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Fewer Golfers Hitting the Links
March 02, 2008 12:07 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Golf's popularity is declining in America, as the sport succumbs to the pressure on today's office workers and a flood of new courses.
30-Second Summary
The New York Times reports that golf is declining in popularity in the United States, with the total number of players falling from 30 million in 2000 to about 26 million today.
Surveys conducted by the National Golf Foundation blame economics, finding that more American are working two jobs and can’t afford the time or money golf requires.
The downturn isn’t confined to the United States. In 2005, a Canadian organization called Play Golf tried to stimulate the sport’s stagnant growth in that country by increasing its promotional efforts.
The Irish Independent reports that some U.S. golf clubs are trying to attract new patrons by offering free lessons, building spas and swimming pools for women and children, and improving driving range technology.
However, luring busy Wall Street executives and weekend warriors has proven difficult.
The blog Outside the Beltway concedes that for many modern workaholics, the hours required to change into golf clothes, drive to a course, hit a few practice shots and play 18 holes are difficult to carve out of a day or weekend.
Dismayed by the closing of their favorite clubs, some golfers in Pennsylvania have resorted to buying them back.
However, Canadian blogger Darren Barefoot cheers golf’s waning relevancy, writing that “golf clubs remain some of the most classist, sexist and racist institutions on the continent. More importantly, golf courses are vast swaths of monoculture grass and huge consumers of fresh water.”
Surveys conducted by the National Golf Foundation blame economics, finding that more American are working two jobs and can’t afford the time or money golf requires.
The downturn isn’t confined to the United States. In 2005, a Canadian organization called Play Golf tried to stimulate the sport’s stagnant growth in that country by increasing its promotional efforts.
The Irish Independent reports that some U.S. golf clubs are trying to attract new patrons by offering free lessons, building spas and swimming pools for women and children, and improving driving range technology.
However, luring busy Wall Street executives and weekend warriors has proven difficult.
The blog Outside the Beltway concedes that for many modern workaholics, the hours required to change into golf clothes, drive to a course, hit a few practice shots and play 18 holes are difficult to carve out of a day or weekend.
Dismayed by the closing of their favorite clubs, some golfers in Pennsylvania have resorted to buying them back.
However, Canadian blogger Darren Barefoot cheers golf’s waning relevancy, writing that “golf clubs remain some of the most classist, sexist and racist institutions on the continent. More importantly, golf courses are vast swaths of monoculture grass and huge consumers of fresh water.”
Headline Links: Golf loses its edge
The New York Times reports that golf’s popularity is waning in America, dropping from 30 million total players in 2000 to about 26 million today. Surveys conducted by the National Golf Foundation blame economics for the downturn, citing longer work hours, stagnant wages, disappearing pensions and corporate cutbacks in country club memberships. Meanwhile, the foundation’s two-year effort to attract new players has been unsuccessful.
Source: The New York Times
An article in the Irish Independent newspaper further analyzed golf’s declining popularity in America. Golf club owners face an uphill battle to lure an era of Wall Street executives that “fetishes [sic] time spent chained to the desk, that promotes short bursts of concentrated exercise in the gym close to the office instead of hours of unwinding in the open air.” Furthermore, America’s weekend warriors are gravitating toward more adventurous sports, such as snowboarding and skateboarding.
Source: Irish Independent
Interest in golf isn’t foundering just in America. In 2005, a Canadian organization called Play Golf tried to revitalize the sport’s stagnant growth in that country by increasing its promotional efforts. Canada’s waning interest in the links was attributed to a number of factors, including an overabundance of golf courses and a lack of recreation time.
Source: Play Golf
Background: Are Blackberries and treadmills emptying the fairway?
When Pennsylvania’s 81-year-old Berkleigh Country Club closed in October 2007, Golf Channel columnist Rich Lerner decided to find out why. He determined that today golf is viewed less as a game of leisure and more as a business tool. Furthermore, he writes that the baby boomer generation started families later, and got caught up in a world of weekend Little League baseball games and expensive gym memberships, resulting in less time for golf.
Source: The Golf Channel
Current events blog Outside the Beltway blames “the nature of the information age” for golf’s apparent fizzle. The writer acknowledges that although his lifestyle is more comfortable than that of previous generations, he and his friends are “seldom truly off work, even on weekends or vacations. We’re simply expected to be within Blackberry reach during waking hours.” For many, the hours required to change into golf clothes, drive to a course, hit a few practice shots, and play 18 holes are difficult to carve out of a day or weekend.
Source: Outside the Beltway
Reaction: Aching for the past
Dismayed by the closings of their favorite clubs, some golfers have resorted to buying them back, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The trend has grown in western Pennsylvania in response to the golf industry’s “troubling downward spiral.” For the first time since 1945 there have been more course closings than openings over the past two years. Country club courses in particular are suffering from a “declining and aging membership, a change in social habits among people with disposable income and a drastic downturn in the number of rounds golfers everywhere are playing each year.”
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Opinion: Golf’s decline meets with approval and dismay
Not everyone is upset by golf’s hard luck tale. Canadian blogger Darren Barefoot writes, “I think this is great news. Golf clubs remain some of the most classist, sexist and racist institutions on the continent. More importantly, golf courses are vast swaths of monoculture grass and huge consumers of fresh water.”
Source: darrenbarefoot.com
ESPN columnist Mary Buckheit has an emotional attachment to golf––her father died mid game on the course. She argues that Americans lack devotion, not time, and begs them not to give up on the sport. For a faster game, Buckheit recommends waking up for an earlier tee time to play on a less crowded course, and practicing swings over the winter to keep in shape for spring. “It’s more difficult today to squeeze in a few hours away than it was even five years ago. But it can be done,” she writes.
Source: ESPN
Reference: U.S. golf facilities closing in record numbers
Chicagoland Golf Magazine charted the economic health of daily fee, municipal, and private golf courses in the United States every year from 1990 through 2006. The results showed that in 2006 there was negative net growth in golf facilities for the first time in 75 years, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Source: Chicagoland Golf Magazine
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