Which will be the real survivors?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Our petrol prices are rising alarmingly, energy prices as a whole are climbing steeply. Suppose those economic pundits who say that this is just a temporary glitch are wrong and we find ourselves very much poorer. We revert to the kind of mobility we had in, say, 1900. We might begin once again to use horses instead of tractors, bicycles instead of motor cars, scythes and sickles instead of Toros. We're going to continue to play golf, but only the exceptionally wealthy will be able to travel by plane or car. Only the very wealthiest of clubs will be able to maintain their courses in the condition they are currently in. We'll not - bar a few - be going on overseas holidays. Our golf can only be local.

Which of the big-name courses survive? Which are likely to flounder? Which famous courses can survive on purely local play? British links will revert to fast-and-firm (provided they don't sink due to global warming) but what happens to playing conditions at, say, Pinehurst or Pine Valley, Sawgrass or San Francisco when they cannot afford the maintenance equipment and manpower they currently enjoy?

[Phil McDade]

Mark:

I also wonder about course design. One of the reasons we drag around 14 clubs on a course is that we have the ability to do so -- both in the trunks (boot ) of the car and on carts. Under the scenario you describe, I can see golfers opting to walk to the nearest course, and carry only six clubs or so -- driver/hybrid/5-7-9-irons/putter -- both to AND on the course. Maybe you'd see a shortening of courses, in the way that "executive courses" can be played with certainly fewer than 14 clubs. I've always thought that the evolution of course design, from the minimalist designs of the 1800s to the maximum designs (think TPC or something like that) you see nowadays was in part a reflection of the bias of latter-day course designers wanting to "test" all parts of a player's game, and thus use all 14 clubs in a round. Maybe the economic changes that result in players using half as many clubs as now might mean course design would revert back to its origins -- shorter courses, less engineered.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Which will be the real survivors?

Come on you Guys think positive – the first thing that might be removed from the clubs/course are those evil unfriendly carts, that alone would be a result in my book.

But taking your post and trying to be sensible – let’s be honest not much will change. Your selection of clubs could be hired out from each clubs - no need to carry them or worry. Only the super rich will have their own sets.

Global warming will be proved to have been nothing but a load of hot air spouted by those who like to tell others what to do. Maintenance and new designs too expensive – those living and playing in Scotland will be the luckiest with NATURAL OLD COURSE, also we will have to resort to 4,500- 5,500 yard course and use Hickory clubs - play golf they way it should be played. 

Those courses that survive will have fewer players because no artificial aids will work. Hi Tech aids become house hold ornaments as no Sat facility, Oh Boy will some of you guys have problems working out where you are, let alone trying to understand distance through the naked eye. 

No Carts. No beer on the course, no artificial aids, no big hitters, no long courses just natural and nearly empty old course. My, I must have died and gone to Heaven

I want to survive as Golf will be the real survivor.

Thanks Mark, nearly as good as a wet dream. 

[RJ_Daley]

I don't think it is too far fetched to see a global depression scenario.  If it could happen in the 30s it could happen now, particularly with all the hubris and arrogance of world leaders, corrupt governments, and the forces of worsening economy and dwindling resources that are currently underfoot. 

So, in the face of all that, the trivial game of golf will probably just barely survive just as it did in 30s.  Some priveleged few would retreat to fewer survivable venues.  And many/most facilities would go under as would most of the associated golf entities of commerce from B&I manufacturers, to GCM equipment and suppliers.  Archies would go into watchrepair and any government recreation and park "make work" projects, or the best might keep body and soul together by taking menial and low paying consulting work at the few surviving clubs, writing reports on the state of their course design, like Tilly did.  Sponsorships of mega toon-a-mints would dry up, and those pampered pros would be playing for bare subsistence, or amatuer status would be more revered again, since the pro purses would become chicken feed. 

A fellow like me could spend all day telling you guys the sky is falling, and we are on the brink of gloom and dispair.... I'm a sucking black hole vortex of  negativism, if you want me to be... 

hi ho Silver:

[mike_malone]

 Yes, but what would happen to this website? I hope it doesn' get hurt!