Golf is dying

ClubSteeler · 2017-03-20T17:04:00+00:00

That's what I read, and I am starting to agree. My summer league has gone from 8 flights on 6 courses to 4 flights on 3 courses over the last 3 years. It i...

DC300

Par4QC Here, you could get on damn near any course like that +- 15 minutes as long as it didn't run into their leagues.

We don't want to admit it, but golf is dying in a big way. That is to say that it is going back to pre-Tiger status. There isn't much excitement for the younger crowd around the game and courses are having to work to get people in. During the boom, courses were built and people just showed up and paid what they asked. Not the case anymore. The sport will survive, but it won't thrive. After the guys in their 30's move through, there will be a helluva fall off and a lot more problems for courses to stay open. Obviously, that's a ways away, but the boomers aren't going to live forever and that will be another bubble popped before the next cliff.

When Nike moves out of the equipment game and others come and go like the wind, there is a serious issue. Nike was the young gun brand... problem is there aren't enough young guys interested in the game to buy it.

accufitgolf

Bigborgel

The way Brown makes it is they share resources such as only one head greens super for several courses. Same with a PGA pro. They also share equipment. Tremendous cost savings there.

Brown himself says his $35 courses are worth $35 so do not expect top level conditions and service for $35. You get what you get for $35.

Sneakylong

Golf has always had 3 strikes against it. It's too hard, too expensive and takes too long. Another sign of it dwindling is the lack of interest in golf forums like this one. We saw the previous site die before our eyes. You've only got a handful of full time posters on this site keeping it moving along.

Golf certainly hasn't gone the way of tennis. Golf is still on the major TV networks each weekend. So it's still a major viewing sport even though it's participation (actually playing it) is dwindling.

mulegolf

Golf certainly has dropped in popularity. I know in my part of Minnesota, within a half hour drive, there has been a municipal course that has closed. The city (Worthington, MN) got tired of putting money into it. There is a private course in that town that was there before the municipal course was built but that course also suffered hardship and rumors were rampant that it may close prior to the municipal course closing. It was sold to a company that owns several courses in South Dakota and Kansas and integrates them into it's other business of fitness centers. You pay a monthly fee and you can play at any of the courses and use the fitness centers as well. They also pay some of the other courses near to their courses a monthly fee (the company does) and their members also can play those courses. It seems to be working so far. As for most of the courses, mine included, they seem to getting by and either making very little money or loosing money each year. The course I belong to has made a very small amount of money the past two years but has resorted to cutting back on maintenance and relying on some of the members to volunteer to do things that paid help did in the past. The previous couple of years we lost a few thousand dollars. Some of our problems are weather related as our course has a creek flowing through it and it floods quite easily, resulting in lost green fees as well as food and drink sales for a week or two. When you operate on a thin profit line it hurts, especially if the lost week due to flooding also contains Memorial Day or the 4th of July which traditionally are our biggest weekends, profit wise. I know that comparing memberships now to numbers in the past my course is somewhere around half of what we had.

Tinker

I'd build my golf course with the first 100 yards being no maintenance waste areas. If you can't hit a ball 100 yards of a tee you don't need to be chopping up manicured fairways. That saves 1800 yards of maintenance. I'd keep the rough no higher than an inch and a half. That's difficult enough for most golfers and you can still see the ball. I'd use fairway bunkers to keep the ball on the hole. Bunkers 300 yards off the tee on the left side of the fairway don't effect most golfers. I'd try to keep most cart paths on the right side. I think I just knocked a half hour off the average round.

DC300

Tinker

I'd walk at your course 😜 I don't need no stinking paths to the right.

Weirfan

DC300

The way DC300 and I play, we rarely see the cart path ....

garyt1957

SVonhof

I agree about leagues. I'm not the type to commit to a certain time each week, plus they tend to be ridiculously slow. I did play in some tournaments last year and like that better, I can pick and choose when I play. You're right though, for what the tournaments cost me, I my wife and I could both play and usually at a better course.

Sneakylong

garyt1957

You'd like our 'League' (Senior Mens Association) Quota Game. There's one guy (96 years old) and his buddy who are the first ones out followed by us. We're fast typically finishing between 3 hours and 20 minutes to just under 4 hours. And most of us walk.

The beauty in playing in a regularly scheduled group is if you're normally a single you get to play with familiar faces. No need to worry about when you're going to get out (tee times) and with people who may or may not like playing with a single.

The comradery is the best part of it IMO.

The 96 year old and his buddy are a twosome and never hold us up. They play 9 holes and go in and have breakfast after. They walked up until a few years ago. The only complaint we have of him is he shuffles a little on the greens as they're scuffed some of the time from him not picking his feet up when he walks. Other than that it's all good.........

rsvman

My wife's idea is that courses ought to have three 6-hole loops instead of two 9-hole loops.

Six holes would be great for after work play and for beginners. 12 holes about right for most people to feel invested in the round but not feel like they spent the entire day, or for people who have been playing a bit longer but are still kind of beginners, or for people who lack the stamina to play all 18. Eighteen for hard-core players who want the full experience.

