need any more tough courses" is interesting and the question has been raised re: whether we need any more golf courses?

This can be taken many ways. For example:

1) stop building new courses, which will not excite many members of this site
2) only add courses if courses are going away (likely in this economic climate)
3) only add certain types of courses . . . which would be?
4) only remodel or rebuild courses on land already available for golf
5) only build courses on land suitable for golf - ie) only minimum earth movement required and no irrigation ponds/lakes/etc. required

[Jeff_Stettner]

Rob,
I think the answer is rather complicated, but my initial instincts say that it varies by market. Taking my current home of St. Louis for example. We have way more golf than golfers... even on the nicest day of the year it is easy to find a place to play and all but a select few clubs are begging for members. There is not, however, an abundance of quality golf. I imagine that any design that takes place here will be of the redesign sort, and that the area is a long way away from a new layout.

In Northern California, however (Oakland is my home town), the mild climate and lack of public golf (especially in center of the bay area) could likely still support more courses (as long as they are quality and built thoughtfully... i.e., skip the giant clubhouse that nobody uses and keep the fees lower).

[RJ_Daley]

Rob, those are all good questions, and I think that the answers are all of the above, depending on where the question is asked, geographically. 

But, I think the times will cause the general trend to be a contraction, back to fewer start-up golf development projects, and falling back on operating those courses that can somehow stay viable through conservation measures in these coming difficult times. 

I think it will be a while before we see an era of golf course operations expansion.  But, let's hope it is a shorter cycle than it now appears, and that whatever lessons are applicable to surviving these times will be learned and retained for a long while. 

[Adrian_Stiff]

It is unlikely we need any more new golf courses in the major areas at the moment, probably a few need to close. I suspect there are some emerging areas like Belize, Cape Verde, East Europe that would work shortly.

[Tom_Doak]

Rob:

Do we need any more office buildings? 

Do we need any more apartment complexes?

Just like these questions, there is not one overall answer to your question about golf courses -- there are 500 different answers for 500 different markets.  Right now, I suspect the answer is "no" for about 475 of them, but it won't always be this bleak.

[cary lichtenstein]

I think not for a few years, maybe longer