GOLF COLUMN FOR SAN MATEO COUNTY TIMES SPORTS
by Gib Papazian

The American Society of Golf Course Architects recently had their annual meeting in Pebble Beach to discuss the state of their business. This year, much of the buzz centered on a highly controversial article by Golf Digest Architecture Editor and historian Ron Whitten.


The oft posed question, ““why is golf so expensive”” was explored, laying much of the blame at the feet of high tone designers like Tom Fazio. The inference is that the high cost of building and maintaining modern golf courses is having a negative effect on the growth of the game. Inflammatory or not, I agree with his observations. Golf - particularly quality golf - has become too expensive in most major population areas and statistics show that the number of rounds played in America has been flat-lining for several years. This, despite the explosion of televised golf. Tiger, Ernie and Phil make compelling theater. So do Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie on the women's tour. Yet, their popularity is not translating into more rounds played.


Why golf is expensive in the Bay Area is more complex, and has nothing to do with America’’s leading designer; Fazio has no courses in Northern California. The problem begins with our location and the anti-golf attitude of arrogant public officials on the county level. City courses like Poplar Creek are still affordable, but can service only a small percentage of the demand.


There are more than 16,000 golf courses in America, with a reverse correlation between local population and number of courses. Some areas in the nation are overbuilt, but these are almost invariably in remote areas. It ought to be a fairly simple matter to provide the people in our population centers with enough facilities to supply the demand, but it does not work as it should. Here are a few complicating issues in our part of the world, and what we ought to do about it:


TEE TIMES: There is no issue finding a place to play on non-peak hours, but most people work Monday through Friday. Golf courses must jack up their prices on the weekend, partially to offset the cheap deals they offer to fill the tee sheet during the week. The formula in San Mateo County comes down to Price vs. Location vs. Availability; pick any two. A reasonable price with available tee times usually requires a bit of a drive. Available tee times at a nearby location translates into expensive fees. A decent green fee somewhere close means a mad scramble for tee times.



SLOW PLAY: The practice of spacing tee times out seven minutes instead of 10 minutes apart makes the congestion immeasurably worse. Taking six hours out of a weekend day to play a round of golf is tough on families. In an era where children are shuttled from one activity to another, putting aside a chunk of time like that will put anyone in bad stead with the spouse. In Scotland, everyone plays at a brisk clip and the course is usually the centerpiece of the community. Here, we have not figured out how to push along the snails and it discourages play.



ENVIRONMENTAL RESTRICTIONS: Pure insanity in San Mateo County. The Ocean Course at Half Moon Bay - on the site of a useless mud-hill - cost the investors over 1.5 million in legal fees and wrangling to permit. Those costs must eventually be passed on. The wealthy Sierra Club and their irrational minions have been nothing less than obnoxious for decades. The San Mateo County Course, as part of a land trade to build the 280 freeway farther from the watershed off Edgewood Road, died after 35 years of obstruction by zero-growth crazies masquerading as environmentalists. The barrier of entry for a privately funded facility in San Mateo County is prohibitive unless you have the staying power to survive years of pointless red tape.



CLUB INITIATION FEES: Even after the collapse of the NASDAQ, which partially fueled the unprecedented rise in membership costs, joining a private club in San Mateo County remains out of reach for the vast majority. Like public courses, there are not enough facilities to supply the demand. Members who joined for a comparative pittance in the late 1980s have no problem prostituting their open membership spots to the highest bidders, in some cases for ten times the old fee or more. Where clubs once opened their doors and welcomed local junior teams, people who cough up enormous sums for access to a club are not interested in playing behind a high school golf match. With one exception, every private club on the Peninsula costs at least twice as much money to join as does Pine Valley outside of Philadelphia; the world’’s number one golf course.



DIFFICULTY OF COURSES: Even with the rock star status of Michelle Wie and Annika Sorenstam, women statistically give up golf at roughly the same rate at which they take it up. Besides the time commitment, women find the difficulty of many courses discouraging. Layouts like Boulder Ridge in San Jose are impossible for them because of the demand for long carries off the tee. Deep Cliff in Cupertino - a par 60 golf course - has a thriving women's club, which is the fastest way to fill the tee sheet on a slow Tuesday morning. We could use a few more of these on the Peninsula.