I think it's not a bad idea. I mean, 6-6-6 may give some Christians a heart attack, but I'd just play right into it. Call the course Devil's Cove or something like that and press on.

PA-PLAYA

rsvman

I've been supportive of the 12-hole round concept ever since Nicklaus floated the idea a few years back. I enjoy golf, but have lost the desire to devote 6+ hours of my day to it.

I think 12 holes would be just about perfect for me.

Provisional

Some of best fun golfing I've had and very successful business is 27 hole parr 3 course Knight's Play in Cary, NC. Play 18 in couple of hrs on well lighted course for cheap . Not real golf you might say , rightly so but great fun and close enough and sure is great practice for short game. Location is critical though, and maintenance must be a bear to keep it from becoming a goat track, with their tremendous volume of play . Sometimes maybe take only two or three clubs and turn your course into parr 3 pitch and putt if time is limited. Of course it can't be on busy days, but I like Tues., Wed. Or poor weather days anyway.

letthebigdogshunt

The course I played at the last few years has a Seniors men tournament every Monday and there is 144 players every week. There are players who can't get in because they limit it to 144. On Tuesday the course I belonged to before this one also has a Seniors men tournament and the also has full field of 144 each week. The other 18 hole course in our area has the same deal on Wednesday a full field of 144. Golf is not dead here at least not yet. As you may see we do have a lot of seniors here in this area.

ZWExton

letthebigdogshunt

We gotta get working in selling comfortable diapers in the pro shop. This is a gold mine!

professor

Good! I love the idea of having better choices for tee times!

Sneakylong

Heard the head of the World Golf Association on Golf Channel this morning. He made the point that many golfers never see a golf course. They're driving range golfers. So the future growth will probably include these Top Golf type driving ranges that offer people a whole different experience. Most of us wouldn't necessarily think of these type places as golf, but they are for many people.

Typhoon

Sneakylong

"Golf ball whacker guy"...Happy Gilmore. I can see that. Our ranges are busy with people who don't play.

At my course and most others I practice at u barely see anyone working on their short game.

letthebigdogshunt

ZWExton
Nah, there are a lot of trees on two of the courses that they hide behind to relieve themselves and the other has two bathrooms and a porta potty on the course. Most of the players are in their late 50's and 60's. Some are in them early 70's, but I don't think they are incontinent yet. But the fact that we as senior citizens are living longer now, it could be a good thing to think about in about 5 or so years from now.

mulegolf

The course I belong to is just a nine hole course but it is laid out in triangles so you are back at the clubhouse and parking lot every three holes. The layout of the course is sort of like one half of a pie with the clubhouse near the center of the straight side of the pie. Golfers often come out to play three holes during a lunch break or some of the super seniors play nine and then another three holes before they have enough exercise for the day. You can actually start at the first, fourth or seventh hole if you want to. The rule is that you can start at the fourth or seventh hole as long as other golfers are not on the tee box prior to these holes. That way you are not interfering with their pace of play and making them wait. It seems to work for us.

HackerTed

Very interesting discussion. One question I have always being a single golfer. Has anyone ever heard of a course holding a few tee times each day spread out over the day for just single golfers? if you called to get a tee time and told them you were a single they would put you in one of those tee times and pair you up with other singles. My problem is very few courses where I live will give a single a tee time. They tell me to just come out and they will get me out as soon as there is an opening. Several problems with this.
1. There often is a long wait for an "opening". I have already waited 1.5 hours and still did not get out so I left.
2. Getting paired with people that don't want to play with a single. I can't count the number of times after we got out of sight of the club house the other people in the group have told me to play ahead.

Just wondering if this might not help keep some of us single golfers in the game. Unfortunately, the above situations have changed me into one of the "range" golfers mentioned above and I play an actual round very infrequently.

ZWExton

HackerTed

That's unfortunate, but if I owned a course I'd be unlikely to make a tee time for a single either. Having one tee time set aside every 2 hrs or so for singles that want to get out seems like a good compromise. You can get out at 8:48, or 10:48, or 12:48. That's it. I dig it.

Par4QC

HackerTed 2. Getting paired with people that don't want to play with a single. I can't count the number of times after we got out of sight of the club house the other people in the group have told me to play ahead.

You must play where there are a lot of rude people, because that is just what that is, rude! I've never had a problem with a single being put with our 'short' group, or with being put with a group myself. And I can just imagine the thoughts going through their heads when I come rolling up to the tee...'awgawd, some old f**k'.....until they find it is only an outward appearance. Several years ago I used to play this executive course where I got put in with 2 elderly ladies. They could not hit it past their shadows, but had 1 hell of a time with them for the 18 and we were never behind the clock. Always looked for them on the course, when I played after that day. Salty ol' broads, they'd say.

I typically go out as a single, but only a course or 2 will not allow a reservation for such.

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