Topic of the week: Golf
Submitted by James on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 10:29pm
Let's talk about golf, which according to a clever article in the New York Times, is experiencing a precipitous decline.
Over the past decade, the leisure activity most closely associated with corporate success in America has been in a kind of recession. The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.
More troubling to golf boosters, the number of people who play 25 times a year or more fell to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, a loss of about a third. The industry now counts its core players as those who golf eight or more times a year. That number, too, has fallen, but more slowly: to 15 million in 2006 from 17.7 million in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Back when I attended the US Naval Academy, we had to take eight golf lessons as part of our mission to become officers and gentlemen. So much for that idea.
Four!
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Not only is golf declining
... but so is sleep
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Maybe, maybe not
Perhaps golf is flat for middle management but upper management is still supporting the game. CaddieMasters, Inc. runs the caddie program at high-end golf courses around the world and their business doesn't seem to be slowing down. This could be another indicator of the separation of the haves and have nots.
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions
Good point, Mom
I'm guessing the golden parachute crowd still has plenty of time to scramble around the links. The article is pretty interesting, though. Time (and money) to play golf is hard to come by when people are scrambling just to get by.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
All the golfers are going to Dubai
News of the 10th district: See Pat Go Bye Bye,
Or maybe all the people in Dubai
are buying all the golf courses?
How's Montana tonight?
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
You know, living here in the Sandhills,
there are lots of reminders of Golf and the good life. I have to say - it's not my favorite thing. One of the big dust-ups recently in the local paper was whether or not it was appropriate for the Pinehurst Police Dept. to write tickets to residents who were driving their golf carts on the roads. (It is illegal to do this; the carts are not legal for the road.) The argument went on in the LTE section of the paper for nearly a month! Idiots.
And further more, with the all of NC being in a drought, those beautiful rolling greens we see as we drive past Pinehurst #2 or the Fair Barn might be costing us more than we think. I know that in the resort in Pinehurst has its own well, but estimates say that an 18 hole golf course can consume more than 2.3 million litres of water daily. AND. . .
I've heard anecdotal evidence around here of people whose wells have been ruined because of the golf courses around, but I'm not sure that there is hard evidence for that, or if it's just people being pissed at the big clubs.
So yeah, maybe the little people are playing less golf. And maybe that's not a bad thing. I know it's your livelihood right now, Momo, so I hope the business you're working for does very well for a long time. But I can tell you, I wish that there were "greener" practices associated with the greens.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
As a former 'full time' Florida resident....
I do remember in the early 1990s, most of the courses offered big reductions to play their clubs(off-season). We had regular groups who probably played at least two rounds a week. One of the public courses included a nice sandwich w/ 12 oz beer in the cost. That same course was $12 w/cart during the off-season, and maybe $30 during the winter months. By the time I moved from Florida in 2004, they charged $64 a round in Jan-Feb! More upscale clubs were charging around $100 per round. So James hit the nail on the head! Just too much money to justify the expense.
James, If it'll make us more official and gentlemanly....
... then I could use some golfing, too!
I've had about the same number of lessons as you, going to a driving range for about two weeks during a college PE class.
So let's go over to Finley together soon and hit a few buckets!
-- ge
Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
http://george.entenman.name
Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
http://zabouti.tumblr.com
Buckets? Those I can hit.
It's the little white balls I have a problem with.
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Golf
I for one am going to do my part to help the golfing business in NC and send one State Senator, Neal Hunt, out to play golf full time in November!!!
Chris Mintz
Candidate for State Senate
District 15
What About Disc Golf!
As a dedicated disc golf player, I understand that ball golfers don't know much about our version of the game.
Here's my home course. I'm heading out there in about 30 minutes to walk the hills and try to avoid the trees. Disc golf is an inexpensive game that anyone can have fun playing.
There are courses all over NC. Try it. You'll like it!
Scrutiny Hooligans - http://www.scrutinyhooligans.us
I played a little in Gainesville, during grad school.
Actually, just went digging, and the guy who taught me is a "pro", while also being a very successful scientist in Boston. He's one of the people mentioned in this article. He started here in NC, as a local who went to the School of Science and Math, then Duke, then on a successful career.
Is beer still included?
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
The editor of our local paper
has been advocating for disc golf ever since he found out he could play and many others agree that it should be offered in the Sandhills.
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Progressive Discussions
They see a decline in Cowpasture Pool
I see a whole lot of really nice parkland about to open up... ;)
Aging boomers perhaps
I have seen some of this in my family. Tennis was all the rage in the 70's and early 80's when the boomers had knees that could still take a pounding. Then their knees starting aching the next day and they gradually shifted over to ruining a perfectly good walk - golf. Now even that is getting to be a bit much as a proper golf swing requires a supple spine and suppleness is fading in the boomers.
So perhaps croquet or shuffleboard are starting to pick up?? Wheelchair drag races? Sitting at home smoking ... er ... the stuff they used to smoke in the 60's?
Person County Democrats
Environmental Defense Fund
Cell phones will be to the 21st century what tobacco was to the 20th.
I hear that might make the joints more supple.
So tennis and golf might be back on, after all! w00t!!
(By the way, I have decided to use "w00t" with impunity, because I want to.)
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
I could never understand why I had to pay green fees
I never put the ball on the fairway, thus never hurt them. I should have gotten a discount for "good course management".
Never broke 100, well cept for that one time when I only played 9, then it was just barly.
As far as gentlemanly actions? is it gentlemanly to wrap a club around a tree in anger, to launch the ball of the butthead who just drove into your group back at them? How bout "proving your a man" when you do not hit the ball past the reds off the tee?
Naaa, me no stinking gentleman, me just parm...
;)
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.