MAINTENANCE EXPECTATIONS: All things being equal, providing a well-conditioned course is comparatively cheap as long as expectations are in line with budget realities. I am not using a sewer like Sharp Park as a comparison because there is no excuse for that kind of obscene neglect. However, the ““Augusta Syndrome”” is a growing problem in both private clubs and high fee public courses. Too many players equate a lush green golf course and super fast greens with quality. Any superintendent or architect will tell you this belief is complete nonsense. The gripe that private clubs (particularly) use too much water and chemicals is partly true. Golf was not meant to be an aerial game, but one played along the ground on firm surfaces. At the club I belong to, we had one idiot who used to run around with a camera taking pictures of dry spots and showing them to our Superintendent. Anyone who has played the courses across the pond will tell you the game is far more fun over there. In addition, if we would slow down our green speeds, it would give architects the ability to build putting surfaces like Mackenzie did during the Golden Age. Over-watered fairways and lightning greens are disease magnets and twice as expensive to maintain.



Next week, we will have a look at Metropolitan Club, a facility across the bay that seems to have solved these problems and provides a fine golf course for a reasonable price.

You don't see the words "arrogant," "idiot," "insanity," and "sewer" often enough in the golf pages of our publications.

Had I been your editor, Gib, I would have said: Why "prostituting"? What's wrong with buying cheap and selling dear?

Gib, Your ecoonomy of words is top notch. This one article touches on so many contemporary subjects and issues that one has to wonder how many of your readers will get it all.

Bravo, and have fun across the pond.

redanman,

"at least" twice. . . . .

John,

I'll try to dig up a piece I did a few years back comparing tennis and golf. I think the tennis craze died off because the sport is too confining. I mean, let's face it, tennis is ping pong on a larger scale. Unless you are playing on grass, it all looks the same. Plus, it is not a terribly social game. The idea is to "beat" your opponent on the other side of the net. Life is too confrontational as it is.

I might have a different opinion if I could play on those lovely grass courts I see at the older east coast clubs, but barring that, I don't see the attraction.

Plus, tennis is a less expansive subject. A website like this could not exist in your sport - if that is still your main activity. There is only so much to discuss because the field of play is two-dimensional and static.

We *should* care if interest in the game stagnates because the next step is downward. It is sad, but after the craze of the 1970's, nobody but nobody cares about tennis anymore. Too bad, but that is the fact.

The reasons stated in my column are undermining the game of golf. That might not inflict any pain on over-crowded courses near the major Met areas, but some of the best layouts in America are in remote areas and get their support as part of the spillover from the population centers.

I'll give you an amen on that, Brother Shivas.

And our similarities continue... I too played freshman football at a powerhouse Catholic high school (well, off and on powerhouse anyway)... only not to get away from the geekiness of golf, but more because I always had played the game and it seemed normal to continue.  As I'm sure it was/is at your school, football is basically year round.  So after the season ends, and it's OK but dammit a lot more work than fun...  January comes and they're gearing up for off-season weight training, and I see that golf tryouts are happening... well I love that game also, so I figure what the hell... By absolute luck I made the team, and then said goodbye to football forever.  In fact my deal was the FOOTBALL coach coming to me asking where the hell I was and why I missed the first two days of weight training... I still relish to this day my reply... "I'm playing a varsity sport instead."

But anyway, that diversion aside... I concur with you.  I've never understood why I should want or need golf to grow.  Give me a few non-packed courses - as they were when I was a kid - and I'd be damned happy.

All this being said, Gib's article was great and summed up our situation here well.  And to George P. I'd say this:  talk to me in January.  The good does outweigh the bad here.

 

I was waiting for Huck to say that his when his football coach found out he wanted to play golf instead, he shouted "Yeah, Baby! ...er....I mean, oh, sorry to hear that."    


On the other topic, I've thought the same thing, why can't it be like it was?  Well, for one thing, if I still lived in Corning, NY, where I grew up, golf would still be dirt cheap on a bunch of modest daily-fee courses.  Probably hasn't been a new course built in that area in 30 years.  One private club in town, and I likely could afford to join.   Heck, I'd get to go play hidden gem munis/df's Mark Twain and Soaring Eagles that probably cost less than $20 to play.  Granted the season would be short vs. the virtually year-round golf I get now.

