I agree with everything that Sean has said (I usually do). I don't understand why golf needs to grow its numbers.
Whom do we speak of when we say we need to grow the game? Is it the architects, course staff, club managers, or the casual nomadic golfer? Not everybody is interested in golf. At what stage do we say that golf doesn't need to grow any further? I understand that it is a tough time for architects, course construction companies, club managers, and anybody else employed in the business, but for the ordinary member, the situation isn't so bad. As for the golfer desperately seeking to join a club, there has never been a better time than the present.
A real golf club (in the GB&I at least) is not a business. It's a club where members play regularly with friends, enjoy a lunch, attend dinner dances, participate in club outings, inter club matches, organise youth schemes, etc. The purpose of a golf club is to survive - not necessarily to make a profit - and usually to benefit the local community. Real golf clubs do not depend on green fees alone, although it is now a large proportion of their revenue. The worry for golf clubs is the drop in green fee numbers and the loss of members. This is cyclical. Recessions come and go, and the vast majority of these clubs will survive. Clubs are adapting by reducing green fees, entrance fees, annual fees, and offering other special deals.
Those high-end courses that were built and hoped to survive using a business model based on green fees and corporate golf may indeed be in trouble. These are not golf clubs. These are businesses first and foremost. Many of these businesses price themselves beyond the paying ability of the local inhabitants. They may bring visitors to the area, but in terms of growing the game, I don't think they make a positive contribution. I certainly don't loose any sleep over these operations. Many of these course owners jumped on the chance of an easy buck and are now paying the price for their foolishness.
I also don't have much sympathy for clubs that tried to take advantage of new members during the boom times, by extracting obscene entrance fees. When I lived in Dublin in the late 90s and 00s, I enquired about joining a club in north Dublin. The entrance fees quoted ranged from €3500 to €11000. In most cases, these entrance fees were non-refundable. To many of you in the US, these numbers may sound like peanuts, but for Europeans, these amounts are quite significant. Many of these clubs have now dropped or eliminated their entrance fees. Why should that bother me? These clubs were greedy and survived on a revenue flow that was not guaranteed. They may now be paying the price for that recent club house refurbishment, or other unnecessary expense, that was initially bankrolled by unfortunate and desperate golfers.
As for golf the Middle East as we know it, is anybody seriously going to tell me that that business model is sustainable?
Golf will survive, but only if it returns to the club model (or low-end pay-and-play) that lives within and benefits the local community.