Niall, true as there are so many more pay and play facilities over private. Plus the businessness model is more flexible. Perhaps it stems from an image issue. A century ago, there were 2 places people socialized at, Church and the Country Club. Although anyone could go to church, only the select few gained entry to the Club. Hence, it became a symbol of status. The upper echelon of society had the money and spent it, primarily on the Clubhouse. As the middle-class expanded and the upper-middle-class came into being, some savey operators tapped into this and created scaled down versions of private clubs. They dropped tennis and swimming and concetrated on using the Clubhouse and course conditions to set the stage. Hence the birth of "Country Club for a Day" operations.
They blurred the line between Public and Private.
At private clubs, members would meet, play golf (or tennis) and then have dinner at the club's fine dining room. This required showers and a locker room. This didn't ocur at public courses and they found that locker rooms rarely got used and eliminated them. But the Business/Charity Outting business still required full kitchens and 200 person capacity dinning rooms. All too often I have been in planning meeting with Clubhuse architects where, over the course of several hours, the building would grow in size to accomodate the "if your going after this market, you will need...X, and if you do that, then you might as well do...Y". Then the parking lot grows in size, the bathrooms need more lavatories, you need a coat room, more storage for extra tables/ chairs/ food/ liquor. Before you know it 6,000sf becomes 12,000 and then 18,000.
Niall, curious, how are Clubs taxed there? Is there a difference in Private vs Pay to Play?
Phillipe, the future of golf design is a subset of the future of golf. That is directly related to the busness of golf. A strong arguement could be made that there was a disconnect between the two has led us to this point. Unfortunately, getting back on track will be as easy as turning around a loaded supertanker. It can be done, but it will take time and effort. And there will be an effect on golf design as it will have to relate to whatever changes in the business model. One can be either reactive and wait to see what comes about (the safe route) or be proactive and guess what will occur and try to get out front. This is the riskier approach, but like golf the greater the risk, the greater the reward.