But that's not the case.  I lived in a mid-sized (in the 40's in the country in size) metro area with 0 (that's ZERO!) municipal courses in the area.  Too many courses rely on cart revenue, even though it likely doesn't make them as much money as they think.  Private clubs are expensive, though much cheaper to join than in places like NYC area or metro CA areas.

Hard to say what's worth what today.

Gotcha man, I figured as much.

And that is one HELL of a team.  Holey moley... 6 under losing a match... wow.

Glory days.....

 

There is an eerie similarity in these stories . . . . I believe it was Lord Tennyson who famously uttered:

"Whatever you are to know, know this: you are dreadfully  like other people."

I was determined to shed the geek label and tried my hand at C &  D basketball. At the end of the season, the coach took me aside and told me (rather gently, I might add): "Gibby, you are a nice kid, you try and practice hard. . . . . but you stink. You're already a good golfer, maybe you might think about sticking to that."

Basketball and football were Fall sports, so there was no time conflict and I spent the time practicing for Spring golf . . . . . Baseball is also a Spring sport here, but I sucked even worse at that. In little league, I got beaned in the head my first at-bat and took one in the ribs my second time up.

Stepping in the bucket and squirting one out to right field does not cut it on the high school level. I gave up everything but golf and never looked back.

Shivas,

First, thank you for the present you left on my doorstep. Second, I also pray about golf, but that it will continue to grow beyond the ability of enviro-Nazi's to stop it.

shivas - yikes - that is one hell of a match.  I can attest no high school match I played in approached those numbers - not even close.  Wow....

And I did tell you somewhere along the line that one of my wife's best friends attended New Trier, right?  I've heard too much about the place.  To say I am not surprised they were a golf power is an understatement.

Now Gib... you raise a very interesting question.  Do you really think golf could sink to such low participation levels that people so inclined to do so could eradicate it?  Man I don't see that.  But I guess it is be careful what one wishes for?  I sure do wish for less crowded courses....

Gib - what school?  Burlingame HS?

Down in SoCal there were some GREAT teams.  As you'd imagine, Pacific Palisades HS was always tough - home course Riviera.  We played them all four years and beat them once there.  Quite a few pros came out of our Catholic school league also.  Then there was Duffy Waldorf at the rival public school next door... My best team at the illustrious all-boys CRESPI HS finished T3rd in CIF Southern Section.  That might not sound like much, but look up how huge Southern Section is and what area is covered.

We were certainly never six assassins though.. six screwups who drank too much and had too much fun, yes.  Assassins?  No.  

As I say, glory days.....  

I recently wrote a story about inner-city tennis in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and there might be some interesting parallels to what could happen in golf.

The inner-city tennis programs are booming in the Twin Cities, for two reasons:

1. The programs are incredibly cheap (something like $40 for six weeks of lessons and matches, and if you can't or won't pay, you don't have to.)

2. Suburban parents who grew up playing tennis are hauling their kids into town to take advantage of the programs. Although the programs were designed to kindle interest in the game on the part of the kids who actually live in the inner cities, they are largely ignoring the game, as always; meanwhile the demographic that has always played tennis is filling the void, and taking advantage of the deals.

The parallels with golf, it seems to me, are these: the game is being passed on from golfing parents to their children, but it isn't pulling in many, if any, converts from non-golfing families. And golf faces an even tougher challenge than tennis in terms of access and affordability.

We played 18 hole matches with 5 of 6 , which is far better than today because there is time to catch a guy who comes out of the chute draining bombs.

I do not mean to say we were all GREAT players, just that we always seemed to play well enough to win regardless of what the other team did.

My partner Mark Young and I always played in the 3-4 spot; the one time they put me with Nathaniel Crosby we barely squeaked out a win against two chops.

I remember one match we were getting crushed on the front nine at Crystal Springs by a couple kids from Aragon High. NOBODY beat us on our home course. One of their guys made a snide remark on the way to the 10th tee.

We got so pissed Mark shot 34 (2 under) on the back and I finished par-birdie-eagle-birdie-par (33) to wax those two assholes by 18 shots. They were so intimidated one started hitting it OB and the other got a case of the laterals.

It bothers me that I never get on those crazy runs as an adult. That used to happen to me a lot - with persimmon woods and soft golf balls. . . . . youth is more of an advantage than technology.