Tom,
Was not a complaint(especially being in the industry)from me
merely an anecdotal observation and a reversal from a long time trend that many avid golfers have benefited greatly from n both price and convenience.
Consumers of any product benefit when there is an over supply of something, they suffer (relatively)-when demand begins to exceed supply, as it has in here in eastern Long island since March.
In some areas, both the supply has shrunk and the demand has gone up.
Even private club members have been inconvenienced(and then complained) by heavy crowding at many, many golf courses where tee times were NEVER before required-who now find their weekday tee sheets full from 7 am-6 pm.
Excess capacity multiple hours away doesn't help a golfer with no tee time, or someone hoping to play a quick 18 after work.
Jeff:
You live in an unusual neighborhood. Zoning is tight, the summer population has boomed, and there aren't any struggling golf clubs. I guess there are a few other summer places in America which would fit that description, but not many.
Where I live, many courses have been shuttered in the race to the bottom on price -- which is a problem in many places, save the Hamptons. Other courses have suffered years of deferred maintenance because they can't afford to address their problems, which will surely affect them down the line.
Private clubs can usually address their own problems by tightening the guest policy as necessary. Very few private clubs in America have too many members, unless they are all going to play 3x per week. If you're saying the guy who plays 5x per week is going to be affected, that's undoubtedly true, but he should have some room for the fellow members who have been subsidizing his golf all this time.
And, of course, the Hamptons may be immune to the factors that will likely make this problem go away everywhere else in the next couple of years, if economic insecurity grabs the ankles of the guy on the next rung of the ladder.